Sure...Someone can un-solder the sousaphone into two halves, un-solder the 2nd branch rib, pound out the dent and run it through the dent machine but (me: being lazy, and interested in spending about 1/20th of that amount of time).
- Heat and lift the end of the rib out of the way (without creasing it).
- Clean up the solder which was under the last several inches of the rib.
- Use a large rawhide mallet to pound the ferrule between the 1st and 2nd branches back round again.
- Anneal the crushed-in area of the 2nd branch, and let it cool.
- Work the creases out with two stacked 1-inch-thick earth magnets covered by an oily cloth.
- Re-solder the rib back in place, buff away the burned lacquer/oxidation, and shoot it with clear.
>>> If the plating on a silver sousaphone looks like $h!t - particularly if this same area has been custom-polished via pavement - there's no reason to NOT do all the same stuff to a silver one. ...LOL...or just do like a lot of music stores: "Those dents can't be reached."
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Jacked valve casings (particularly common - seemingly - with _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and - in particular - more recently-made stainless-valves _ _ _ _ _ _ _)
- Rather than working with a ghastly 1.002"-tightened valve casing lap (with messy compound - whether bought or home-brew compound), simply...
- Release the excessive brace tension (torch) until the valve goes up-and-down as it should.
(I suspect - ?? - some of these braces were over-clamped in assembly (for alignment, even though the parts possibly weren't "happy" being aligned), and subsequent hard bumps - via clumsy children - (releasing tension) allowed those braces to pull on the knuckles feeding into those somewhat thin-wall casings.) As long as the pressure-released braces still show a reasonably well-soldered appearance, I do nothing else - other than tug on them fairly hard as a test. So many of the more budget-priced manufacturers use an electrolysis method to clean up around solder joints, that many solder joints end up resembling "swiss cheese" anyway, and reheating them may even (??) possibly solidify them.
ie. I re-annealed and re-burnished what you see barely remaining of the original crease/dent - AFTER I took the picture.
Examining closely, the darkened-to-gold-color lacquer (heating until the nice-sounding "pops" occurred) can be seen coming out of the #3 casing exit knuckles' solder joints.
bloke "I've got to get this $h!t DONE...I have a LIFE 'n' stuff...Well, I don't ACTUALLY have a life, BUT I have a few dozen 2-feet-wide-to-6-feet-wide blown-over-by-a-90-mph-supercell trees to cut up...and a dozen-or-so odd-shaped acres to mow - once I install this new PTO, as the 17-year-old one crapped out on me...At least, the trees are all in 'who cares' locations...'out there'..."