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]

Nothing much happened today…
Crook as received. Although I’ve already made a rough hinge rod, one that resembles a fit bit. The patient here is an 1918 Conn NW1 tenor. It’s actually in good mechanical condition. Just needs some barn time. Maybe a little sweet red apple 🍎 too.

A slight adjustment to the octave key and a pillar pops off. I was just testing the needed adjustments.

No surprise as a full 1mm spot was holding the pillar in place. At least the previous person made a honest attempt to do good. Look at the first photo. They didn’t overheat the area. If flux was used, it was cleaned off 👍👍. They didn’t go beyond.
This kind of work takes practice and plan on things going not well for your first while. My best suggestion, don’t abuse the heat.
Cooked parts are hard to salvage. “Ya all be cool”

 

[PigSquealer]

Clean the parts well. Tin the parts. Apply some flux. (Showing the pillars as tinned/ fluxed).

Secure the bits in place. Leaving room for adjustments. Don’t overwork the parts. Take small steps and work to crafting a working final pleasing part.

The copper wire sourced from automotive wire. Get creative !
If that melts. Well, you’re running a bit hot…. Observing is a skill. Learn heat 🥵. Copper melts after solder.

 

[PigSquealer]

FWIW, the wood wedges around the halo holding the part in location…. Those are Red Oak to be exact. They will survive high heat.
It’s all small stuff.

 

[PigSquealer]

A 108 year old part that I’m reasonably happy with. The previous tool marks I can’t do much about. It is what it is.
The final polish was achieved with unknown silver polish (Avon product of 1980’s ? Acquired at yard sale, 6 bottles for $1) and all done by hand. NO power buffing tools. Just a cotton wrag and sliver of old cotton t-shirt. First cleaned with a toothbrush and same polish . Nothing fancy.

The gray areas are where the solder is showing its face. Keep in mind this is viewing at 25X.

 

[PigSquealer]

I’m happy with the connection repair at cross bracing too. This was completely loose previously. Zero contact.

 

[PigSquealer]

Waiting for contact cement to dry on cork. This bit is placed just above the halo on key arm. Its purpose is only to prevent the arm denting the crook body. Storage protection in case cubby area. It has nothing in functional need for regulating the action.

If you have a unit with the teardrop style key…. You get two dents in your neck if there’s no preventative measure taken.

 

[PigSquealer]

All done.

Including a new spring . Do be polite and offer the spring foot a smear of bacon grease 🤣

 

[PigSquealer]

If you have a unit with the teardrop style key…. You get two dents in your neck if there’s no preventative measure taken.

Here’s an example of a Selmer style fix.

Place a felt or cork in this area to hinder damage contact. This is not specifically a Selmer issue. All makers with this design have this potential 🤬….. life in a case.

 

[PigSquealer]

Customer says “lower stack is not snappy, can you increase the spring tension please”.
Humm…..

 

[Colin the Bear]

A little knowledge...

It's as if they'd never heard of oil. 😊

 

[PigSquealer]

Every 108 years or so have your regulation cork renewed.

If you press your fingernail or blunt object into cork and it doesn’t rebound. It past the “best if used by” date.

 

[PigSquealer]

This one’s finally off the bench. What came in for a few issues and an COA ended up being 20+ hours on the bench.

 

[kamak]

Looks great!

 

[Tuppertn]

Is that the original neck angle for that horn? Looks much more open than I'd expect on an NW1.

 

[PigSquealer]

Is that the original neck angle for that horn? Looks much more open than I'd expect on an NW1.

Yes, this is best I know of being an original example. The upwards angle of the cork end in pictures above are deceiving.
This is the 1918.

This is my 1916 that has suffered some pulldown. At the time of repair I had no example to work from. It was in bad shape

 

[PigSquealer]

For comparison. These are 8k serial numbers apart.
#35xxx /1916

#43xxx

 

[PigSquealer]

Well, I guess there is a fine line between patina and grime. The stencil alto I just started was one of the filthiest things I have seen. Even after ultrasonic cleaning it needed quite a bit of cleaning. A lot of the nickel plating from keys and hinge tubes is just a memory. It’s hard to wax and protect the surface of something like that.

An ultrasonic cleaner is a good tool for the right job. A ultrasonic tank wouldn’t be my first choice on a nickel plate horn. Especially if you can’t suspend the parts in the solution. Nothing should be touching the bottom or walls. Frequency settings are critical.

Be very careful waxing nickel parts or body with the plating flaking off. Those flakes are like nickel razor blades.

 

[PigSquealer]

Another busy week. I’m fortunate to have some really nice customers. Gifts for helping are always a big surprise 🤗
Thanks guys !

 

[PigSquealer]

This gift was a big shock. A 1903-4 Evette & Schaffer tenor or C Melody ? I need to study this one more. Too short for tenor, too long for a C mel. Palm E is partially on the receiver area. It’s most likely HP (no stamp) tenor @ 27”, but it’s a US import stencil Carl Fischer so? Otherwise I know what this is. More later and maybe on the C Smelly thread😉
An amazing gift from the Oleg Garbuzov collection.

 

[PigSquealer]

Next. Well honestly I have several I’ll be starting in the next few days.
This is an 1940 Martin Committee two tenor in original condition. Recently acquired and the (new ?) pads it came with are too thick.
Need to investigate wots needed .

Looks like Mr PS will be entertaining our guest Mr PS during the project. A warm welcome to Mr Positive Sloth 😊