student/marching Yamaha pistons heads-up

[bloke]

I just swapped top caps on a marching baritone piston (ruined junk-drawer piston had a good top-cap / otherwise-good piston had boogered stem threads in its top cap), and - when heating it, LEAD solder barely began bubbling out where the cross-tubes in the pistons meet the surface of the piston...

...so (probably) at least with the nickel-plated "student" Yamaha low brass pistons, the entire piston is lead-soldered together - no brazing.

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[bloke]

Seems like there were a couple of different versions of the low brass pistons over the years. Some of the latest ones I’ve seen feature gaps where those cross tubes meet the piston bodies. I thought to myself, “well, self, that’s something new.”

yeah...That's just crap, and I've seen it with the cheapie-cheap makes, quite often...
(If those pistons don't leak, it's a miracle.)

I also saw a bit of that with that small family-owned factory in Elkhart (located not far from the Conn mansion) - shortly before they sold their name to a jobber - a jobber that now has that name stamped on Chinese imports.