Tech/maintenance Low C# foot cork on 1926 TrueTone alto?

[bobstad]

Yikes. that's a long time.
Do you have a caliper to measure the thickness of the plastic piece?

My gut feeling is that it won't matter too much, you have the "cork" in there mostly to avoid the clacking noise when thefoot hits the bow and, to some degree to regulate the opening angle and reduce bounce. In theory, you can use a thin piece of felt like what you would use for coasters and if it is too thin you double it up. You have to cut the contours, but any razor blade or cuticle scissors will do for that. No need to get carried away and if you had a plastic piece in there, it would be the wrong thing anyway.

The idea of building up layers of something simple and tough, where the cork normally is, might work? Likely, I'll come across something by chance which can be adapted..

I'm pretty handy.

 

[PigSquealer]

Long thread for a .064 x .150 x .250 piece of cork and .5mm drop of glue.

 

[Woodpad]

Long thread for a .064 x .150 x .250 piece of cork and .5mm drop of glue.

The concept of simple solutions for simple problems is very far from the conceived present economic reality.

 

[PigSquealer]

The concept of simple solutions for simple problems is very far from the conceived present economic reality.

There’s a reason Duct tape is so popular.

 

[Woodpad]

There’s a reason Duct tape is so popular.

Hoarding? As the present oil price will increase the price of Duct tape.

 

[bobstad]

Hoarding? As the present oil price will increase the price of Duct tape.

I wonder what the original price of a forever stamp was? Can they be exchanged for cash?

Better than gold, for an investment? Cannabis & gold were the same price during the 1970s.

$40/oz in my sole experience buying..the herb.

Seems gold-plated saxes must've been more common prior to the second world war? There was a SSBA tenor selling for $149,000 with about a zillion photos, online.

What type saxophone is the platinum one in the Helen Mirren movie Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari?

 

[bobstad]

Opps, apparently my reference to The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari & Helen Mirren is mistaken.

I seem to recall a film with a circular piano keyboard instrument, and also a platinum alto sax. Anyone?

 

[bobstad]

Ah ha!!

I have a 2 ounce bottle of a medicinal oil with a dropper for the lid of that bottle. On the end of the dropper is a rubber bulb, which is squeezed to draw the oil into the dropper.

I'm going to see if I can slice the end of the rubber dropper bulb off, to put over the foot on the end of the low-C rod mechanism.

I have just a little oil left, so when that's gone I'll see if I can make this work? Just a little, black rubber nipple, instead of the cork-and everything is here, close to hand.

I'll post a photo when it's done. Glad we wrestled with this a little. Seems like a potential winner.

 

[skeller047]

Ah ha!!

I have a 2 ounce bottle of a medicinal oil with a dropper for the lid of that bottle. On the end of the dropper is a rubber bulb, which is squeezed to draw the oil into the dropper.

I'm going to see if I can slice the end of the rubber dropper bulb off, to put over the foot on the end of the low-C rod mechanism.

I have just a little oil left, so when that's gone I'll see if I can make this work? Just a little, black rubber nipple, instead of the cork-and everything is here, close to hand.

I'll post a photo when it's done. Glad we wrestled with this a little. Seems like a potential winner.

Why? The only wrestling that’s being done is you trying to find an alternate solution for no good reason.

If you can cut the top off a rubber dropper bulb, you can cut a piece of cork. Contact cement is the easiest and cheapest way to attach it. Cork as a key foot is the best solution for the job. Other solutions have been tried and still 99.9% of saxophones use cork.

 

[Targa]

Ah ha!!

I have a 2 ounce bottle of a medicinal oil with a dropper for the lid of that bottle. On the end of the dropper is a rubber bulb, which is squeezed to draw the oil into the dropper.

I'm going to see if I can slice the end of the rubber dropper bulb off, to put over the foot on the end of the low-C rod mechanism.

I have just a little oil left, so when that's gone I'll see if I can make this work? Just a little, black rubber nipple, instead of the cork-and everything is here, close to hand.

I'll post a photo when it's done. Glad we wrestled with this a little. Seems like a potential winner.

Except that rubber bulb will have the oily stuff on it which you will have to remove to make it stick.
I’ve got lots of chewed up rubber cat toys perhaps a bit cut off one of them would be suitable?

 

[turf3]

Why? The only wrestling that’s being done is you trying to find an alternate solution for no good reason.

If you can cut the top off a rubber dropper bulb, you can cut a piece of cork. Contact cement is the easiest and cheapest way to attach it. Cork as a key foot is the best solution for the job. Other solutions have been tried and still 99.9% of saxophones use cork.

By the way when I was at the hardware store buying that thin sheet of rubber the other day, I noticed a little bag of various gasket materials, including cork sheet, for under $10.

 

[Colin the Bear]

By the way when I was at the hardware store buying that thin sheet of rubber the other day, I noticed a little bag of various gasket materials, including cork sheet, for under $10.

You were robbed. 😁

 

[bobstad]

I had a 1930 TrueTone alto for a long time, from 1997 through the fall of 2016; which had an increasingly flakey mechanism, held together by a collection of rubber bands, fishing line and/or other quick fixes until finally overhauled by Carlo Cennamo during 2014. www.cennamowoodwinds.com

In fact, various players over the years have made a mini-science of quick-fix, impromptu sax repairs; having to respond to inevitable failures which are simple consequences of regular use, when unable to access a shop-improvising unusual ways to get to the end of a song, set, tour, and/or the useful remaining playable life of a instrument. [ a half dozen or so used saxophones, testify to my having to swap in another playable instrument with some life left..when facing an overhaul/restoration that might cost two or three times the price of another second hand survivor..being lucky shopping around: a pristine Mark VI alto #83038 $300 during 1975, a perfect silver-neck Super20 alto $225 in 1983, a just overhauled 6M $175 circa 1992..the well playable 1930 TrueTone alto $400 out of the Berkeley Flea Market Want Ads newspaper from 1997..a YAS-23 $400 Bert Wilson approved from the Olympia newspaper the fall of 2004ish, a Chuck Stentz student's father sold..During 1971 an overhaul of an alto ran about $200 or $300 for a tenor; when Howard Ward of Colvert Music in Fort Worth, TX beautifully restored a fine Buescher sopranino for me for, including a relaquer for $40..a fellow with emphasima urging against a career repairing instruments, saying I'd be put to work buffing trombone bells.. ]

 

[LostCircuits]

In fact, various players over the years have made a mini-science of quick-fix, impromptu sax repairs; having to respond to inevitable failures which are simple consequences of regular use, when unable to access a shop-improvising unusual ways to get to the end of a song, set, tour, and/or the useful remaining playable life of a instrument.

Using the word "science" in this context is a blasphemy. Any decent tech will tell you that on most overhauls, undoing the "science" repairs takes about twice the amount of time it takes to do the actual repairs/overhauls.

It's akin to going to a primary care physician who is more concerned about billable procedures than the patient and after the second unsuccessful attempt to remove some cancerous growth sends you off to a dermatologist. And the 8mm tumor all of a sudden requires an excision of an 8" x 4" flap, reconstructive surgery and months of healing.

That's how I view these mini-science quick fixes ... If you don't know what you are doing, don't, for heaven's sake, do it!

Oh, and I got the scars to show, both from instrument repair and surgery

 

[bobstad]

Y

Using the word "science" in this context is a blasphemy. Any decent tech will tell you that on most overhauls, undoing the "science" repairs takes about twice the amount of time it takes to do the actual repairs/overhauls.

It's akin to going to a primary care physician who is more concerned about billable procedures than the patient and after the second unsuccessful attempt to remove some cancerous growth sends you off to a dermatologist. And the 8mm tumor all of a sudden requires an excision of an 8" x 4" flap, reconstructive surgery and months of healing.

That's how I view these mini-science quick fixes ... If you don't know what you are doing, don't, for heaven's sake, do it!

Oh, and I got the scars to show, both from instrument repair and surgery

Yeah sure, you betcha..

Only thing being access or affordability. Like Flip Wilson's "The Church of What's Happening Now" the medium is the massage..could an adequate reed be made from a medical tongue depresser? Anything can work as a ligature. The thin plastic from outside a pack of cigarettes wrapped around a leaky pad & cup. Just try not to booger anything beyond a better repair later, if you can..triage rules, seat of the pants style.

 

[LostCircuits]

Y

Yeah sure, you betcha..

Only thing being access or affordability. Like Flip Wilson's "The Church of What's Happening Now" the medium is the massage..could an adequate reed be made from a medical tongue depresser? Anything can work as a ligature. The thin plastic from outside a pack of cigarettes wrapped around a leaky pad & cup. Just try not to booger anything beyond a better repair later, if you can..triage rules, seat of the pants style.

Just keep your instruments maintained, then 99% of boogeration instances will go away

And I am not referring to "shagging a corpse" ..

 

[bobstad]

Using the word "science" in this context is a blasphemy. Any decent tech will tell you that on most overhauls, undoing the "science" repairs takes about twice the amount of time it takes to do the actual repairs/overhauls.

It's akin to going to a primary care physician who is more concerned about billable procedures than the patient and after the second unsuccessful attempt to remove some cancerous growth sends you off to a dermatologist. And the 8mm tumor all of a sudden requires an excision of an 8" x 4" flap, reconstructive surgery and months of healing.

That's how I view these mini-science quick fixes ... If you don't know what you are doing, don't, for heaven's sake, do it!

Oh, and I got the scars to show, both from instrument repair and surgery

Ever try kerosene in lieu of gasoline, in a pinch? You might get there; while the car's motor could suffer.

These are subjective calls; recognized if less than perfect, also essential.

You can feasibly come up with another instrument or rationalize a repair; if a sacrifice keeps a band together, holds down a gig, or in some other way creates situation ethics, contrary to an ideal practice. [ look over a Soviet sax sometime..no cork, leather, or any other typical organic substance..they must be a challenge to perform on! ]

 

[LostCircuits]

Ever try kerosene in lieu of gasoline, in a pinch? You might get there; while the car's motor could suffer.

These are subjective calls; recognized if less than perfect, also essential.

You can feasibly come up with another instrument or rationalize a repair; if a sacrifice keeps a band together, holds down a gig, or in some other way creates situation ethics, contrary to an ideal practice. [ look over a Soviet sax sometime..no cork, leather, or any other typical organic substance..they must be a challenge to perform on! ]

Sure, there are emergency situations, been there, done that but I have seen too many of these band aids become permanent and then causing more problems and more band aids, some of which will eventually damage the instrument or require alterations that will NOT work with the correct solution to the original problem.

Thus Frankenstein was born with the brain of Abby Normal.

 

[Targa]

Sure, there are emergency situations, been there, done that but I have seen too many of these band aids become permanent and then causing more problems and more band aids, some of which will eventually damage the instrument or require alterations that will NOT work with the correct solution to the original problem.

Thus Frankenstein was born with the brain of Abby Normal.

Frequent error, not Frankenstein but the monster.

 

[skeller047]

Sure a rubber band works when something breaks on a gig. Or some duct tape for a temporary bumper. Or cellophane / plumber’s tape to help seal a pad that tears. Or…. Many players keep an emergency repair kit with them on gigs, especially if travel is long. And at the next available opportunity they either take the horn in, or fix it themselves.

This thread has gone on for a few days now, more than enough time for a trip to the hardware store or for Amazon to deliver. Just get yourself some cork and contact cement, and stop daydreaming of days gone by where crafty old codgers fixed their horns with crumpled bandaids, and trimmed their reeds using a half dollar coin and a lighter.