Posted by Joe S. on March 07, 2000 at 21:31:01:
In Reply to: Re: Bow Guard Plate Replacement *HELP* posted by Jay Bertolet on March 07, 2000 at 17:24:57:
I have worked with guard plates on tubas quite a bit over the years (and do NOT find them to be "amusing").
The big problem with removing them and ironing them out on a dent machine (along with doing the same to the bottom bow) is the s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g that occurs. Some repairmen eventually learn to rub (or whack) the big dents out as much as possible PRIOR to unsoldering the cap from the bow. This will minimize stretching, but not eliminate it.
The other problem for the repairman is TIME. The poor dude doesn't have the TIME to anneal and reshape your cap to fit it perfectly back on to your bow. I have done this more times that I would admit to, but in the future only for MY tubas (see "TIME", above).
Anyway, to continue, once annealed and reshaped as well as possible (and WAAAAY past the point of repair job profitability), the use of thirty or forty continuously-retightened wire bands to hold the bow and guard together during resoldering (and additional final shaping "on the fly" -while hot) usually makes for a quite satifactory job.
Summary: There is no "Bondo" for tubas. ' sorry about your little problem, but sympathize with the poor repair guy, and thank him. He probably would have rather been taking bell creases out of a Bundy trumpet and making decent $$.