[Trombone-l] Fixing your own horn

[Jason Smith]

I think that fixing your own horn is a great
idea.(insert tongue in cheek and laugh uncontrolably).
 I have seen more instruments almost destroyed by
(daddys) with vice grips or a screwdriver and too much
ambition.  However,  there is no reason why any person
could not be trained in the art of instrument repair. 
I would suggest to anybody that before you go out and
buy a dent roller and a hammer to befriend your local
or semi local repair person.  Offer to work in shop
for summer repair season.  Watch the brass guys repair
school horns.  Then if you are confident you can buy
the tools needed to complete work and do a good job. 
Who knows maybe there is an opportunity for a side job
to supplement income to pay for the rising cost of
gasoline.

Jason

--- Daniel Pliskin <daniel_pliskin at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 
> >     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
> 
> 
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>
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> 


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