more slipshod blokerepair

[bloke]

Y'all "techs" can share this and talk about the shitwork that bloke does, and how y'all would NEVER do something like this, "because it might affect the sound" 'n' stuff...and (well...) it might only hold up for a few years (dans un conservatoire en marche).
================================
There’s a difference between repairing hundreds of instruments – between my wife and myself, over a period of a month and a half – and repairing “an instrument” in the dead of winter.
OK: here’s a Jupiter upper return slide with a pinhole in the slide bow.
Do I spend the time it requires to make a patch for it that’s going to look ugly anyway?
Nope. I drop a dent ball down in there that is about .03” smaller than the bore, run it back and forth with a 2 inch thick earth magnet - to remove most of the smashed in areas, pour some solder acid down in there, wad up a little ball of lead solder, Drop it in there, hold that pinhole down at the lowest point and heat it, watch the solder come out of the hole, rinse the slide out with detergent to negate the acid, stick some slide grease in it, and shove it back in the instrument.
… I can’t be spending more than five minutes on crap like this.



bloke "posting will chug-a-lugging today's fifth tea-glass size cup of coffee

[Three Valves]

Fast. Cheap. Good.

Pick two.

[York-aholic]

Looks good to me and will probably outlast the rest of the school horn.

[2nd tenor]

I really like what Bloke has done there , for me it’s a very practical repair and that’s what I look for. Cosmetics and perfection are all very well but works well and is affordable are my own priorities.

I found it interesting that a ball and magnet worked, people have told me that the practical limit for ball and magnet repairs is much larger than that small size of tube.

[iiipopes]

Hell, that's the kind of repair I expect on my used beat-up instruments that aren't worth throwing more money at, and which, if anything, the repair enhances the playability of the instrument. As above: what is cost-effective? This is, both from the repair person's point of view and the point of view of the overall condition of the instrument, the question. Well done!

Years ago, a neighbor boy friend of my son brought me a cheap old trumpet that was all his folks could afford for beginner band. The main tuning slide was falling apart in my hands. I made a similar repair, gave him a decent mouthpiece, made sure it played, and off he went to enjoy band. I am no repairman by any means, but I will do what it takes to get a young person interested in playing music. Thankfully, from my guitar electronics tinkering, I had flux and solder, and borrowed his Dad's cartridge mini-torch to get it done.

[bloke]

I’m pushing through my last high school – with two instruments from the same middle school as sort of a “dessert“.
This is an epic pile of beat up expensive stuff.

There were 14 sorry condition marching baritones. I’m down to 2 (of the easiest ones to fix), and I’m pretty proud of that.

Only remaining - for this high school after the marching baritones - are a handful of mellophones (sadly, those delicate Yamaha ones which often sport stuck main slides) and three marching euphoniums… plus a couple of St. Pete’s for the middle school.

After this last high school, I have two sizable piles of instruments for two universities, and two sizable piles for two middle schools… Oh yeah there’s another high school, but they don’t need their instruments for band camp - and there’s only three or four of them, so they are incidental.

anyway, I’m not telling you how many schools and instruments I’ve already fixed this summer, but I’ve been pretty busy, and I sort of thank Jesus that I’m pretty fast.

[DonO.]

Maybe that would have been a good place for a “dummy” water key? It would have looked like it was supposed to be there!

[bloke]

Maybe that would have been a good place for a “dummy” water key? It would have looked like it was supposed to be there!

Maybe so… If it was more than an import sousaphone, if it wasn’t an upper return slide, and if this wasn’t about to be torn right back up again.

[bloke]

this epic stack of high school instruments from this one high school:

I’m down to the last (absurdly poorly designed, but aren’t they all?) marching euphonium, and then I’m doubling back to do the two St. Petes for the same school’s middle school, since the middle school is right around the corner.

I’m very glad to be finishing up with this school, and moving on to universities’ instruments.
(Universities’ band camps are always after high school marching band camps.)
(Quite a few of this last high school’s repairs were humdingers.)

[bloke]

Starting off the day will be a “sack-o’-f’ed-up-necks-‘n’-bits”, all of which have suffered from legal adults’ impatience and stupidity.

I can usually work my way through such sacks fairly quickly, and without too much perspiration.

I’ve heard that some stores throw these in the garbage, and sell schools new ones.

me, the taxpayer: it’s pretty amazing what people will buy, when they are not paying for themselves, including new instruments for their schools which are “OK“ quality (though they don’t make a single tuba that I would wish to own for myself), but have established some sort of weird band director snob appeal - whereby they get away with charging double and triple prices, as compared to other Asian-made instruments.

[bloke]

An hour ago, this was a sack of bent-up/un-soldered/seized crap:

[iiipopes]

An hour ago, this was a sack of bent-up/un-soldered/seized crap:

And I'm still using the neck you knocked the dents out of for me. Thanks.

[bloke]

I often wonder how many "shops" throw these in the scrap brass, and - simply - order new ones.

"not my money", etc...