Now that I have my frame complete, it is time to hang the plate by the frame. The way that I did this is by strengthening the corners with a sheet of aluminum. I cut out the corners off the sheet (pretty badly) with a grinder and started to use my sheet metal puncher to make two 9/32″ holes and three 1/8″ holes for the rivets. I also put three 1/8″ holes in my plate to adhere the triangles to the plate.
After making all the rivet holes, I started riveting the corners to the plate, and when I was complete with this, I punched through the plate to create the 9/32″ holes to hang by the links.
Here is a completed look at my plate after the rivets were put in.
After the rivets were put in, I turned it over to see how the other side of the plate looked. On the side you saw before, I had to sand off the rust because I am using cold-rolled steel, which rusts when oxygen comes in contact with it. This side needed to be sanded down too because there was rust. Here are some before and after pictures of my sanding the plate.
After I sanded down my plate, I brought it over to the frame and set it on it to see how it would look and where I needed my links and eye bolts to be.
After putting the eye bolts and links where I wanted them, I started connecting the links to the frame and tightening them to tension the frame a little bit, here is a close up of that as well as a video describing what I just did.
After hanging the plate and tensioning it so it is off the frame, I went and did an initial tuning of my plate. The way you do this is exactly the same as a drum and I demonstrate that in this video.
Since tuning the plate tight made my entire frame less rigid and cockeyed, I will probably just leave it flat so it can keep the structure how I wanted it. I also added some oil to my plate so that the rust does not return as fast. Here is a video demonstrating that.
Up next, I will mount my transducer and piezo mics to the frame as well as wire everything up and test the reverb to make sure it works.
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