Saxophones Pork Tales: Saxophone Repair DIY Adventures.

Life around the barn.

Tales from a pig that likes to stick his nose into everything.

Paint that S. How difficult could it be ?

1) Search the net.
2) Find the color.
3) Order color.
4) Study task on University of YouTube, aka; For destruction by DYI presented by pro tech.

Do the cleaning & prep.

Paint and cleanup / detail the edges with hard cotton swabs. Sounds easy……

Yeah tha guy Matt makes it look easy.
Anyone remember your first experience cooking bacon crispy while still in the frying pan !

 

[PigSquealer]

Lower bell key post removed, dent fixed and post replaced.

Hours later I have the bow ironed out enough that the bell keys are in range. No stress in bow area. The tone holes resemble something round.
Proper way would be full disassembly. The bell should have come off. I’m not opening up that can of worms.

 

[PigSquealer]

Time to fabricate the body to bell brace.

.190 bar brass machined to .160 then well heated. Bending by hand.
Diamond cut from sheet brass with sheers.

 

[Ghr9204]

Bow is now a 100% improvement over what you started working with, @PigSquealer . Those dents were definitely a functional eyesore. Brace sort of resembles my early 1950's Beaugnier Vito Bari. Yours is a work of art in progress.

 

[Woodpad]

The Pan American was Conn’s lesser line product. 1920’s to 1955 +/-. After 1955 the product became the “Director”. Aka 14m & 16m Shooting Stars. The PA body is very close or possibly the same as a 10m.

The other lesser Conn line was the Continental Colonial. To make it complicated this line has stencils based on Conn, Pan American and Yana.

 

[PigSquealer]

The other lesser Conn line was the Continental Colonial. To make it complicated this line has stencils based on Conn, Pan American and Yana.

Cavalier too.
Yes C.G. Conn produced a ton of stencils across all their product lines.

 

[Vlad]

I just missed a Cavalier tenor by a measly few quid on evilbay the other day. 🙁

 

[PigSquealer]

Challenge time.
Technically the brace should be hard soldered to the plates then mounted. Good luck on doing that this time.
Tic,tic,tic. Need to stay on budget. High quality for intended use is unnecessarily. It needs to be bar durable.
6% silver solder used everywhere.

I did grind off the remaining bit on bell plate. Brace formed & fit by eye.

Oh well

Even with all the parts tinned it was challenging to place the part correctly.
On the body side it needed to clear the spring and stack parts. On the bell side fit. The bell keys location determined final brace placement.

 

[PigSquealer]

With the assembly now solid it’s time to finalize. A bit more dent work to relieve stresses in bow. Lastly work on the tone holes is needed. Not all that bad considering the work done.

Low C

Low C#

Eb

 

[PigSquealer]

Back together and plays like it looks. Out Ya go !

 

[hedgehog]

Thanks for posting those great pictures and descriptions. They document what seems pretty amazing work. I'm looking forward to more.

 

[Ghr9204]

Wow, that is quite a contrast to what you started with, and now what it looks like. If this was your work "on the cheap", just imagine what your work would look like if "bar no expenses"!

Before:

After:

I imagine you'll have one happy camper after he picks up his horn and plays.

 

[PigSquealer]

I imagine you'll have one happy camper after he picks up his horn and plays.

He picked it up that afternoon and played that evening. Was happy as pie 🙂
Lol, a few days later he dropped off his MK VI tenor for a full pad service. A five digit 1960 with orginal pads. Pristinely clean and hardly a scratch.

 

[PigSquealer]

Some of the areas were pushed in at least 10mm.
The pictures below are just before installation of brace. Before and after.
I didn’t take a bucket load of before and after pictures. It’s time consuming and I needed to get the work done.

 

[LostCircuits]

MDRS?

 

[PigSquealer]

MDRS?

MDRS – Memory Disorders Research Society

Memory Disorders Research Society

www.memorydisorders.org

Or

Mars Desert Research Station - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[PigSquealer]

TGIF !
Scrape’s and scratches look better without the mud pie

 

[Ghr9204]

Looks like JB Weld Epoxy or its equivalent.

I've used that for various repairs both hobby and around the house. Done right and well, one can do a lot of good. Not long ago, I used it to fix a swimming pool cover concrete anchor. Hole top edges spald away sufficiently during drilling that the anchor could not seat and failed. I cleaned up the hole, filled edges with JB, now cover strap properly anchors. With the sun beating on it, the JB has faded where it more or less appears to be a part of the concrete.

Whoever did that repair could have carefully wiped away the excess while still uncured and wet, leaving a clean repair. But if one lacks the patience and if it got that musician through a "jamb" (pun intended!) 😉 until he/she got it to a tech, then it did its purpose.

That cleaned up nicely, but I imagine you have come across doozies that it would have been better if the person just got a tech to do it right the first time.

 

[Vlad]

JB Weld can be good stuff, I fixed a radiator leak on an old motor with it once, held up for the rest of the time I had the car too.

 

[LostCircuits]

MDRS – Memory Disorders Research Society

Memory Disorders Research Society

www.memorydisorders.org

Or

Mars Desert Research Station - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

MDRS

 

[PigSquealer]

MDRS

Yes the brass arsenal includes dent rods with 12 assorted balls / barrels and magnetic wand that will pinch your fingers if not careful. The final & stress relief was done with magnet / balls. A few high spots were smoothed with chasing hammers.
These supplies came from Mars😛