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I should be picking over the valveset and sticking this thing back together today...but I'm beat from being out of town for two days...and (just now) looking at more school stuff and writing up more repair quotes.

I'm going to pick okra (if not picked every day, it grows WAY too large and tough) and take a nap...

I might take a look at this thing tonight...

I can tell it's going to be good; I believe I've solved all the problems...

again:
I'm glad that - when it was in a pawn shop in Memphis - I passed on it, and this customer bought it.
I'm thinking that I'm making just as much as I would have had I bought it, fixed it, and flipped it...and (had I bought it) I probably would have felt obligated to do some sort of half-refinish job before selling it...and - this way - I ain't doin' any of that.

I kind of messed around today, and then I stuck the valve section on. It went on very easily, and there's one brace to replace that wasn't there. It just is one of those small gauge braces just like on a 20K sousaphone with socket flanges with a little trapezoid shapes and that rod size that smaller than a quarter inch, so that's easy to match.

The main tuning slide now easily clears the bottom bow. I took dents out of various things on the valve section before I stuck it on the bugle, and also took all the dents out of the mouthpipe tube. It was not the easiest, but it was still quick - because I'm quick. Rather than putting bell braces on against the bugle, I mounted the mouthpipe where I thought it looked really good (which also lined up with original witness marks, which were not the same as the recent witness marks) and at the angle that I thought looked really good, and now that it's in place I'll go back and shop for two bell to bugle braces, because those were both busted anyway.

Once all that stuff's done there's a little cleanup. Everything is nice and brown on the inside, so I decided against a chemical clean. I got the pistons aligned properly. I'll play-test it, and report back as to whether this one is as stuffy as all 5J tubas, or whether it's not quite as stuffy.

An Ole Miss student came up at the tail end of the day with a really old refinished and re-silver-plated Bach trumpet - which had all of the aluminum valve stems corroded to the spring barrels and one valve spring was trashed. I did the minimum on his instrument, charged him twenty bucks, and sent him home. I told him to come back and we'll do the best we can with it later. (I have to take Mrs. bloke to Murderfuss for a meeting. )...

...You guys know how to free those aluminum valve stems that are seized to brass trumpet spring barrels don't you?

bloke wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 3:33 pm ...You guys know how to free those aluminum valve stems that are seized to brass trumpet spring barrels don't you?

Refer the customer to you...

York-aholic wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 7:43 pm

bloke wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 3:33 pm ...You guys know how to free those aluminum valve stems that are seized to brass trumpet spring barrels don't you?

Refer the customer to you...

If anyone has seized aluminum valve stems on a trumpet due to typical neglect and lime, send me a message and I will tell you how to get them out. You might even be able to salvage them using this method. I typically can reuse them if the aluminum male threads are not completely rotted away.

I found a couple of nice/proper-span bell-to-body braces (with round flanges - so more Conn-ish...and I really am not in the mood to repair the busted ones).

I came in to get the two busted-off water keys from the owner's tuba bag, to eat a late lunch, and to check messages.

I'll have it stuck together and play-checked before dinner (will take a decent m'piece out there, because the only thing out there to check tubas is some sort of 24AW knockoff), and hope that this 5J ends up being "gooder" than most.

' not sure what - from what I own - works best with a small-bore 7/8ths size tuba...
Helleberg...I guess I'll take a Chino knockoff out there...If I drop it, I won't have lost much.

Everything's mounted (other than the lower #3 slide tube brace to the upper bow, which was missing - but - again - I have the stuff to make up a matching 3-pc. brace assembly).

The blokepiece Solo with #0 back-bore (which does an effective job of preventing overfeeding this thing) wins the day...possibly small (old British) shank size, as both the receiver and mouthpipe tube are remarkably small. The Solo cup also helps counteract the too-throaty/too-covered type of resonance that these instruments tend to produce. Standard shank works OK-but-just-a-bit-different...

It is still "stuffy" but much more consistent (which means that someone could adjust to the INSTRUMENT, and would not have to adjust to goofball individual PITCHES), which is important, and defines it as more useful than typical (possibly just badly-aligned pistons?) 5J's that I've played in the past.

Seriously...It's about as "good" as an Old O-99-4 and (knowing what they tend to like - when they end up being B-flat players) an ideal trombone doubler's model (again: as with the Olds/Reynolds/Bach competitive-yet-defunct design).

This main slide - previously - was scraping (hard) against the bottom bow:
(Two of the water keys were in the case, as their bows were smashed in where their saddles were supposed to be soldered in place...so now: fixed (ie. technically addressed ). ...the saddle that someone re-soldered backwards? That weren't me, and - since it's lined up with the nipple well enough, I ain't redoing it. I have to believe that these water keys (which are very similar to King water keys) have been replace - on this model - with King water keys. I believe I like these not-King (Conn) water keys better than King water keys.

I STARTED ON the clean-up (so as to be able to collect the dough on this), but (note new threads) "emergency repairs: #1, #2a, #2b...

I swapped out the buffing wheel (too small, so too dangerous for tuba solder joint and heat oxidation cleanup)...I buffed on it for about three minutes, and in came the "emergency" sousaphone and bass clarinet repairs.

LOL...
Today was paperwork and help Mrs bloke Frankenstein not quite the right replacement Whirlpool generic dryer heating element into the back of the ancient Whirlpool dryer, as our heating element finally ended up with a coil that was burned in half. She has kept that dryer working - all by herself - over the decades, doing repairs as needed. Today she needed me to do some bending, drilling, Dremel grinding, and such, as the element that she purchased technically fits, but "not quite" at some of the little connecting places...

...and hell no, we're not getting suckered into buying a pair of multi-thousand dollar computerized whizbang can't fix at home machines. These do great, thanks just the same.

There's no new lacquer, and there's a bunch of original lacquer - particularly in/around the valveset.
The only reasons for polishing bare brass were to get rid of light dent removal tool marks, to check for dent removal shortcomings, to clean up solder joints, and to remove (red) oxidation from the brass (due to being heated).

This was not a "restoration", but was an "extensive repair".
There really are no longer any dents, but I didn't "blueprint" the slides; I only REPAIRED them...They only work about as well as they probably did from the Abilene factory.
The instrument's interior has a nice brown patina and no scale, so all I did in the interior was to scrub it out with a brush (no chemical cleaning).

The pistons are aligned properly, now.

To me (final decision), unless played with a shallow mouthpiece with a conservative throat size (such as my Solo with a #0 back-bore, and maybe even a British/small shank) it's pretty "stuffy"...but (again) trombone B-flat tuba doublers would probably (and probably do) love tubas such as these.

This is also (probably...??) all the money that should be spent on it. The owner's original cost (which I know, because I passed on it - several years ago, in addition to factoring in post-2020 hyperinflation interpolating that original cost) - plus this repair cost - puts the owner's total investment just about where "nice" ones of these tend to sell, price-wise.






The lower #1 and #2 slide bows were cracked...(same part for both applications).
They felt too thin and fragile for silver brazing, so I flowed some plumbing solder over those places, and shot those little spots with gold enamel.
I'm letting the owner know that I can order a couple of those and swap them out for $___, if they desire...more: if they want pull rings on either/both.

picked up, and left me a large bore F-attachment tenor
...typical repairs

- playing slide has hit bell rim
- small dent in the bell between the bell brace and the engraving
- playing slide receiver slightly cocked sideways
- case corner is busted
- F rotor linkage is mushy

What a beaut now!

thnx.

certainly not new-ish, but good-ish.

I probably could have cleaned up that mouthpipe insertion joint a little better...but it's been monkeyed with (clumsily) before, was a bit thin, and thought that little bit of extra solder wouldn't hurt anything.

It's a horn I'd totally replace the 12J with.

Speaking of soldering, I realized that both my tubas have this thumb ring with a kind of flat brass strip made into a ring. Usually fine, but I realized I put a lot of weight on the thumb when standing, even if my left hand and strap are holding the majority of weight. I think a rod made into a ring would be a much nicer upgrade. The current thumb rings are starting to break open the developed callus. Ouch. Going to have a new ring added to both horns.