TubaForum.net

Looking great, Joe! Also, great news about your overhauled cat!

Yes, very happy to hear that your cat seems to be on the mend!

I just finished straightening the carriage rod and doing a temporary linkage mount. That stuff passed the smell test. I picked over the entire instrument just a little bit, finished removing slide dents and checking back over slide alignment.

I'm still hoping to final polish and shoot lacquer on this thing tomorrow. It's time to be done with it.

I really didn't feel like starting this property's epic mowing job today.
Fortunately, a kid and his mom (who live an hour away in north Mississippi near the Mississippi River) brought his French horn in which needed all sorts of braces and tubing soldered, linkage issues, bell creases, and so on. Because they live so far away, I just went ahead and did all that mess while they waited - even though they had to wait a couple of hours.
Having a couple hundred extra bucks is better than being sweaty with grass stuck all over my body.

Should have plopped the kid on the mower while you worked.

Since you’d likely have some unexpected zero turn repairs to do, perhaps keep an eye out for an old Gravely with 30” brush hog. I’ve got two (pretty uncommon this far west) that are both Kohler powered. They cut down and mulch just about anything it will push over.

Customers can run that for you while waiting on their repair.

Not me pictured below…

It's looking nice, but I'm still perspiring a little bit too much. (I took care of "bidnuss" stuff in the morning, and now it's in the low/mid 80's).

I'll probably finish polishing it in the morning...or (??) i can see about trying to finish it in the heat...I took a towel in there to wipe of my forehead (etc.)

Tomorrow morning could be light sprinkles (rain), but probably not.

I might post a pic or two of how it looks this afternoon (ie. shiny, but not gleaming...next-to-last stage of polishing).

bloke wrote: Mon Aug 25, 2025 2:00 pm It's looking nice, but I'm still perspiring a little bit too much. (I took care of "bidnuss" stuff in the morning, and now it's in the low/mid 80's).

I'll probably finish polishing it in the morning...or (??) i can see about trying to finish it in the heat...I took a towel in there to wipe of my forehead (etc.)

Tomorrow morning could be light sprinkles (rain), but probably not.

I might post a pic or two of how it looks this afternoon (ie. shiny, but not gleaming...next-to-last stage of polishing).

I'm not in a great hurry to retrieve the horn - the earliest I could make it to Tennessee would be Labor Day weekend in any event. If waiting for a better day to apply the finish would be better then by all means do so. After all, I'm results-oriented, not calendar driven. It's entirely your call, Joe!

I took a huge break and went back out around 7:30 or so and finished polishing everything.
Whether it gets lacquered tomorrow or not depends on a few factors, two of which are weather and motivation.

- It scares the hell out of me to lacquer complete-or-near-complete instruments.
- It scares the hell out of me - in particular - to lacquer tubas (runs/dust/sugar/etc.)
- It scares the hell out of me to lacquer large tubas.
- It scares the hell out of me to lacquer more valuable tubas.
- It scares the hell out of me to spray tinted lacquer.
- It scares the hell out of me to try to custom-mix lacquer (in order to come close to matching aged lacquer - such as remains on this tuba's valve section).
- It scares the hell out of me to spray tinted lacquer on tubas (runs that really show, as tint concentrated is not just a run, but a dark run).
- It scares the hell out of me to spray tinted lacquer on large valuable tubas (same reasons, amplified).
- It scares the hell out of me to lacquer anything, when I haven't done any lacquering for quite a few months (longer than that?)

The Binks lacquer gun had to be soaked in gasoline (sorta all slow-ish, if not rusty-ish).

I had to look through my lacquer to see what I had.
The "clear" lacquer was getting old, and had begun to "age" (had turned honey colored). This was actually an advantage, but it meant that I would have to factor than into my f'ing around with tints.

I also (to promote "old") went over the polished areas of the tuba several times with a large (hot, but like a paint brush, and not trying to actually do anything but get it barely too hot to touch) propane flame. Each time, the freshly polished areas became subtly darker, yet evenly so.

This is the best that I could manage. It's FAR from perfect. I have an ancient (though - ok - pro-grade) gun, I have a big-ass Devilbiss (used) compressor, I ain't got no lacquer booth, I ain't got no dust control system, I ain't got no climate control. I have NO training in this (only "knowledge from past disasters and successes"). I've ONLY learned how to mix lacquer, thinner, retarder, and tints (again) from trial-and-error.

I think it's pretty good. Someone else could do better...but maybe not a whole lot better.
This is not an "overhaul".
This is not a "restoration".
This is a REPAIR.

Tubas are hard...and scary.







I'll spray the finger paddles and the slides tomorrow.
"Out this big-ass sliding door is really the only place that I have where I can shoot, and just want this tuba to set right there and "rest" for a bunch of hours.

something I tried for the first time, today:
refilling disposable 14 oz. (dark green) Bernzomatic propane bottles off of my gas grill's refillable propane jug (via a gadget that my friend bought for me as a gift). It works! (I was O-U-T- OUT! of propane, and I ALWAYS have a propane torch handy (when lacquering) in case of blushing. ...so you think I'm crazy, and that pulling water vapor out of wet lacquer with a propane flame is a "death wish"...?? Maybe it is, but I'd RATHER BE DEAD than to have to strip and RE-RE-LACQUER a tuba. (btw...I didn't have to do this, today. I added just enough drying retarder - good guess - for the amount of humidity in the air...It's actually pretty damned ideal anyway...It was probably c. 75°F and 52% humidity - when I was out there spraying. Finally, I may not have much of the $h!t that I SHOULD have, but DO have an inline dryer installed....SCFMs...?? What the hell are those...??)

When I was working as an aircraft mechanic I was always pretty mediocre at spraying.. The ship I worked was about 50% corporate keys and flight school and 50% dope and fabric restoration and re-covers.. Nitrocellulose dope is pretty similar to lacquer... The guy who did most of the painting was like a wizard... he always used a heat gun instead of propane to deal with spot blushing . also the hanger wasn't air conditioner so he would have propane heaters going full blast in the booth to bring down the relative humidity by raising the air temperature instead of pulling out water...

There loudest I've ever heard anyone curse.. was when someone used silicon spray lubricant in the shop right before he sprayed the final coat of clear... In the two minutes it took him to get his mask and coveralls on after the final clean and prep but before he actually started spraying... The whole project fish eyed all to hell and weeks of work had to be redone.... all at the shops expense of course..

Nicely done... Being scared is a testament to the fact that your mama didn't raise no fool.

Looks fine to me. I wouldn’t throw it in a dumpster.

WOW!!! That looks GREAT!!

Looks fantastic! Serious: do you not worry about the lacquer getting on the rotor bearings?

Only ever watched my mentor lacquer trombones, and usually just spot jobs on the bell.

Wow, Bloke, just wow!!!

Seeing these pictures BEGS for a posting of two BEFORE pics...this is amazing!

And we won't even mention the bell...

Bravo, Sir!

The new old stock bell had several little bumps in it - from being stored and loose for years and years (including after I acquired it, though I put it up on the high shelf in my bedroom closet).

You'll be able to see where they were. I didn't take a file and sandpaper to any of them. I just don't do that, but I did the best I could with each of them.

There's a few little pinpoint dents that I didn't quite get completely removed in really remote areas - dents that would have required a whole bunch of disassembly/reassembly/unsoldering/resoldering/burned lacquer/etc. There are also other minor imperfections as well. It's a repair.

This instrument was originally a 1971 instrument.
I have no idea what year the new/old stock bell was made, but it was made before they enlarged these bells from 16-1/2 inches to 17-3/4 inches.

bloke wrote: Wed Aug 27, 2025 9:11 pm The new old stock bell had several little bumps in it - from being stored and loose for years and years (including after I acquired it, though I put it up on the high shelf in my bedroom closet)...

Well, the OEM bell on the horn had a few "imperfections" too...

Ah, just a few bumps

BramJ wrote: Thu Aug 28, 2025 11:48 am Ah, just a few bumps

I think he buffed them out nicely!

arpthark wrote: Wed Aug 27, 2025 7:22 pm Looks fantastic! Serious: do you not worry about the lacquer getting on the rotor bearings?

Only ever watched my mentor lacquer trombones, and usually just spot jobs on the bell.

I didn't spray very much on the interior. I actually tried to stay away from there, as 95% of the interior (small bows and valve section) lacquer was saved and not stripped. I did run my thumb around the centers of the bearings while it was still wet. I used to keep the rotors removed and ad lib with masking tape and stuff like that, but what keeps lacquer out of the casings better than the rotors and the bearings?

... I guess I could have put a little piece of tape over the centers, but - again - I chased the centers with my index finger.