Posted by Rick Denney on August 27, 2000 at 11:01:12:
In Reply to: Re: Venting Piston Valves posted by Chuck on August 26, 2000 at 13:39:57:
It's a good point, and I might. But there are instrument repair pros and there are instrument repair pros. Joe S. (for well-stated reasons) only works on instruments bought in his shop. Matt Walters is swamped, and will be especially so because of his unplanned "vacation." Of course, there are many others, but the best ones would require shipping the horn, which I'm loathe to do. And the really good guys are always buried in work.
The biggest risk in doing it myself is in attempting something beyond my abilities. The method I proposed is not--I'm confident of my ability to do that without breaking something. Drilling a hole? My confidence is a lot lower with that method. Drilling a hole in a pipe is notoriously difficult, and any method that is likely to properly secure the valve so that the drilling is safe runs the risk of distorting it. Grinding applies a predictable linear force on the valve rather than the unpredictable twisting motion of a drill bit.
Bottom line: I'd rather use my method myself that trust the work to some local repair guy who may or may not know what he's doing with something like this. Unless, of course, I'm persuaded that my method will give poor results.
The attitude I get at the local music stores when I make other simple requests (like for water-key corks or a decent selection of valve oils) does little to minimize my concern. If they think I'm being unreasonable because I want only Hetman's (which they've never even heard of), then I don't want to challenge their world with something like venting piston valves.
Rick "Good techs are hard to find" Denney