school repairs strategy/mindset

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[bloke]

I know all about it and I know not to heat it, because that's really really bad. I also know that accidentally dropping it on aluminum foil or can cause a fire. I just don't like the stuff. My wife uses it on really critical adjustments on woodwinds occasionally, because she can still break it loose.

Yeah, probably don't use it to glue pearls on those lightweight aluminum buttons from Indiana, unless you're sure that the part underneath the pearl is well anodized.

[Cameron Gates]

I simply toss the fingerbutton and pearl on the woodwind guy’s bench and he shellacs.

Maximum use of available resources.

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[bloke]

I'm not telling anyone else what to do...not at all...
I just leave that mess in Mrs. bloke's ww workroom.
(Oh yeah...I don't allow it in the house.)

She has been known to use that stuff on damaged plastic bodies of store-brand Chinese or last-legs clarinets, but - otherwise - I'm pretty sure she always does tone hole, riser, and tenon (counterbored) grafts (unless she pulls an intact (preferably same-make, unless off-brand anyway) joints out of the epic (freezer-sized) "clarinet joint box" (which makes tons more sense than either doing machine work or b.s superglue work on plastic clarinet joints).

There is an issue with major repairs of plastic clarinets (even name-brand)...
They just aren't worth all that much $$$.

I don't believe she's ever applied super glue to a plastic oboe joint...not even Bundy/Linton.

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[bloke]

I'll tell Mrs. bloke to watch the video.

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[bloke]

Whether glue, chewing gum, or duct tape...

I got a pretty sizeable delivery dropped off today.

The frustrating thing is the 30 - 45 days (assuming the band director does what they're supposed to do) to get paid.

I know they (employees of academia) don't care about the money (it's not their money) - and only care about the repairs...and only care about the repairs until they're done...but taxpayers could save a LOT of money were it not for quotes, pre-hyperinflation invoicing limits, b.s. payment delays, and requiring the repair services to double as delivery services when every school system has their OWN people (with system-owned trucks of various sizes) who transport things around to/from here/there.

There are a few band directors who were taught by their parents to be considerate of others...and get their invoices turned in on the SAME DAY they receive them... Guess whose repairs (even if absurdly difficult) are done before everyone's else?


...the stuff I do for them...
People drive c. 1100 miles to/from here (2200+ r/t) to have me do A HELLUVA LOT EASIER stuff for them.
(This is a whole bunch like inept orchestra Exec. Directors viewing the musicians as "the help"...I believe band directors have some idea of the skills required, but - the people at "the board" - not so much.)

yeah...We'll just have to quote you on a new one.

[Cameron Gates]

""""""but taxpayers could save a LOT of money were it not for quotes, pre-hyperinflation invoicing limits, b.s. payment delays, and requiring the repair services to double as delivery services when every school system has their OWN people (with system-owned trucks of various sizes) who transport things around to/from here/there.""""""""

When I applied for my current job with a school district I had visions of this very thing: a magical truck that traverses the city picking up stuff for me to do. It was just a dream.

I have to do every pick up and delivery. However, now that I do that task I would not want it any other way. I get to visit with the directors and see the state of their programs. This info serves me well when assessing the original point of this thread: excellence for a few or good for many.

If a program is a zoo I tend to repair knowing I will see the same horn in a month with the same problem. Buffing/clean up/attention to detail suffer for these programs. Conversely, the non-zoo programs get more refinement. This is the only way I can get through each requested instrument in a year. It may be unfair but thems my rules. And the rules work here. Sorta.

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[Cameron Gates]

Uplifting news:

Today a did a drop off / pick up at the premier HS band program in town. They have 3 MW 25’s that are about 12-15 years old. Each is in great shape. Just this small observation put me in a good mood all day. Picking up the marching baritone later on at another HS that was smashed, and I mean SMASHED by a wind-toppled on field marching band prop didn’t phase me. I was happy about the 25’s.

It’s the small things.

Depressing news:

One MS cleaned out their equipment room and handed me everything. 15 junk bones, 5 crappy King French horns with charred lacquer and old oxidized solder oozing out of most braces and joints (with dents under 50% of the braces), and about 8 old nasty baritone things (4 of which are “silver” 2280’s with no intact braces and horrific bottom bows).

Can’t wait to get on this stuff.

[bloke]

Cameron was talking about French horns with burned lacquer and stuff. There's a middle school that has several of those King double horns that are just about the same thing as a nickel Eroica, but are brass. I think the model number might end in 69 or something like that - 2269...???) and maybe they are called Fidelio...?? (They are fantastic horns, and I'm really tired of people who say that 5th and 6th graders need double horns, and that the taxpayers need to buy them). When they first had them, I would spend time removing that really difficult to deal with lacquer that King used in the past, and try to match the color of it and all that stuff, but they kept tearing them up and tearing them up and tearing them up and tearing them up, and it's been the same band director all these years. I think band directors need to get up out of that chair that sitting on the podium and walk around the band room a whole lot more than they do - and particularly supervise getting instruments out of their cases and putting them back in. After a certain number of years, I just took 250 grit sandpaper, cleaned up the solder joints, went back over with 600 grit sandpaper, probably hit rattle can lacquer on those places, and stuck them back in the cases. (Neither that band director nor those careless children are deserving of me getting buffing crap all over myself and being super careful in the buffing room on delicate portions of french horns, based on how those instruments are treated.)

By the way, it's a damn shame that those two King models are discontinued. They were pretty amazing and probably the very best double horns for students and some professionals. Even though they never never never oil those rotors, they're still in pretty good shape.

[Cameron Gates]

I will check on the model number of these King french horns. I think I have seen them maybe marked "Bach". Maybe?

This school district has 100's of these along with 100's of 6D's. Very few Yamaha horns.

[iiipopes]

I can't remember the philosophical expression, but it has to do with

[A] doing considerable good for MANY
~ vs ~
doing extraordinary good for FEW

Could you be referring to the Spock quote out of Wrath of Kahn? "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."

[bloke]

...LOL...I don't believe the star trek script-writers were quite "thoughty" enough to have come up with that concept on their own...
...and I have 0/10,000,000 star trek quotations memorized (or even "able to be recognized").

[bloke]

OK...
I'm doubling back to a school that gave me a p.o., but (mostly) this stuff is for July band camp...

I forgot how much I like working on (almost no longer found at schools) Pan American (aka 14K) Conn sousaphones.

They fix quick and sound great.

This one was beat up, pulled apart, lower-mouthpipe-F.U.B.A.R.-ed and (even) the female bell collar was doing a dance.

Some things that make me SMILE are:
Whenever this one was straightened out buffed and silver plated...
- Hardly any metal was removed.
- It's obvious that they spent the money to send the valveset off to have Dave Secrist rebuild it. (Yes, it's easy to tell that the work was done - and that he did it - DECADES later.)

I'm calling this "done" (ie. "repaired 'good' ")

Shamefully, I do use (below other shop's high standards ) earth magnets.
I like not pulling stuff apart and wasting time doing equal-grade "good" work - particularly since the first thing the young scholars are going to do will be to put 60% of those dents back in the instrument in the first week of band camp.

NEXT !!!






silver sousaphone bells:
After straightening them out, I hit an 8" center-sewn wheel (c. 2400 rpms / 2 hp) with yellow rogue, and run around the flare (only) inside-and-out in about 5 minutes. This is better than when I opened the case, and - seriously - the young scholars should be shining up their OWN silver sousaphones...not a poor ol' bloke.

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[Cameron Gates]

I played that model in college. I dug it out of an instrument storage room and kept it for 5 years while everyone else played the new sousaphones (new at the time). I loved that horn so much I was prepared to take it as my own graduation present. The girlfriend at the time talked me out of it.

I never really liked her.