King necks and bits (bringing four fiberglass back from the dead)

[bloke]

I don't need this stuff anymore. I have the necks, and I've decided to buy all NEW tuning bits - as damaged-or-even-repaired King bits are prone to leaking...

...but I'll go ahead and turn this into a MINIMAL PIC and MINIMAL RHETORIC repair thread...(??)

thanks

[bloke]

QUICK LUNCH BREAK (bologna, mayo, cheese, coffee...back on low/no-carb...as I'm no longer sick...I tend to eat carbs and - thus - puff up when I'm sick...' time to get back down into the 38 trousers, 46L coats, and L shirts...)

Mrs. bloke and I are repairing the most terrible one first...

Actually, it's the COOLEST one.

It's a VERY EARLY King fiberglass...super lightweight...REAL polished/laccquered brass (and lathe-turned/ornate) connectors between the fiberglass branches, THREADED connector between the valveset and the fiberglass, but (alas) trashed.

I started with the WORST part of the WORST instrument...the 4th branch, which was folded over onto itself, flat, and (duh) cracked.

It's just fine, now...and it doesn't appear to have ever been refinished, so "not thin".

per my trademark, I did all this work sitting down in a padded chair (other than buffing off the lacquer to find the smallest "peck" dents. I actually had to stand up in front of one of the buffing machines.)

It's also curved correctly (so there's a chance of everything fitting back together) and within .020" (.5mm) of round - all the way up-and-down.





I'm thinking I'm going to play the tubas for a few minutes before going back out there.
As mentioned in another thread, I have some "things" to play in a week or so.

[bloke]

I really surprised myself.

I got a late start, I broke off TWICE to practice, ONCE to eat lunch, and once or twice to slurp coffee.

This was the WORST of the four...a disaster.

I got all three tapered branches straightened out, cracks brazed shut, all slide bows' and soldered-in bows' dents removed, the neck receiver repaired, about a zillion missing or broken braces replaced, and even started cleaning it up a bit.

The plan is to leave and C+ or better looking lacquer, shine up the brown areas or spots (including all three of the tapered branches and a bunch of braces) and shoot lacquer on those places.

I haven't soldered on the two acorn bolt laps (brass-to-fiberglass attaching), because I want to line up that stuff ON the fiberglass body (which has BOTH of it's female acorn bolt imbedded nuts torn off, at this time)...

...but look...I got a helluva lot done, and (again) the other three are MUCH less damaged.

oh...and this:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?mibexti ... xt5YYBWKRO

[bloke]

I just figured out how I was able to get so far with this thing today:

I totally ignored every bit of paperwork that I meant to do today, including sending someone a payment and submitting three quotes.

[bloke]

There will be two of these...

The oval flange was pounded out of a ruined YBB-321/201 bottom bow guard.

I drilled a generous hole and silver brazed a 12-24 brass nut in the middle, and then shaped/contoured it.

They will be aligned, epoxyed to the the 2nd branch, drilled for four pop rivets (after then epoxy sets up, I'll run fiberglass cloth over it, Bondo over that, and then sand/paint. (They tore out at least a 5/8" hole, so one of those allied gadgets (which I dislike anyway) is not an option.

This will hold.







...and I also installed this brace assembly, today:
(yeah...Today, was a "paperwork" day.)

[York-aholic]

I just figured out how I was able to get so far with this thing today:

I totally ignored every bit of paperwork that I meant to do today, including sending someone a payment and submitting three quotes.

Works every time!

[bloke]

Young scholars tore both of the female threaded connectors out of the body, so I made these flanges out of (bottom bow cap) brass and nickel scrap, brazed 12-24 nuts (after drilling 5/16" holes) to them, lead soldered washers on the back sides (for more bend-resistance), curved the flanges to fit the two spots on the 2nd branch, drilled the 2nd branch torn-out holes to "clean" 1/2-inch holes, located these (with the valve section mounted, and simultaneously soldering the heavy-gauge brass tabs to the 4th and 5th branches), and epoxied them in place (that Gorilla Glue epoxy that one of you recommended).

Tomorrow, I"m going to drill four holes into each one and pop rivet (peel rivets) them on for additional strength, and epoxy over the rivet heads.

That will be followed up with a layer of epoxy-impregnated fiberglass cloth (with a hole in the middle) over each of them.

Once that has set up, a little bit of Bondo (not a perfect job...' not trying to fool anyone) and - after a bit of cleaning and sanding off some stains - the body should be ready to repaint.

I'm going to leave the beautiful lathe-turned lacquered brass connectors (between the fiberglass branches) unpainted...I just hate to cover them up...I might even buff and spray new gold lacquer on the shoulder one (lacquer worn away) but am leaving the oem dark-and-darkened-with-age lacquer on the rest of them.


The ABS bell flare (which - btw- ALSO needs to be re-epoxyed to the fiberglass bell elbow) ...three cracks, as well as a chunk missing. I cut out a chunk from a trashed Conn 36K bell (wrong diameter / wrong geometry) so I heated the piece that I made and played around with the curvature and the flare-curvature as well. The black stuff is ABS glue. It's so gooey that I realized that it would strengthen all four of the repairs to not only glue the cracks, but to also generously coat the repaired areas with the gooey/dimensional glue. Of course, the bell will be repainted (white) just like the body, and (like the body) I'm leaving the aged lacquer on the brass male connector, and not painting it over with white.

This the the most difficult, most extensive, and most expensive of the four of these to repair...so I'm thinking of dropping it off (IF in the area...) at the school as a "goodwill demonstration". They're a fairly new customer. I've "proven" myself to the two high school band directors (made their "spare" Yamaha B-flat contra into their BEST one, and did a maple tenon graft on a bassoon long joint - first two repairs for them), but this is for the middle school director, and he also needs to see that they've made a good choice to quit using "back-of-music-store"/road-rep. repair peeps, and to use us.

Hey...I've never fixed up one of these quite torn up this badly, before...so much of this is "freestyle", THOUGH I AM considering the future abuse that this thing will surely receive.

Am I charging a good bit for all of this?
Why yes...Yes, I am.




I DID buy a stick of 7/8" cylindrical white nylon - to custom-make some of the nylon washers (on the valve-section-to-body connections).




This is the OTHER side of the same spliced-in repair (Conn donor to King bell). Right after taking this picture, I ALSO covered up this entire surface (over-and-a-bit-beyond the repair) with the ABS glue, and not just on the connecting repair seam. I believe I'll leave the ABS glue sorta "globby"/thick, NOT sand it down thin/smooth, and just paint over it. again: This is a REPAIR, and NOT a "restoration", I'm NOT trying to fool anyone, and the thicker this ABS glue is blobbed on (hopefully) the stronger it will be.



bloke "sorry...no axial-flow 6th valves, today..."

[rjdawson]

Good luck with the carnivore lifestyle - carbs will kill you!

[bloke]

Good luck with the carnivore lifestyle - carbs will kill you!

lunch:

coffee with no-sugar almond milk
bologna w/mayonnaise
cheese

[rjdawson]

What part of the animal contains the almonds for the milk, haha!

[bloke]

What part of the animal contains the almonds for the milk, haha!

You know, cow's milk doesn't taste like it did when I was a little kid. Even whole milk has a weird sort of chemical flavor to it. The only time I've tasted any that reminded me of the pretty good milk that we got in Memphis back in the sixties and the amazing milk that I got in Wisconsin back in the '60s is some that costs about $10 or $15 a gallon.

[bloke]

After knocking out those silver plated brass sousaphones,
We doubled back to these four King fiberglass.

To review, the worst of the four is finished, the second one just needs to let white paint dry and stick it back together.

Another one is one of those weird/heavy/last vintage they ever made ones with those two giant steel braces.... It's really not in bad shape at all, but does need some repair, and the fourth one is pretty ugly (1960s), but probably not in terrible shape.

We would like to have all four of them done by Friday, but Friday isn't an option. (I believe he's still hooked up with Robinson Crusoe.)

[bloke]

Do a Voodoo dance for me, if you happen to have time.
With any luck, I'll finish the 4th and last one of these four ancient King fiberglass sousaphones today.
There was some sort of high wind event - either tornadic or straight line - that went through the county of the school that owns these, last night, so the schools are closed today - county-wide - and probably tomorrow to assess damages and to clear the roads and restring wires and all that sort of thing.
I don't believe this school was damaged, but another one of the high schools had enough wind to where their covered walkways between buildings were blown over.
... So I won't be able to deliver these today and probably not tomorrow, but I would like to have this project finished to move on to other pressing projects for other customers.

Basically what's left to do is to mount and fit new stems and new guides onto new pistons (as all three were missing). All three of the casings were jacked up, but I've got all three of them repaired and ready for valves.

Also what's left to do is something that I've had to do with a couple of the others which is to handmake those goofy nylon washers that King used to attach the valve section to the fiberglass body. Those parts are obsolete, so I bought a cylindrical stick of nylon and have been making them. It's tedious, but at least I'm able to do it.

I doubled back and finished the second one last night (as I had moved on to the third one and gone ahead and finished it).
I suspect something happened in the past with valve sections and those two 1/8th inch thick brass tabs (soldered to the 4th and 5th branches) didn't line up with the connecting threaded inserts on the body, so I had to move them a bit and then clean up the burned lacquer and solder..

[bloke]

It looks like the tabs on this one are going to come close enough to lining up with the body threaded studs that maybe I can get it mounted.

I have four of those stupid nylon washers to make.
I did get all three new pistons, guides, stems and all that stuff into the casings and going up and down.

[bloke]

I got the last one all together, but a plays like it's got cotton in it.

Tomorrow, I'll take the valve section back off and find the obstruction.