Week Five - September 19 - 23

At the beginning of this week, we started working on a new lathe project. We created a flute push rod for setting the flute head corks. This included scribing a coloured line exactly 17mm from the end of a 12" plastic dowel. On the other end of this dowel, we drilled a hole. This tool will be used towards the end of next semester.

 Later this week, we began looking deeper into the problems of our project trumpets. We began to chemically flush the instrument, removing any organics and scale from the interior. After this, I proceeded to align the bell and bow so that I could begin removing dents.

One of the issues that I came across was that the casing-to-mouthpipe brace was torn. Usually this means replacing it with a different brace that is stronger and of a different brand. Instead, I manufactured a brace from scratch that matched the original braces on the trumpet. This involved cutting flanges from sheet brass, shaping the spanner by hand on a lathe, annealing the flanges so they could be shaped, and silver soldering the unit together. It was around this time that I discovered my camera was on landscape view. I apologize for all of my previously blurry pictures, but hopefully they will be better from here on out.

Towards the end of this week, I began removing dents from the project trumpet, beginning with knuckle dents. They were surprisingly easy to remove compared to the other dents I have had to deal with. The number of dents in this trumpet is vast, so I expect this process will not be over soon.

Week Four - September 12 - 16

During this week, we continued working with soft soldering. We practiced making diamond patches and soldering them onto the bell stem. Later in the week, we were tested on this same process.

Continuing with dent work, we looked at taking out bell folds using universal mandrels and dent rollers. Because the mandrels are universal, they do not perfectly match the shape of every bell and so much of the rim straightening had to be done by eye with a small hammer.

We also continued to work on small slide assemblies. First, we were tested on removing dents from the second crook. After that, we constructed first slide assemblies from scratch. This involved soldering ferrules onto the inner tubes, then fitting the tubes to the crook while in the trumpet. After a buff, the parts looked factory made.

The highlight of this week was getting our project trumpets. These trumpets come from actual clients who want work done. They are in various conditions with numerous problems. The trumpet I received is a Reynolds trumpet from 1964. Below are pictures of some of the work that must be done to it. Needless to say, it may take a while.

Week Three - September 7 - 10

 During this short week, we continued to experiment with the lathe and making small hand tools. This week’s lathe project was a Rotor Bearing Plate Seater to be used in the second semester. Using the lathe, we faced each end of a length of 1” PVC. We then drilled a 0.413” hole, ½” into the PVC. Thus a tool is born.

 We continued working on our trumpet bells. Using a ¼” brass rod, we soft-soldered a brace  from the bell stem to the bell tail to support the tail while we work. We continued to buff the bell to prepare it to receive soldered patches.

 We created a slightly more complicated tool this week. Using a ¼” steel rod, we created a Double Ended Bench Crook Rod. This involved filing a taper on each end of the rod, bending each end to a specific angel, silver-soldering a ball on each end, and preparing each end with a pickle and buff. This tool will allow us to reach dents in the crooks of each slide of a trumpet.

 Continuing with crook dents, we explored removing some dents in the second slide crook. This gave me an opportunity to continue work on my Lignatone trumpet, as the second slide was dented so badly that the draw knob popped off. This dent proved to be quite a challenge, but I restored the crook to shape. With a buff, and a new draw knob, it will be good as new. 

Week Two - August 29 - September 2

During this second week, we continued to make and modify small hand tools. Our first lathe project consisted of modifying two Delrin Hammer heads so that the flat side had a slight bevel to minimize the point of contact when doing dent work.

Delrin Hammer Heads

This week also provided our first experiences with large-scale buffing. We were each given a trombone bell to prepare and buff using Yellow Rouge. This same trombone bell was used throughout this week as we started into dent removal on the bell flare.

As we are entering into doing physical work on brass, we began exploring Chem Flushing. On this trumpet bell, I performed a 10-minute detergent soak followed by a 3-minute pickle in Sulfamic acid, removing any lime and scale from it.

As a personal project, I brought with me a Lignatone student trumpet. This trumpet comes from Czechoslovakia, and is proving to have some of the oddest setups I have seen on a trumpet. As we progress, I have been performing similar maintenance on this trumpet, changing water key parts and porting the pistons. This trumpet needs a lot of work to bring it back to play condition.