Who has used one of these to repair cracks in and busted off chunks from plastic sousaphone bell flares on fiberglass sousaphones?
It seems to me that this would be a really great way to repair those - particularly followed up with PVC glue, but so many schools have gone snooty-poot - and turn up their noses at fiberglass sousaphones (yet beat the crap out of $13,000 silver plated brass ones - that you and I paid for) that I don't even know if I could recover the cost of the tool.
Buy a $30 Amazon Chinese Cheapy. If it turns out you actually use it regularly then buy a good when when it breaks in a bit.
I have a bunch of inexpensive harbor freight tools in my garage. If they only get used once in a blue moon why should I spend good money on a high end tool that will sit on a shelf.
As amateur as they come...I know just enough to be dangerous.
Meinl-Weston 20
Holton Medium Eb 3+1
Holton Collegiate Sousas in Eb and BBb
40s York Bell Front Euphonium
Schiller Elite Euphonium
Blessing Artist Marching Baritone
Yamaha YSL-352 Trombone
I've found that pvc cement (which seems to BOTH glue AND melt pvc) actually does OK on the plastic bell flares,
(and - just for those reading along, as BRS knows this, the overwhelming majority of fiberglass sousaphone bell flares are PLASTIC...but - OK... - I'm not sure about the more recent so-called "fiberglass" sousaphones - whereby the bodies aren't fiberglass, but are made of some sort of considerably-heavier-than-sheet-brass "resin"...)
but have you found a more effective adhesive for the plastic bell flares than pvc cement, (please, sir) ?
The reason that I'm thinking of the hot staples is because those will HOLD a crack together (or a pie-slice or chunk IN PLACE) while a "helper" glue is curing...and (though effective) pvc glue isn't as strong as "never having been busted in the first place".
(PVC cement held a chunk onto my personal fiberglass sousaphone for over a decade - and hopefully is continuing to hold for the new owner - but I'm just not convinced that it is the be-all/end-all for this application...particularly when said bells are assigned to juvenile delinquents, etc...)
When they scuff the hell out of the white bodies, smush in the upper return bows, and all that stuff, I'm not going to worry about hot staples showing - after they've all also thrown the bells against brick walls or whatever they do to them.
I'll appreciate some tips about glue makes. If any of those glues actually supply their own dimension, I'm thinking that I could flow them into those hot staple indentions, yes?
