Non-fancy tools

[bloke]

Hey...

Someone could probably use a spoke-tightener to install Minibal (or knockoff) links, but - well - who would be so dumb as to do that?

[arpthark]

-hacksaw

-sandpaper

-Dremel (potentially fancy?)

I recently acquired a nice 1940s Olds trombone that was missing the retaining ring that holds the bell-to-slide connection nut on. Unlike a lot of trombones, the Olds nut is attached to the slide section instead of the bell section. Since the ring was missing, this one was also missing the nut. I got a donor nut from a same-vintage Ambassador (the junkiest of junk donors -- green, rotting slide and a very distinct odor). I sanded and scotchbrite-d the ring a bit to clean the green off, which also better matched the patina of the rest of the instrument.

The retaining ring was trickier. I didn't use the Ambassador as a donor because it seemed like that part was formed out of a single piece of brass and the dimensions weren't the same between the two horns. I ended up finding a random junk trombone tube piece that had the dimensions I needed, and I used a hacksaw to cut off the size I needed and filed it down a bit, sanded it, and used the Dremel to dial in the specific ID (off by a few tenths of a millimeter). Then I soldered it on.

The end result is a functional retaining ring that does the job and didn't cost anything except time. Now I just need to get better at aligning trombone slides and I'll be in business.

[bloke]

If you're talking about the tapered male insertion part (with the serial number stamped on it), yeah that un-solders.

Slide pliers can minimize marking it up when extracting it.

[arpthark]

If you're talking about the tapered male insertion part (with the serial number stamped on it), yeah that un-solders.

Slide pliers can minimize marking it up when extracting it.

I got the whole male part off the donor horn, but the ring wouldn't budge. I'll take a pic later if I think of it. I got it quite hot and had no luck.

[bloke]

From the insertion tip all the way back to that line just past the serial number is one part.

[MiBrassFS]

Slide tube alignment needed to be adjusted which included adjusting the slide crooks. Handy tool, again?

Drumsticks!

[bloke]

Slide tube alignment needed to be adjusted which included adjusting the slide crooks. Handy tool, again?

Drumsticks!

I get super high tech on that.. just unbelievably so, with computers, logarithms, algorithms, and all sorts of things.

In reality, I drop two or three football shaped dent balls down into the slide bow that are just small enough to drop in with no friction, I grab another dent ball that's just barely too large to go in to the bow, jam it in one end, another one that's just larger than that one to go in the other end, and I either squeeze the bow together or pull it apart until it lines up with the already nicely aligned outside slide tubes. After that (borrowing a saying from a laborer who was hired for the day on the bloke property one time) I "make it do what it do".