This page, an offshoot of the initial blog, will look much more specifically at the issues faced with the Renyolds Project trumpet. It will take a slightly closer look at the steps involved in fixing its various issues.
To begin, these are the issues found after the initial inspection of this trumpet:
- Mouthpipe - four dents, bent finger ring and Red Rot. Will need to be replaced;
- Main Tuning Slide Assembly - Stuck;
- Third Valve - stuck, missing bottom cap, damage to bottom cap threads;
- Third Slide - stuck, missing finger ring,
- Second Valve - mouthpipe to casing brace torn, missing bottom cap, damage to bottom cap threads;
- Second Slide - crushed, crook and draw-knob must be replaced;
- First Slide - two dents;
- Knuckle Dents - tail to 3rd casing, lower 3rd slide, lower 2nd slide, 2nd to 3rd casing, 1st to 2nd casing, upper and lower 1st slide, and casing to bell knuckles;
- Bell - seven dents in bow, five dents in stem, and a buckle.
After the inspection was complete, I introduced penetrating oil into the stuck main tuning slide and third slide assemblies. After a short while, the third slide released fairly easily, but the main tuning slide was thoroughly stuck.
I began prepping the trumpet for a chemical clean. This meant disassembling the trumpet and pre-cleaning all possible parts with a degreaser and blue cloth. After the parts had been prepped, they were all soaked in a detergent solution to remove any grease and organic material that may be trapped inside. This process takes 5-15 minutes.Following this, the horn was put in an agitated pickle of phosphoric acid in three minute intervals. This removed any lime and scale from the inside of the instrument. Following the pickle, any bare brass sections of the instrument were stabilized with a Scotch Bright pad to prevent oxidization.
Before beginning dent work, I removed the mouthpipe from the trumpet. While I wouldn't normally do this, the mouthpipe would need to be replaced anyways and it allowed me to remove the damaged casing to mouthpipe brace. For this project I chose to fabricate a new brace from scratch to match the existing parts, rather than replace it with a stronger Yamaha brace. This is not standard practice due to the cost involved in making a brace compared to the cost of a standard brace. 
Making the braces involved cutting sheet brass into shape and super-heating the parts to make them malleable. The span was made from 1/4" brass rod, which was drilled out and turned down to size. Using a set of jeweler's files, the shape was made by eye. The pieces were then bolted together and silver-soldered. Finally, the excess was sanded off and the pieces were buffed to finish.
Turning our attention back to the trumpet, the bell and bow were aligned and all of the dents were removed from the bell stem, bow, slide assemblies and knuckles. During play condition repairs, we generally only remove dents that are 1/3 of the way into the diameter of the part. For this project, we went after every dent we could find, increasing time and cost. This is not a standard practice.
I then began looking at the parts I would need to fashion. First was the missing bottom caps. Because of the unavailability of these caps, I had to supply and modify Bundy caps using the lathe. First, I created a jig that had a 36tpi end that would hold the caps on the lathe. I then used a bit to remove some of the knurling on the cap so that it was a closer match to the original Reynolds caps.
Continuing with the parts making, the second crook was damaged nearly beyond repair. In order to fix this crook, I put the entire assembly in the Ferree's N4 Yamaha Slide Dent removing jig and roughed it into shape. Because of the severity of the dents, I created a patch to cover the entire top of the crook by cutting a larger crook into shape and soft soldering it on. To replace the draw knob, I used a lathe to turn a piece of 1/4" brass into shape, leaving a 0.020" flange on the bottom to be shaped onto the crook. The entire assembly was wired on and soldered together.
The last piece that had to be completely replaced was the mouthpipe due to the existing dezincification (red rot). I removed the outer-upper main tuning slide tube and the mouthpiece receiver. I replaced the tube with an Allied A116 Universal Mouthpipe. The new mouthpipe was cut to have a 0.432" opening on the receiver side, and cut to the same length as the old pipe. The existing pieces were then aligned and added onto the mouthpipe. 
To solder this new assembly on, I used the main tuning slide as a jig. I double-checked the alignment and skew of the main tuning slide and used it to hold the mouthpipe in position as if it was already assembled. This allowed me to install the casing to mouthpipe brace that I fashioned earlier. After this brace was on, I aligned and fitted the mouthpipe to bell braces and soldered them on. While installing the mouthpipe, I found a crack in the main tuning slide. It was quickly patched and buffed.
The last bit of dent work to do was on the bottom casing threads. Using dent balls, I brought each casing back to round. There was no serious thread damage to the 1st or 2nd casing, but the 3rd would need more work. I began by tapping the damaged threads inward with a mallet so that only the threads that were still working would grab the tool. I then threaded on a Ferree's Thread Burnisher. Using a dent ball I managed to bring the threads into the internal threads of the burnisher. This brought them most of the way back to fit. To finish it up, I used an Allied Thread Chaser to cut away any excess material that was slowing the threading down. This brought it back to perfect.
I then prepped the horn for lacquering. I buffed it with a white lime substitute buffing compound in any spots that I was soldering or removed lacquer. The white lime is more of a cutting compound than a finishing compound, but its roughness matched the condition of the rest of the horn better than any other compound. The entire horn was then degreased with a citrus based degreaser and lacquered with an aerosol cellulose spray. This spot lacquer is what we use to cover all spot lacquering on epoxy, ceramic and other cellulose lacquers because of its quick curing time at low temperatures.
After lacquering, the horn was reassembled. Every slide was checked individually for sluggish movement or misalignment. Each slide is then cleaned again, greased and wiped. The pistons were cleaned and checked. In this case I had to repair an out of round piston using a sized mandrel and a hammer. The water keys were recorked and installed with new springs and everything that is threaded has a small amount of slide grease added to prevent ceasing. This completed the trumpet. For more information, leave a comment or email me at airbandrepair@gmail.com.
