Holton 345 Redux

[the elephant]

Okay. The brace is in the correct place. I spent some time cleaning up the mess; I am about 80% done. Only the more difficult details are left. I took down and reassembled the tuba four times now to make sure nothing shifts when I carry it around. It is *very* cool; the fit is great; no braces gap or fit too tightly, and when you set the valves into the four sockets there is no wobble. It just goes *doonk* and you tighten down the barrels.

I have more cleanup to do but might take tomorrow off. I also have to bend my leadpipe. The pistons probably need some work after spending over three years in a box. (read: I might have dinked up the casing knuckles. I hope not, but I am fully expecting to have to do some work to the valves.)

I have to add the 5th lever and do some alignment work to the 5th valve insert. Once all that is done I have to build a 5th slide section.

It never ends.

Here are your dirty pictures of a tuba…

Valve section…


Bugle with all eight brace sockets…


This is the outer half of the 4th slide. The detachable brace halves make this look a bit like the Eagle in
Space 1999…


This is the "dead tube" that is swapped in when I do not want to have a 5th valve (which might never actually happen). It is also the outer tube for the large side of the MTS that connects the machine to the bugle.


Horn is on its bell. The 1st slide is at the bottom and the inner 4th slide is up top.


Other side, this is the 4th slide.


Again, IT MAY LOOK THE SAME, BUT IT ISN'T. I promise.

[Tubajug]

Let me be the first to say: FANTASTIC!

Question: in the "Horn is on its bell" picture, the fifth one I believe? What does that detachable brace connect to at the top of the picture? It looks like it's just hanging out there.

[the elephant]

Look at the photo directly above that one. That is the "dead tube", which is the outer tube for the large side of the MTS. It connects the MTS directly to the bugle. It is removable separately, and its substitute is the 5th valve section. The 5th valve has the same, two braces on it. Since the MTS is the link-up point between the valves and the bugle I have that area a bit over-braced. (Or I will, very soon.) So the dead tube and the valve tube both have a brace connecting directly to the valve section and the bugle. On my Kurath F tuba when there is even a TINY shift in the valve section the MTS becomes immovable until I loosen and retighten all seven braces on that horn. Once that is done, the MTS moves normally. It is a PITA that I am about to address once I am done with this Holton.

Thanks for the question. It was a good one, I think.

[Tubajug]

Oh I gotcha. The dead tube and main slide just aren't inserted in that photo? Got it. Very nice!

[York-aholic]

Nice work. I'm sort of on the edge of my seat to see it finished and hear the pronouncement that it plays great, as it certainly looks great!

[the elephant]

I realized that I could still use my fun B&S MTS brace today. I am not sure why, but I have had that brace fairly married to the MTS crook it came with. I thought, "Oh, gee, I m not using that wide crook, so I can't use the brace, either." This was partially due to the brace having its feet hard soldered to the rod.

Oh, but wait…



So now that I have my cranial-rectal inversion corrected I got out the micrometer and I learned that the rod is metric. However, it is very close in size to the rod stock for the King brace feet I have been using on the slide tubes in the valve section. I think some hard sanding would make them fit perfectly.

I am out of those King brace feet at the moment, but I will be needing at least two more for the 5h slide circuit. Time to call Allide Supply…

Anyway, I have the two needed for this brace ON THE HORN right now. I need to pull that brace, measure the rod and replace it with the B&S one with the medallion frame. I am not excited about doing this, so it will happen later. Before it can happen at all I need to find a fun replacement for the B&S logo medallion.

I had thought of several things last year, but they all felt pretty ridiculous. Someone suggested my last name. Not bad, except that my last name is not the best sounding thing for a "label". One really fun suggestion was the Lucy the Elephant coin from the tourist spot in New Jersey. I am sure I could send them money, have them run a penny through, and mail it back to me. But I have never been there, so maybe not. (I like it, but I would want that tie to the giant elephant if I slap her likeness on my horn.)

Someone suggested my TF avatar that I started using in 2004 on TN. I like that, but it would not look so good in laser-etched nickel silver or copper or whatever. But tonight my wife was looking at the three-dimensional aspect of the B&S medallion and that it appears to be glass enameled. How about that? You can specify the colors used. So perhaps a nickel silver base (or a casting made from a computer scan?) with the same black and blue enameling.

I really like that. So maybe that is what I need to research, is a local enameler/artisan/free spirit. I think that may be what I eventually do.

As to the location, I like it on the 1st slide the most. I taped the medallion to several existing brace posts to see what something of that size and shape might look like. Most of them actually looked pretty decent, but I really liked it on 1st.

So as the girls above suggested, I need to cut off the feet to the right length. Then I can do the needed fitting to the brace sockets. (Then it can sit in a bag for three years while I slowly get around to having the enameler to his or her thing.)

Like this, but with my avatar image…








Like this, but shiny, glass and metal. Yes, yes, yes, it is truly a stupid tchotchke and needless expense, but why not, after all this work? And how much could it really cost me, after all?

[bloke]

Cloisonné

[the elephant]

I used that with a German and was "corrected" (as they are wont to do). He said they called it a "Medaillon" at the factory in Germany. So I have started calling it the English equivalent: medallion. I agree that the French "cloisonné" is a better fit for an enameled tchotchke like this. And then there is "tchotchke" with its fifty-nine spelling variations that IDGAF about, but there they are, and only one of them doesn't make my spell checker scream at me. It isn't even the one I want to use.

I hate words.

I need coffee.

[kingrob76]

I think a picture of Lucy Van Pelt would be MOST fitting...

[the elephant]

United Features Syndicate still aggressively controls the rights, and I do not want to have them crawling up my hiney. So if that were to happen it will never be documented online.

That being said, a small engraving below the Holton one on the bell of her being crabby and with "FUSSBUDGET" in the exact, same font as the factory engraving of "ELKHORN, WIS. U.S.A." (but much smaller, the whole image and word being about 2" across and 1.5" tall might be considered. Some day. But not in any sense that could be *actionable*. HAHAHA!!!

[kingrob76]

[bloke]

How about a likeness of Karen?

[the elephant]

I have enjoyed the last four days off. I got some things done. Today I spent five hours organizing all my tubing stubs by bore and separating all my various water key parts and bits of rod stock. It is all nicely bagged and boxed. For the first time ever I can easily locate anything I have. (I organized all the other new and used parts back in January.)

What do you want to bet that tomorrow I will not be able to find something?

BAHAHAHA!!!

[Casca Grossa]

How about a likeness of Karen?

She lives local to me, along with her ex. I see them out and about town on a regular basis.

[the elephant]

Are you guys joking about a generic "Karen" or a specific one?

[bort2.0]

You should definitely take the medallion and insert the "revised" version of the TubeNet logo (rainbow + pink gray black white etc).

[the elephant]

I thought that was held in reserve for those TubeNet thongs…

[bisontuba]

For an Elkhart Holton:

This


From this

[the elephant]

Thanks, but I just want to use my avatar image. Very cool stuff, though!

[bort2.0]

Thanks, but I just want to use my avatar image.

Speaking of which, what's the history of that?