S2 Week 4

This is the main tuning slide crook on my project trombone. It's in awful shape.

Oh, you can see the seam in this picture, better be careful around that.

My trombone crook again, horrible horrible dents.

The mess on my bench. A trombone, mellophone, and two trumpets (because, who doesn't need more trumpets?)

My trombone needed to be taken apart, because the gooseneck was coming off (the gooseneck is the long curved tube at the bottom of the picture, next to the (slide lock) ring)

This one wasn't supposed to come apart (the piece to the right in this picture), but it did anyway.

After I smoothed out most of the dents in my crook I found those lovely cracks. They don't go through the brass, but Greg said I should put a patch over them.

First I have to buff the area, to prep for soldering. Look how shiny that is!

Next I made a patch, and formed it to fit (I used my burnisher for that) so it covers the area nicely.

Setting up to get ready to solder. I have to use the soft solder flux (the one in the picture) to make the solder flow in the right places, or the brass won't accept the solder and nothing happens (awkward, right?).

I decided to use an expander to hold up my tuning slide crook for soldering. I was able to angle the crook nicely so the patch would be easy to fill.

I can't take a picture of myself soldering, so this is my classmate, Jeremiah, who kindly let me take a picture of him. When soldering you have to flux the part, heat it up and try touching it with the solder (The wire in this picture) and use just the right temperature so the solder will melt when you touch it to the brass.

 My patch. It's a bit messy, but I can buff that easily.

Oh! So shiny. Greg said I shouldn't colour buff it because that would look too nice, and since the rest of the trombone looks bad... We don't want this to look too good!

This is a slide from the mellophone my friend lent me (to clean and do minor repairs on), after chemflush, but before stabilizing. 

This is after cleaning the tube with a scotch brite pad. Now it looks good.

This is the extra part of the mellophone that is used to change keys. I wonder who broke it... No, it was really crooked so I handed it to Greg who said I could flex it, and he showed me how, and in the process it fell apart. I'm not surprised really, the contact area is tiny, and this horn hasn't had proper cleaning in ages!

Oh, look at how little space those things get to stick together (look inside the lower hole, that's like a quarter of a centimeter right there).

This is a trumpet I got from goodwill. The receiver has become loose and I need to solder that back together.

Another picture of my trumpet. I look forward to fixing this!