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"We need this gigantic pile of instruments back in a month.

Oh yeah...These are used outdoors by children under 25 years old, and are (of course!) bright silver plated.

I'm sure you round up all of the replacement parts for even the $13,000 silver plated ones and get them right back here all fixed up...

You're the greatest, bloke !"



...so (now: living in a second-world country - quickly descending to third-world) I'm needing a replacement bright silver plated lower mouthpipe tube (this one: twisted and crushed) for a $10,000 sousaphone.

' anyone think they're in stock and ready to ship, right now?



...so this is what they get:

The cracks on either side of the last turn are silver-brazed back together, and the twists and folds are repaired "to bloke's satisfaction" .

Did the silver plating blister?

Of course, it did.

Did they also put some 1" - 2" deep karate chops in these 1 - 3 year old instruments?

Of course, they did.

Hey...
At least, I was tricky enough to leave the lower mouthpipe receiver and that arch/pretend-brace thing in place, so this is all that has to be soldered back on.

OK...On to the last three, and this kollij is DONE.

Today, I silver brazed cracks in two more of those 20K lower mouthpipe tubes (as shown in the previous post).

If if anyone is familiar with the ring and arc bracing method on these, they may have seen the 1/4” drilled out ring that is silver soldered to another ring around the mouthpipe receiver - and (yup) busted loose. Today, I was able to silver braze one back together without loosening any lead solder joints. Boy did that save a lot of time !!!

On the subsequent pair of 20K lower mouthpipes, I not only brazed the cracks shut, but also floated a whole bunch of silver braze material around that entire area - probably adding about 50% thickness for strength.
Yes, I further messed up the (already messed up) silver plating, but it is in an area that is really not seen by anyone - other than the user, and I’m hoping that I made those upper curves on those things strong enough so as they will hold up better to future moronic abuse.

Theoretically, I could’ve floated even more silver braze material, sanded it, and polished it… and it might’ve even sort of looked yellowish-silver… but who’s going to want to pay me to play those games?