major announcement

Projects, repair topics, and Frankentubas
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bloke
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major announcement

Post by bloke »

I finished a Mississippi university’s instruments plus a nearby middle school’s instruments, will deliver them at 10 AM and 10:45 AM tomorrow (yes: Sunday), and – even better – I finished them in time to watch Svengoolie tonight on METV while eating chili dogs and fresh-picked squash.

I might even take a hot bath, pet Covid the cat afterwards, and – who knows – I might even toot on FatBastard for a while. (you know: “pastime” type of stuff - that normal type people do in the evenings and on weekends) 😳😎
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Yvonne Monlaur: ooh la la 😍
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York-aholic
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Re: major announcement

Post by York-aholic »

I hadn’t seen anything about Covid the cat recently. Glad all is well.
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bloke (Sun Jul 24, 2022 6:33 am)
Some old Yorks, Martins, and perhaps a King rotary valved CC
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bort2.0
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Re: major announcement

Post by bort2.0 »

Paging @Three Valves ... Old school movie chick... :laugh:
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Re: major announcement

Post by UncleBeer »

Party time! :teeth:
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bloke
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Re: major announcement

Post by bloke »

OK...so I lied.
I went back and worked last night until around 11 P.M.
I started in on the next university's sousaphones.
They are (a few, each year) replacing a set of those old Dynasty (Weril) 4-valve sousaphones with some new ones, but are currently about half-and-half.

The factory Weril braces are all under-engineered, and (by now) most of the delicate body elbow braces (even on the "best" ones the school is still using) have failed. I get no response - regarding parts - when attempting to contact whomever it is that owns the Weril name now (and I have sent them emails in Portuguese, but responses were either nothing or vague), ...so I've long given up on them. I bought some sets of those slide-to-fit JUPITER sousaphone body elbow brace assemblies - from the Mt. Juliet folks - and installed them on to (hell...OK: "onto") the Dynasty/Weril instruments. Their geometry (in two or three ways) wasn't quite right, but I coaxed them to fit the Brazil instruments. Obviously, ALL of the broken braces on these Brazil instruments - now - must be "free-styled".

With no practical way to hold them in place while soldering them, I had to use a few tricks to get these on the instruments. By the time I did the third one, I had the whole operation (including the pre-work: stripping off the old flanges, cleaning up solder, cleaning the surfaces, and getting the surfaces dent-free) down to ten minutes. :smilie8:

The only "rewarding" part about this sort of work is the remuneration...although I do make a game out of seeing how quickly I can dispense with an instrument in need of repair (from dragging it into the workroom to setting it by the door - ready to load for delivery).
That's why it's called "work".
(Musicians should come up with some word other than "play" when it comes to creating music on their instruments.)

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bloke
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Re: major announcement

Post by bloke »

bort2.0 wrote: Sun Jul 24, 2022 12:05 am Paging @Three Valves ... Old school movie chick... :laugh:
back when they had a bit more meat on them, and they did NOT (via today's nearly-to-a-person plastic surgery) all look like the same generic "movie starlet".

Andrée Melly was also in this one. "Pretty", but not (as in TV/movies, these days) "generically" so:

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Three Valves
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Re: major announcement

Post by Three Valves »

bort2.0 wrote: Sun Jul 24, 2022 12:05 am Paging @Three Valves ... Old school movie chick... :laugh:
How did I miss this?? :hearteyes:
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Re: major announcement

Post by Heavy_Metal »

Three Valves wrote: Sun Jul 24, 2022 6:46 am
bort2.0 wrote: Sun Jul 24, 2022 12:05 am Paging @Three Valves ... Old school movie chick... :laugh:
How did I miss this?? :hearteyes:
Were you practicing?

:teeth:
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bloke
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Re: major announcement

Post by bloke »

I knocked out several sousaphones today, but I also ran some errands having to do with heavy equipment repair (ordered pulleys, bearings, and other parts arrived) as well as taking care of some plumbing repair in an outbuilding here at blokeplace. Simply installing an additional cutoff valve allowed me to delay a somewhat major repair, but gave me access to some pipe on down the line that needed to distribute water onto the property here and there. (A 30 gallon hot water tank - in an out building - epically failed…It was due, and I found a used one that belonged to a friend that’s only a 5 gallon. I realized that I rarely use very much hot water, and that it should do nicely - as well as save on the utility bill, so I’m going to swap out the 30 for a 5, when I get back from that trip. My friend sold it to me for $25 bucks. 😐 )

I also found out that the last two schools’ instruments are not needed until August 7th, so I’m going to keep pushing, but I’m not going to keep killing myself.

the trip to Wisconsin:
My Matrix is in really good shape now, but we are taking a relative with us, and they have a automatic transmission GM car that’s about the same size, is only a year old, and offers about the same gas mileage. In case we have to deal with a wreck somewhere or road construction, an automatic transmission is a lot easier on my left leg, so we will be taking that car.

I’m looking forward to getting the last of these piles of instruments back to the schools, and I suppose I’m eager to get paid for all of this work…but mostly I’m eager to have the burden off my shoulders for the summer. I end up being too tired to even shower at night, and then get up the next morning realizing that it’s time to do some more filthy work on some filthy instruments, and don’t really see the point of showering in the morning… so I’m tending to only really get clean every two or three days. I’m tired of being grubby all the time – except when I’m delivering instruments, or going to play a gig somewhere. According to the long range forecast, it appears that “global climate change“ might be coming to an end in a couple of days here, though – of course – we’re headed north where temperatures should range from about 59 to 79. 😎
I’m sure there will be some band directors who have emergency repairs, and a few others who didn’t even bring their instruments in for the summer who will want us to perform magic for them, but I don’t allow others’ lack of foresight to become my emergencies. I’ll do for those people what I can.
There are several nice instruments here that I would like to turn into money, and – as expressed in past threads – I sure would like to spiff up a few of my own as well. Last winter was pretty much a waste, so I’m going to try to avoid going under the knife again this winter. 😒
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Re: major announcement

Post by Three Valves »

Heavy_Metal wrote: Mon Jul 25, 2022 9:19 pm
Were you practicing?

:teeth:
Busted!! :red:

Yes, but not the tuba.

:tuba:
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bloke (Tue Jul 26, 2022 7:24 am)
Thought Criminal
Mack Brass Artiste
TU422L with TU25
1964 Conn 36k with CB Arnold Jacobs
Accent (By B&S) 952R with Bach12
The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column
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