Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Brass tech in Dallas Area


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Posted by Rick Denney on December 30, 1999 at 18:32:03:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Brass tech in Dallas Area posted by Joe Baker on December 30, 1999 at 11:25:18:

I built a tuning stick for a prototype Vespro to sharpen the main tuning slide (the fourth partial was flatter than usual on that horn). The stick was a long brass tube, with an old Mirafone thumb ring on the top. The thumb ring was right next to the first valve slide, and I could hook my thumb into it and operate both slides simultaneously. I connected it to the slide using a 90-degree bell-crank apparatus that I fabricated from sheet brass with reinforcements. All the pivot points were ball-and-socket tie-rod ends designed for radio-controlled model helicopters (I've built many sets of valve linkages using these as well).

Here's the part that's most relevant to you: I attached the bell-crank pivot, which was the axle for a large RC airplane landing gear, to a thick brass sheet. I folded about an inch of the sheet over at 90 degrees such that it would just slip over convenient tubing, drilled holes (in the sheet--not the horn!) and fastened it with large nylon wire ties. When tightened with pliers and trimmed, they looked surprisingly good, and kept me from applying a torch to a pristine lacquered horn. I silver-soldered everything else on the apparatus, buffed it out, and sprayed it with lacquer to preserve it. The result was quite passable for a do-it-yourself job where I didn't want to trash a new horn. The total cost was less than $50, assuming my time is free, heh, heh.

I did the same thing several years before to a Sanders BBb horn, but that one flattened the main slide rather than sharpening it. I'd show pictures, but I've sold both of those horns.

Rick "Always a challenge for the hobby-shop salesman" Denney


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