Unicut's Perfect Solution To A Fiddly Problem

Unicut Precision has helped a violin restorer to produce shoulder rests, keeping quality high but cost low.

Violin restorer and manufacturer Russell Stowe of Woodbridge Violins portrays an image of old-fashioned charm, yet has a very keen eye for quality! But he was taken aback when Jason Nicholson, joint managing director of specialist sub-contract machinist Unicut Precision, bombarded him with question after question.

What's this for? How does that work? Why do you have to do that? Why this material? And that was even before Jason Nicholson even asks how many do you want? Perched on a couch in Russell Stowe's customers' music room behind the 16th century violin workshop in the market square of Woodbridge, Suffolk, Jason Nicholson had no intention of buying one of the 500 or so stock of violins, violas or cellos.

He was there to discuss the manufacture of a violin shoulder rest and he certainly could not believe from his small part machining background, how Russell Stowe could begin to restore a 450,000 (pounds sterling) Italian Master violin without fear of dropping it.

The two had been introduced to discuss how the shoulder rest could be made to the design Russell Stowe and a close friend John Masters had created and they now wanted an engineering company to produce the parts.

But Russell Stowe was frustrated! He had spoken to numerous potential suppliers about his product that was a mix of highly functional design and quality of engineering, and from an initial response of: 'We can do that!' There were eventually quotations that appeared followed by price justifications based on 'there's a lot of machining operations and then we have to assemble it'.

To the two designers, the project was looking to be an expensive, non-starter.

For some 12 years Russell Stowe, who in 1984 was one of the youngest students to win a scholarship at the internationally renowned Newark School of Violin Making, had listened to customers and had always been troubled by the practicality of the violin shoulder rest.

While some musicians use a cushion or simple yellow duster to raise the violin under their chins, proprietary products were always seen as a compromise - basically a pad, pivot and legs to adjust the height.

And, according to Russell Stowe, they always deadened the tone from the violin.

And he recounts a quotation from the celebrated violinist Yehudi Menuhin who said: "The violin when played, must nowhere be squeezed or pressed upon, but left free to vibrate as a bell or glass.

The design that he and John Master's developed overcomes this restriction.

Taking almost three years of evening work to perfect, it comprised eight pieces of adjustable brackets, screws and pins set upon a laser profiled stainless steel shoulder rest with a foam pad.

It has a ball and socket adjustment for angle, a novel adjusting block which is clamped to the rim of the violin by the normal chin rest and a height adjustment.

Together, the design offers an almost infinite range of positions and a simple click/un-click fitment for assembly and removal from the instrument once set in the most preferred position.

But why the questions from Jason Nicholson? He had no intention of attempting to make their design - he wanted to re-engineer the two musicians ' thoughts into components that his company could very cost-effectively mill/turn on the Citizen M32 CNC sliding head automatic lathes at his Welwyn Garden City sub-contract small component factory.

Where Stowe and Masters, after which the shoulder rest is named, had used stainless steel, Unicut suggested brass - taking at a stroke 25 per cent out of material costs.

By changing component designs and making one part out of two and two more simple components out of one, Jason Nicholson and his joint managing director Charles Kenny worked out how to a produce a very complicated bracket in one single mill/turn operation rather than at least 12 traditional machining methods.

These traditional methods would have involved extensive jigs, fixtures and tooling, even if produced on a CNC machining centre.

And, even without tooling changes, Unicut was wiping some 35 per cent off the price other companies had quoted.

The bracket would normally have been milled from a sawn billet in several operations to create the exterior profile.

It would then require operations to produce numerous drilled, reamed and threaded holes, further milled slots to break into drilled cross holes and a final bending operation to set the base at a 5 (Degrees) angle to the body.

Unicut devised a 'one-hit' method to produce the part directly from bar using the mill/turn capability of one of its Citizen M32 sliding head autos more as a machining centre than a turning machine.

The idea was in a single cycle, the machine was to be programmed to completely radius all edges and by careful axis interpolation, the 5 (Degrees) angle of the base was able to be incorporated.

Says Russell Stowe: "Unicut was not blinkered in its approach; it suggested better ways of clamping the rest with a knurled ring, and it improved the clamping and snap together assembly of components.

From other production parts we had seen Unicut producing, we knew that quality was never going to be an issue.

Indeed, even though Unicut won the contract to produce 200 prototypes, which also involved assembly and final packaging in free issue boxes labelled "Stowe and Masters - Made in England", development still continued at Unicut's works.

Special glues were investigated for the foam pad and a cork spacer to prevent marking the instrument and also to join two male and female metal components.

The laser profiling had to be developed with a sheet metal supplier, various finishes and coatings were looked at as well as final assembly and presentation which had to be carefully prepared to meet demanding potential purchasers.

As a result, the Stowe and Master shoulder pad has received very complimentary reviews from distributor samples sent to America, Japan, Hong Kong, Europe and the UK and as Russell Stowe maintains: "Although this shoulder pad is by far the most expensive on the market, we've received excellent comments over its practicality, comfort and design.

In addition, the 'Made in England' branding, means the shoulder rest is perceived as a quality product from a traditional English village company called Woodbridge Violins.

As Russell Stowe comments: "From the prototypes we now have some modifications to make, and here again, Unicut Precision is more than willing to help.

It will then be production of larger quantities which Unicut has the capability to produce because of the machining methods they have devised.

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