Most of this work – that doesn’t have to do with rebuilding pistons – is handwork, and is (as any other hand skills – including stuff like cutting in trim when painting home interiors or anything) just developed over the years.
Some of it can be done using a lathe or milling machine, but (often) setting up jobs to do them that way probably takes just as much time as doing them with the hand, the eye, and measuring tools.
Even piston rebuilding is probably more handwork than it is lathe and honing machine work.
I’m getting ready to cut off a bunch of slide tubes for this nutty bass trombone cimbasso project, and I would rather cut all of these out of thin metal tubing than cut some equivalent project (in some other craft discipline) out of wood (or some other solid material) because all of these only have to be cut to the correct length with straight ends - with the ends not having solid surfaces that need to be perfect planes all the way across.
I’m having to make these, because the valve section that I’m using for this project belonged to a school, obviously, and all of the slide tubes were (as discussed in another thread about repairing school tubas) maliciously destroyed.
This isn’t going to be all that difficult, because I’m just copying what was there and putting it right back where it used to be. I’m not having to repair anything that was torn up… All that stuff is going in the scrap brass.
Putting them on the valveset just involves using the calipers carefully and eyeballing coplanar aspects a whole bunch of times for each pair of tubes. It’s not that hard, and I can do it sitting down with the heater on and the radio going.
Straightening out bells and bows (belles and beaus…??) is not an art. It’s just a craft. All I have to do is put stuff back the way it used to be to the best of my ability. Anyone who says that repairing stuff is an “art” is either over-complementing themselves or overestimating someone else’s abilities.
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It’s really easy to get pigeonholed in this type of work, just as with being a musician.
I can play oldies on bass guitar, I used to be able to play cocktail-music-to-Bach-lute-transcriptions on six-string guitar, but most everyone knows me as a tuba player, and those who see me playing in orchestras think of me as a so-called “orchestral tuba player“, those who run into me at the rare polka gig think of me as a “ethnic music tuba player”, and those who work with me playing jazz gigs think of me as a “jazz musician”…etc.
I believe I’ve been pigeonholed (as far as a horn-fixer, nationally) as a “tuba specialist (but I have not been pigeonholed in this way locally). I’m not particularly fond of working on tubas.
A couple of days ago, I straightened out the bells flares on a set of four professional trumpets (the owner dropped his $600 “imported/ super-protective” case that didn’t do crap, as far as protection). I didn’t put a single scratch in any of the silver bells, they all look beautiful, it only took me 45 minutes total (part of which was looking them over and writing up the invoice), and I charged $180 plus tax.
Most importantly, I didn’t perspire, and I didn’t end up being sore.
I would very much like to be pigeonholed as a “trumpet repair specialist”.
A few days after they began working here, the new trombone visiting professor at the local university had their playing slide - on their “main squeeze” trombone - trashed by another visiting professor (who came into their studio to rehearse, and didn’t notice trombone laying across its open case). They were referred to me by “everyone” (even though I live an hour away from there - for reasons I’ve gone into many times), and I believe I put their slide in considerably better condition than it was before it was trashed.
I think some people in this business come up with gimmicks, so they can do nonsense/b.s. (again: stuff that doesn’t require perspiring or getting dirty or sore) and charge a lot for it. I’ve just never been able to bring myself to do any of that sort of thing…That’s just not me… and - particularly with with trumpet repair - there seems to be a ton of hocus-pocus and charlatanism.
Trombone slide repair should involve a lathe, but most people who do it don’t use one, which is puzzling to me. I don’t see how the hell they can determine that the tubes are straight without one.
Trombone slide repair is complicated and simple. All you have to do is get everything just right and everything works.
If a tube is not redeemable, it simply needs to be thrown in the scrap brass and replaced – (unless it’s going to be marched with and it’s “sort of sort of” is usable)…and even the trombone slide repair thing has people who try to present themselves as magicians and such. I think even one of them has copyrighted their gimmicky name, and it seems to have worked for them as far is attracting business. (I don’t see there being a problem attracting repair business. I think the problem is keeping a throttle on it.)
As far as machinery is concerned, I have a longtime friend who really got carried away with a Rube-Goldberg-ish woodwind fingering system for a particular type of woodwind instruments. They bought a ton of machines which each only do one specific job for that conversion - to avoid any setting up whatsoever. I don’t see that very many people have embraced that fingering system for that type of woodwind instrument. That person is well beyond retirement age, still working, and I don’t see them being able to sell their building and machinery for anywhere close to what they spent to purchase and set it all up and nor do I suspect that any of that stuff has really paid for itself over time… I think they’re wife inherited a house, and I believe they themselves have a school teaching pension and Social Security, so…
Mrs. bloke is a woodwind specialist, and ends up getting a lot of referrals due to her attention to detail. She and I work together on saxophones (and flutes…and bass clarinet necks and bells, etc… she really doesn’t want me helping her with repairing or refitting keys) when metal parts are distressed, worn, or both.
Were we more aggressive and tooted our own horn, we could probably take over most of the school repair work in the entire area…but we couldn’t possibly do all of that (we have a lot of it, which – more and more – has become “undestroying“ type of work), so - again – we have to be careful to throttle the demand.
“repair schools”
Do any of these still exist?
I just don’t think anyone leaves one of these types of experiences being able to do very much. I’m not sure that someone with five years of experience (thinking back about myself, at that time) is really competent enough at a whole bunch of skill sets required to do all this junk (at least not with instruments that “matter”). Ten years might, if someone is particularly diligent, clever, pays attention to details, and is not (as are so many, these days) a substance abuser. I’m still figuring out things and figuring out shortcuts. I get really tickled with myself when I discover a new shortcut, because I’m not particularly excited about doing this type of work – after doing it for 43 years.