Week 24 - February 21st - 24th

This week has been all about working trombones. Next week is the last week of brass lab, and there is still so much left to do. On top daily lectures, I must finish one trombone, and would like to finish the cornet and my antique restoration. Wish me luck.

Looking at the old Hawkes and Son trombone, I've given it a chem flush and began polishing it. There is quite a bit of plating missing from the horn, and there are 100 years worth of dents in it, but it's not too bad. I removed the bell from the assembly and began taking out dents.

Looking at the main tuning slide assembly, there were quite a few dents under the decorative rib. I removed the rib and the slide tubes and began restoring it's shape. I did as much dent work as I thought would be worth it and re-soldered the rib. It isn't perfect, but it looks a lot better than it did.

 

The lower outer hand slide has a pretty nasty gash in it. I am trying to keep as much of this horn original as possible, but in doing so I know it will never return to optimal playing condition. I've come to realize that rather than restore and sell this horn, I would like to keep it as a wall-hanger. So to repair the hole in the slide tube, I cut a section of brass tubing to fit around the outer and wired it on. Next week, I will solder it together and try to get the slide in working order.

Turning our attention to the project trombone, There were a few slide issues that had to be resolved. I swabbed out the outer tubes again and aligned the tubes. Using a sized mandrel, a nosepicker, and a variety of hammers, I removed many of the dents in the outer tubes. The slide isn't perfect yet, but it has come a long way.

Week 23 - February 13th - 17th

This week in the brass lab, we've begun the daunting task of repairing trombone hand slides. It has been quite the task, straightening, aligning and removing dents from these tubes. Unfortunately, I took absolutely no pictures of it. But thankfully, I've got a few other things to show you today.

As a little distraction from the world of trombones, I took on an extra project. This cornet came in with a few dents and needed to be cleaned. The customer wanted all of the lacquer stripped and the horn refinished. So that's what I did. I tore down the instrument and chem flushed, then removed all of its dents. I had to remove the water-key bridge to get to some of them, and re-solder a few braces along the way. After that, I polished and buffed the body. After the caps and slides are done, it can be degreased and lacquered.

Another side project that I am very excited about is this trombone. This is a pre-1920's Hawkes and Son Excelsior Scncrous. It has brass inner-slide tubes with nickel-sliver stockings, a friction fit hand slide assembly, and no slide lock. The designs on the flanges and ferrules are beautiful. There has been some damage to the slide tubes, so I don't know if we will bring it up to play condition, but we should definitely be able to make it look good. I'm very excited about this one.

Finally, this week we had some visitors in the class. Our instructors are hosting a NAPBIRT Clinic this weekend for technicians and members. As a special treat, the clinicians and some other members came in to speak with us about developments in padding, working on trombone slides, and some overall guidance in moving into this career. It was a fantastic day. I would really like to thank Mike, Scott, Cris and Mark for coming in. As an awesome treat from Mark and Yamaha, he brought a box full of personalized shop aprons for us students. Thank you very much.

Week 22 - February 6th - 10th

 A few things have happened this week in the brass lab. We received our project trombones and began studying slide repair, and I managed to finish my french horn.

To start, the trombone I received is an Olds Ambassador.  The lacquer had been stripped off of the bell, but it was in pretty good shape overall. I removed all of the bumper material from inside the cork barrels and swabbed out the slide with both a brass brush and cheese cloth. The horn was then chem flushed and all of the dents were removed from the bell and main tuning slide.

Moving back to the french horn, there was much problem solving left to be done to fix the fourth lever. First off, to get the key to fit I had to burnish the hinge tube so the new hinge rod would fit through. After doing this, I had to make a washer to make the hinge tube longer and remove end play. Using the lathe and the same techniques I used on the flute hinge tube, I created a washer that was the exact size needed.

To prepare the stop arm to work with a new ball-socket system, I had to drill out the existing hole where the lever screw would fit and replace it with a bushing. I soldered the bushing into the arm and drilled it out. The hole was threaded and counter-bored to receive the new post.

Once the arm was set, the new lever was marked out and drilled. I cut it down to a manageable size and buffed it to match the other levers. The threaded rod between sockets was measured and cut. The sockets were then greased and the new system installed. Unfortunately, the stop arm retaining screw hindered the lever's movement. The head of the screw was filed down to fit under the lever and the rotor was assembled.

Once the fourth lever was set, it was quick work greasing all of the slides and oiling the other rotors. The horn was assembled and wiped down and passed a play test. The case vacuumed and the project was turned in for grading. Soon I will post a page dedicated to the french horn project. If you have any questions, please post a comment or email me at airbandrepair@gmail.com.