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Jinbao rotor caps: only if someone knows for sure, please

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2023 4:29 pm
by bloke
Are these solid nickel-brass alloy, or are they nickel PLATED ?

(If they are nickel plated, I have one that I would love to strip down to brass.)

Re: Jinbao rotor caps: only if someone knows for sure, please

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2023 4:49 pm
by the elephant
Mine were plated. This does not mean all of them are plated, though.

You need to perform the old scratch test on the inside face, or maybe look carefully at the threading. The threads on one of mine were re-chased at the factory after having been plated. (They were probably too tight and out of spec.) The brass was clearly visible within the threads.

Just remember to not strip the threads of their plating (if yours proves to be plated) because they will then be quite loose.

How would you strip the plating? (Just curious.) If it is something I can replicate I could try to strip the one example I have and let you know what happens so you don't have to ruin yours.

Re: Jinbao rotor caps: only if someone knows for sure, please

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2023 5:40 pm
by bloke
Muriatic will strip it. It's probably a good idea to thin it out with some distilled water, and it can probably be sped up by putting a small percentage of hydrogen peroxide in it.

Since there's no urgency though, the practical answer is to send it to Anderson when I have some mouthpieces or other things to be plated.

I don't see Jinbao putting enough plating on anything for the threads to be affected that much. I'd probably be just as happy if it were ever so slightly easier to remove, because once I'm to the end of the threads, it's going to be tight anyway.

With the Holton B-flat I stuck together, I went ahead and used a Jinbao rotor, because I had some of them. I picked through several. It's just that it's nearly the only thing on the entire instrument that's nickel colored other than the thumb ring, which I wouldn't want to be made of brass.

completely unrelated:
Messing around with the compact Holton B-flat (with an 11/16 inch bore size) in the very low range - and for not all that long - vastly and suddenly improved my ability to play easily in that same range on the really big Miraphone B flat, yesterday. ...Whodah thunk it?