[Trombone-l] Fixing your own horn

[Daniel Pliskin]

>     Anyone able and willing to chat with me about the feasibility of this? 
>  There are plenty of damaged horns at the places I teach that I could 
>practice with, so my horn wouldn't have to be my maiden voyage.

There are various degrees of “fixing” a trombone.  It’s very difficult to 
get a trombone cherried out.  It’s not that difficult to push out a dent, to 
the point where it looks OK, if you don’t study it too carefully.

The one thing you do have to be careful about, though, is making sure that 
you don’t do something that can’t be made beautiful, later, by a qualified 
repair person.  Perhaps the biggest damage you could create is to generate 
or accentuate a crease.

OK, the disclaimer is finished, let’s go.

Get a smooth steel rod, about 5/8 inch in diameter and two feet long.  With 
a grinder, round off the end, so that it’s more like half a ball.  Then 
polish that ball end, so that it’s quite smooth.

Now, take that rod and hold it firmly in a vise, so that it’s horizontal.  
V-shaped jaws help a lot.

Hold the bell firmly in both hands with the rod sticking into the bell.  
Starting gently, rub the inside of the bell across the cylindrical part of 
the rod.  But also pay attention to where the rest of the bell is.  It’s way 
too easy to dent another part of the bell, while you’re concentrating on the 
first dent.

I started you out rubbing the bell against the rod very gently, because 
trombones are very easy to bend.  And if you didn’t get any results that 
would be better than if you pushed too hard and put a new crease right next 
to the old dent.  If you are getting results, keep doing what you’re doing, 
until the dent is smoothed out.  If it’s not working for you, try pushing a 
bit harder, as you rub the bell against the rod.

And if you’ve been holding your mouth just so, the trombone will be 
restored, perfectly.

DanP