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Hi

I have a mechanical engineer friend who specialises in molded carbon fiber. If I asked him, he could probably make carbon copies (pun intended) of my Yamaha Ybb 632 valve buttons, most likely with screw molded into the part.

I play a lot of fast passages in Brass Band, so faster valves is always nice. I've adopted the Bloke method of oiling valves and they work well. But even faster would be better. I play this tuba several times a week.

My friend would probably only charge me the equivalent of $40-60USD to make one. I'm just wondering if I should bother.

Thanks

Ricardo wrote: ↑Sun May 28, 2023 11:50 pm Hi

I have a mechanical engineer friend who specialises in molded carbon fiber. If I asked him, he could probably make carbon copies (pun intended) of my Yamaha Ybb 632 valve buttons, most likely with screw molded into the part.

I play a lot of fast passages in Brass Band, so faster valves is always nice. I've adopted the Bloke method of oiling valves and they work well. But even faster would be better. I play this tuba several times a week.

My friend would probably only charge me the equivalent of $40-60USD to make one. I'm just wondering if I should bother.

Thanks

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding something but how might different buttons help? If it’s that they’re lighter then I’d say trivially so and that looking at spring optimisation might give gains. Other than that, and good lubrication plus cleaning, my thoughts are that reaction times and finger strength will optimise valve speeds.

$40-60 sounds reasonable. I think Bloke’s old lightweight buttons fetch about $200 for a set when they show up for sale.

One of my horns has MAW valves that are lightweight with the titanium stems and aluminum buttons. They are noticeably lighter in the hand than the stock pistons. This allows for that horn to use lighter springs which makes the action feel lighter (and faster) both ways. But this is a front action tuba where the spring only has to slide the piston forward, not up against gravity.

On a top action horn, you might see some improvement with lighter buttons. It’s tough to know without trying.

Yamaha buttons are already pretty darn lightweight, and - if you want to make them lighter - you can just mount them on a lathe - using a Yamaha valve stem - and turn the skirts off of them.

If you don't want to alter the instrument's original buttons, you can buy some so-called student Yamaha buttons and turn those down. You might even discover that you can turn down the tops of them thinner, but not too thin because the threads need some support.

The smaller objects become as part of a whole, the less significant their weight differences become due to the substances of which they are fabricated.

I don't know about embedding metal threads into carbon fiber and how long that would hold up. As to the cost of doing that, it's your money and your decision.

Ricardo wrote: ↑Sun May 28, 2023 11:50 pm My friend would probably only charge me the equivalent of $40-60USD to make one. I'm just wondering if I should bother.

I wouldn't buy a set without first trying one of them. Why have him make 4 if you know after the first one that you do t like it?

If a set of 4 is $40-60, then maybe worth a try, but I don't know if that's a lot of money to you or not.

If each one is $40-60, then it definitely doesn't sound worth it.

Do you have fast enough springs for what you are trying to do? How fast are you playing, anyway?

You guys are missing the most important part: the cool factor.

If they're really selling for that much, maybe I should crank out a bunch of them...
...but I doubt if there are 250 peeps who would pay that for a set...

YorkNumber3.0 wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 10:07 am

York-aholic wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 9:50 am You guys are missing the most important part: the cool factor.

Which is, of course, surprising because “tuba player” and “cool factor” are very commonly associated.

No, no, I think he meant "carbon fiber buttons are less warm than brass"

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 10:53 pm

YorkNumber3.0 wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 10:07 am

York-aholic wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 9:50 am You guys are missing the most important part: the cool factor.

Which is, of course, surprising because “tuba player” and “cool factor” are very commonly associated.

No, no, I think he meant "carbon fiber buttons are less warm than brass"

World class buttons?

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 10:53 pm No, no, I think he meant "carbon fiber buttons are less warm than brass"

Like lexan mouthpiece rims for really hot or really cold days. Don’t want to burn my delicate/sensitive fingertips.

Why would anyone forge something that’s already already a copy!?

windshieldbug wrote: ↑Tue May 30, 2023 7:34 pm Why would anyone forge something that’s already already a copy!?

so...They're carbon copies, then...??

(whoops...sorry...joke ALREADY used in the original post...I supposed I COPIED it.)