TubaForum.net

No pictures, but I worked this weekend on rounding out the mouthpipe. I am working on my dent ball skills with this one. I am still not great at it, but I am improving.

I used Joe's method with the rawhide mallet on the rim and I think it helped it a bit, too.

Unsoldering the lyre holder from the mouthpipe revealed an unseen almost folded over/compound wrinkle. I am going to leave that one alone for now lest I really screw it up.

I'll add this to the pile of things that I can sort of do on my own and then take to my repair guy, whereupon he helps me with my methods and ensures I don't royally goof up.

Regarding that really deep mouthpipe dent under the lyre holder, after wiping off the solder, go ahead and buff off the last remaining solder from that joint on the mouthpipe, and there's a reason for this, but I'm not going to into that.

Since there's no real finish on this instrument that's worth saving at all, take a hot torch and anneal that small defined area. Then you should be able to pull your dent ball right past it. If it's super super deep, just work up from smaller balls to the one that's the actual size of the bore. You might have to anneal it a second time after pulling a few of them through there.

Okay. The reason for buffing away all of the remaining tinning of the solder on that joint is because - when you heat lead solder that hot - it sort of changes it's structure, and becomes a nuisance, so it's just best to rid the instrument of all of it, if an area is to be annealed.