Goofing around with franken-bones

[arpthark]

I thought it might be fun to make a working instrument out of two non-working instruments I had on hand:

1. A King 606 Tempo that had a nice bell and an absolutely brutalized slide. Cracked/soft-soldered hand slide braces, terrifying solder job. It took more effort to move the handslide than it did the tuning slide.

2. A King 605 Cleveland with a decent slide (missing water key) and a bell with a big crack in the middle of the bell throat from a failed seam. Manufacturing defect, I guess. The oddest thing. I tried to silver solder it back together but the results just weren't pretty at all. Learning experience on a $20 trombone, no big deal.

It occured to me that I could create a working instrument from the 606 bell and the 605 slide, but the threads don't match between the two. So, I removed the bell brace, threaded slide receiver and gooseneck from the 605 and put them on the 606 bell so that the 605 slide would fit. It was actually a pretty good fit. Then I put the 606 water key on the 605 slide (same part/same size solder pad/easy to eyeball).

I'll probably end up selling this to a school or something, but I was happy that this worked. The 605 slide has a pretty small bore, like .491" or something, and the 605 bell is 7.5". The 606 is designed for the larger .500" slide and the 8" bell, so this frankenbone will have the smaller bore slide with the larger bell. I think it's a little easier to sound brassy/strident on it, so maybe not the best combo for kids, but it works and it was nice to fit together something that might find some use somewhere.

No pics, but maybe I will later once it's cleaned up a little bit.

[bloke]

My slide tube lathe is an old long-bed wood lathe with appropriately-sized dead and live centers, and a HUGE pulley (I actually had to cut through the table to accommodate it) to gear the slowest lathe speed down to really slow. (I salvaged that pulley off an old abandoned commercial dishwasher.)

Some other slide-fixers ask, "How do you manage to straighten trombone slide tubes with a lathe?"
to which I respond, "How do manage to straighten trombone slide tubes withOUT a lathe?"

(I don't always un-solder slides and use the lathe.
- I'm a pretty good observer.
- Some people only want their slides to be "usable".

Dent removal first.
Straightening second.

Ovaled places (sometimes) can be made back into round places; sometimes they (ok: I) can't.

I mark wobbles (on the lathe) with a crayon.
Lately (as I'm finally to the place whereby I need reading glasses), I've used a Sharpie. Sharpie marks come off with gasoline (or a more expensive solvent) and a rag.

[marccromme]

I'd like to see a picture of your slide tuning late in action. ...

[Grumpikins]

Sounds like your Frankenbone might be well suited for a jazz/ragtime player... would be cool to hear a playing demo of it... anyway, awesome job saving the good stuff...

[bloke]

I think a smaller bore applied on a 606 bell is a pretty interesting idea, and I apologize for going off on a tangent in my response instead of mostly commenting on your post

[Casca Grossa]

Now add F and Gb valves.

[bloke]

As @UncleBeer would demand, cut it to C.

[Finetales]

Tenon/receiver swapping is standard procedure in frankenboning. My tech is currently taking 4 King trombones of mine and making them modular, which includes putting them all on the same tenon/receiver.

[York-aholic]

frankenboning

Well, let me just suggest that you DO NOT google that “word”!!!

[pompatus]

frankenboning

Well, let me just suggest that you DO NOT google that “word”!!!

It’s pronounced “fronkenbeening”!

IMG_1030.jpeg (131.05 KiB) Viewed 425 times

[bloke]

Tenon/receiver swapping is standard procedure in frankenboning. My tech is currently taking 4 King trombones of mine and making them modular, which includes putting them all on the same tenon/receiver.

Since the King male connector differs from other makes in that the inside slide tube doesn't go through it, I'm thinking that it's easier to do what you had done with King trombones than with other makes. There are still issues to overcome though, if you're stretching it out across too many bore sizes.

[Finetales]

Tenon/receiver swapping is standard procedure in frankenboning. My tech is currently taking 4 King trombones of mine and making them modular, which includes putting them all on the same tenon/receiver.

Since the King male connector differs from other makes in that the inside slide tube doesn't go through it, I'm thinking that it's easier to do what you had done with King trombones than with other makes. There are still issues to overcome though, if you're stretching it out across too many bore sizes.

True. Though people have done it to put Bach slides on Conns and similar things, so it's possible.

In my case the bores are close, it's just .508" and .525". The 3B/606 and 3B+/607 connectors are close but not the same, so I had to settle on one to make the parts modular. There will be .508", .508-.525", and .525" slides available at the end of it, with 3 valve setups (valveless, single valve, and independent double valve) and at least 3 bells (3B, 3B cut, and an oddball 9" bell I have whose throat is bass-sized at the big end and 3B-sized at the small end). I might eventually get a 606 slide to add to the pile as well.

[bloke]

It's all possible. I have a formerly seemingly hopeless condition 322 Yamaha bass trombone bell section for which I traded a handful of valve caps that someone wanted, it's now in perfect condition and - not only that - it's mated to 1960 Olds duo bore .554"-.564" tuning-in-the-slide bass trombone slide section which unfortunately was factory mated with of those 9 inch bell horrid things that Olds made which would only play up to about A=435 with everything as short as it could be).
The bell is up in the attic, and - I suppose - can be used as an emergency replacement sometime for some school-owned 547 instrument of most any make.

[bloke]

It's all possible. I have a formerly seemingly hopeless condition 322 Yamaha bass trombone bell section for which I traded a handful of valve caps that someone wanted, it's now in perfect condition and - not only that - it's mated to 1960 Olds duo bore .554"-.564" tuning-in-the-slide bass trombone slide section which unfortunately was originally factory-mated with of those 9 inch bell horrid things that Olds made which would only play up to about A=435 with everything as short as it could be).
The rejected Olds bell is up in the attic, and - I suppose - can be used as an emergency replacement sometime for some school-owned 547 instrument of most any make.

The Frankenbass actually offers a really nice vintage Conn-like sound, and is easy to steer with the front end being a little bit smaller.

fuzzy pic:

[Finetales]

Being someone who uses a 72H every day, I'd love to try that horn!