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 !

 

[kamak]

The Aquilasax is close to an SBA in pivot screw count at 30. An SBA has 34. Grrrrr, I used the wrong caddy. Had to use two.
@kamak this picture’s for you 🤪
View attachment 36538

Well, im certainly glad the Comm3 doesn't have thay many 😅!

 

[PigSquealer]

Well, im certainly glad the Comm3 doesn't have thay many 😅!

Have a sand sandwich and chill. It’s just knowledge to have on hand for another day. Expect the unexpected stuff. Every day is a new day and a new surprise 🤪

 

[PigSquealer]

When the original green polypropylene bumpers are all but gone. It’s time to get creative. Cork or nylon ?

 

[PigSquealer]

The material is 3mm in diameter and available at multiple sources. All good but 3 days away on delivery.
I didn’t care for the way the cork turned out. Primarily due to the grain direction being short. Chance of failure.
Having some 7mm thick Delrin on hand I made my own.

Press lightly & turning the material until completely through. Back the stock off the cutter.
Use a short screwdriver to press the part out from the opposing cutter. The cork adjacent to screwdriver handle protects the cutter from damage. The short screwdriver is just enough to clear the part out. Too long and you chance striking the punch anvil and damaging it.

Trim to length @ 2mm. I can trim more off later if needed. Fit was already snug. Still I placed a pinhead drop of superglue down the hole and pressed to bottoming.

 

[PigSquealer]

The pivots on the Aquilasax are of the false taper type. Best described @Stephen-howard as type 5 in this article.

Point or pivot screw types for woodwind instruments

A description of the point or pivot screws on a woodwind instrument.

www.shwoodwind.co.uk

Or type 4 in this article.

An Overview of Saxophone Pivot Screws

www.musicmedic.com

The barrel pivot cavities I flushes out with a syringe using mineral spirits. Blot to dry let sit for any residual to evaporate.
The cavities are packed with a quality polypropylene type material. Not cork. If a pipe cleaner is used in a twisting method you’ll ruin the packing. Blowing with compressed air can remove the material before you can notice it gone.
After cleaning 30 barrel pivots this was the residual in my wash pan. Not more than a pinhead.

 

[PigSquealer]

Some interesting pad setting. The factory installed pads chosen are to the thin side. A heavy impression set to the toe side to make a quality seal on heel (hinge barrel) side. A pad too thick would contact the heel first. Typically i see the hinge side a fuzz heavier.

 

[PigSquealer]

A little roller TLC. Every pin was loose. Actually Bb had fallen out. Using a minuscule drop of 222 to hold security.

Getting so shiny I had to wear shades.

 

[PigSquealer]

Hand cleaning of all the keywork by six pig crew is done.

All the regulation felt & cork is beyond its useful service life. Everything will be replaced.

 

[Tonehole]

A question Squealer, does all this wear go to just hard playing or is it due to sub par quality materials and poor tolerances during factory assembly or because of neglect and lack of years of service?
Your opinion? 🤔

 

[PigSquealer]

A question Squealer, does all this wear go to just hard playing or is it due to sub par quality materials and poor tolerances during factory assembly or because of neglect and lack of years of service?
Your opinion? 🤔

Your Aquila appears to be a low mileage unit and not abused at all. More than likely the owner was intermediate to pro player. There were signs of palm key risers and thumb rest cushioning. Not typical of hobby owners.
The failure of regulation materials IMHO is strictly age related failure. Adhesives used and grade of materials used. Then factor in environmental impact. Heat and humidity ? The body coating missing was caused by what ? A cleaner ? Well I don’t see any deterioration of the pads that suggests any of these possibilities.
The unit was most likely played less than 7 years and put away for 10.

 

[PigSquealer]

The Aquilasax was completed last week. Here’s some highlights of the finising. All small stuff.
The sax overall has some funky features. Like the OE bumper felts were to short. So they added a colored shim on end. What I installed was same in length.

All four new installed using Music Medic clear synthetic shellac (aka clear hot melt glue).

The bumper adjusters are reasonably flush on outside but way exposed on inside. I would rather see those factory settings at midway. As is there’s only range adjustment outwards. I did consider adding a 2mm shim, but why ? Pre COA the unit played fine.

 

[PigSquealer]

The keywork gave me some unexpected pleasures 😒. All the OE materials were extremely thin. Both the cork & felt
That’s 0,34mm aka .013 inch.

So thin here it didn’t last.

All fork locations had enough clearance for thicker material. But not much at .016 / 0,40mm. Now there’s smooth operation and quite too. The unit had a ton of action mechanical noise as received. FWIW I tried PTFE shrink tubing too. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang !

Look at the red arrow above. That’s the mechanical limit of side high F. A piece of note paper folded in half clears with slight drag. One pass to many on touch cork foot and you’ll have a cowbell attachment. Don’t remove enough and the note is stuffy flat.

 

[mark_addy]

I could imagine filing some clearance in there. That's probably why it's OK for me to abuse my own instruments, but not other people's. There's an annoying clank on my most-used alto which is going to need attention with a file, it seems to me. I'm not going to post about it on here, as it involves fork-Eb, and most people will quite rightly wonder why I am bothering
🙂

 

[PigSquealer]

I could imagine filing some clearance in there.

I have done just that on many. Just make good and sure nothing is bent or mis aligned first.
This particular unit it wasn’t necessary. A minor key bend in degree relationship and all was good. Notice how low the fork pin rests in the fork is the clue.
I rarely mention these types of bend corrections. Risky business as the average DIY hobbyist is more likely to make things worse. Many have trouble understanding some parts are not bent….its been properly adjusted.

Stay tuned to see what I did machine off 😉

 

[PigSquealer]

The regulation felt everywhere was shot. A full clanking metal tube choir. The original felt pictured below was capable of playing. I just didn’t take pictures with all the taped on patches. Pre disassembly tuning was good. The test gave me the needed information on what thickness to replace with.

The problem was by the time a cork was sanded to in tune, it became noisy again. Also the keys started to bounce. I was suspicious as to why the spring tensions were set so high. Suspicion confirmed .

Next joy was finding the correct thickness felt. The need was .040 / 1,01mm fully compressed. Thinnest on hand…
.064 / 1,63.
Local suppliers only had woven wool felt blend. Argh ! Has 20% polyester. First thought, glue rejection / adhesion potentially a problem. Que…a few days testing $2 of materials. Fabric nap direction(Fabric Nap Explained: Why Direction Matters) and contact cement absorption. Bonding and stability to heat or open flame. Got that all worked out.
Ever cut 1mm thick sponge cake into 3mm wide bacon strips ? Squealing…(translate “minimum fun”)

Even with practice the fail pile wasn’t non-existent. See @ upper right.

Quality smooth quieter operation achieved everywhere.

 

[PigSquealer]

Pay attention when disassembling. It’s all the small stuff that adds up.
Long screws to mounting lugs. Short screw to sheetmetal.

Some of the Eb & Lo C guards are placement marked on inside. A simple C or Eb stamped on one only. Make a mark, if there is none. A simple dot from a permanent marker will do.
On installation just get each screw started. Then final tighten.

Lol my new adjuster bumper became a cowbell clunker. No clue if the felt will last / stay on. 🤞Locktite superglue !

I wonder if the hard hitting contact made the original fall out ?

All three LH palm keys were bangers. I machined off 1,5 mm on each foot. Replaced to equal thickness by key height preset.

🤦‍♂️ I don’t have good view picture of the final machine work.

 

[PigSquealer]

Lastly and the only real damage repair. The octave system. The metal on this sax is hard and hard to bend.
The crook key was bent. The sea saw system pivots were loose. The touch so high it would pinch your thumb between the touch & rest.
The touch pressed 5-6mm didn’t move anything. That much slop and lost motion from missing cork.

Fix enough small stuff a you day ends well.

 

[mark_addy]

It's very good of you to go to all the trouble of posting this stuff. When you know enough to think 'I could machine blah off of blah and stick some cork on there' - but also enough to know '...and sometimes that impluse is best resisted...but when?' - it's really educative to get a feel for how someone else approaches things (I won't say 'learn from others' mistakes', as there don't seem to be too many 🙂 ). Thanks again.

 

[PigSquealer]

The C plays well. It’s also insanely loud for a C Melody. The factory mouthpiece is user friendly with little to no resistance. Played well on Hemke #3. Feel under the fingers is better now with springs set at 75g. The neck strap hook ring is vertically in good balance position. No biting Cobra. Horizontal the ring is set to far left for my likes. The horn constantly feel like it’s turning into your left hand. Only came with the straight crook / neck. I don’t care for this. It feels long and at an odd angle.
IMHO There‘s room for improvement by moving the strap ring.
Reach, angle of hands & arms for comfort playing directly out front while standing.
Lastly there’s virtually no space G & G#.

 

[PigSquealer]

It's very good of you to go to all the trouble of posting this stuff. When you know enough to think 'I could machine blah off of blah and stick some cork on there' - but also enough to know '...and sometimes that impluse is best resisted...but when?' - it's really educative to get a feel for how someone else approaches things (I won't say 'learn from others' mistakes', as there don't seem to be too many 🙂 ). Thanks again.

😊 An expert is someone who’s made enough mistakes to know the difference. I’ll let you know when I become an expert. Meanwhile I’m going to walk Dug and do some problem solving.
Glad you’re enjoying the read.