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I have some nice big Czech coins to put on my piggy's rotor paddles. My fingers tend to slip off at unopportune moments, so I need a little more grip. What's the best method of doing this? I've heard of epoxy and soldering. Can it be reversed if needed?
Thanks,
Ike

I have no idea about epoxy, but if they're soldered on, it shouldn't be too hard to remove or adjust as long as someone competent with a torch is doing it. I'll assume that the main part you're worried about is the horn, not the coins...
To do anything, you need to remove the paddles. To reverse, remove the coins, wipe off the solder, and then buff the paddles back to original. (the coins can be done the same way, so they'll still be legal tender, just not untouched collector material)

If the paddles are chromed and smooth the epoxy should come off with a razor blade.....I'll pop one of mine off tonite to check the theory. Getting the epoxy off of the coins will be much harder.

clean the paddles and the coins thoroughly with acetone, dry them, and then use superglue, if you are sure you will never want them off again. Cheap, easy and durable, and no scraping, soldering or other time consuming prep or wait required - just the 24 hour drying time for the superglue.

Did a quick and dirty test in the lab with my chromed staple remover. The epoxy will come off by just lifting the edge of the adhesive with a razor.

As for super glues: they will work, but they work best when the surfaces are smooth or matched. In large amounts, the cure time is greatly increased (can take up to 24 hrs). Also, super glues are indeed harder to remove when cured (hey, you may want to change the coins on the horn someday). Another very important point about super glues is that they have a shelf life of about 1 year to work their best. In large amounts (like to adhere a coin) old super glue may not work at all and you will have a big mess on your hands. Epoxy is durable and there are some formulated to work in as fast as 3 minutes. There is also no danger of sticking your fingers together using epoxy

Tubaryan "I get paid to glue stuff together all day" 12

Ok...I popped one of the pennies off and it came off with no trouble at all. I just stuck a razor blade under the edge and gave the blade a twist. It had been glued to the horn for about 10 months and would have been there much longer if not for this test. There is glue on the paddle. It's a very thin coat that could be removed with a NEW razor blade to prevent scratching to the paddle or with plenty of scratching with a thumbnail or perhaps softened up a bit with an adhesive remover. No need for me to remove the residue because I will just glue the penny back on in the same place.

I soldered 1974 German 1 mark coins on my Meinl-Weston F a number of years ago. They looked great and were an EXACT fit on the [Boehm & Meinl] valve spatulas that Meinl-Weston and a number of German manufacturers use. However, 1 Mark coins were heavy enough to actually add enough weight to offset the valve speed. I removed the coins a couple of years later and could actually notice a difference. I assume the Czech coins are lighter, but you may want to tighten your valve springs to compensate should you notice the same result. I can only agree that Czech coins are the "natural" choice. If you aren't too concerned about cosmetics, taking a hacksaw and "scoring" ridges in the valve paddles (some French horns come equipped with ridges in the paddles) is a practical and effective solution. I agree this may look crappy, but it won't impede valve speed. The coins will LOOK much cooler, and epoxy will do the job as well as solder without facilitating removing the spatulas. Just curious, which Czech coins are you using?

As for coins, I was given 4 of these by a friend whose wife is Czech and goes home often:

http://www.cnb.cz/www.cnb.cz/en/czech_l ... 50czk.html

Ike

I tried to stick a Lyre holder onto an old trombone with epoxy. It worked for a while and then suddenly fell off. For that reason I would go with solder. I would NOT use silver solder because the spatulas are attached with silver solder and you don't want them to fall off while you are attaching the coins. Regular solder has a lower melting point and is strong enough to do the job.
If you do use epoxy and decide to remove it later, benzene is the solvent of choice. But be careful because benzene is flammable AND carcinogenic.

I have soldered coins on tubas and horns using soft solder with no problems without removing the spatulas. When removed, the solder residue can be polished off. Just follow the usual solder procedures.

Just have the finger buttons soft soldered in place. It's worth paying a repairman for an hour or less of his time to make yourself more comfortable.

I withdraw my suggestion to use super glue to affix the coins to the paddles. Please see Matt's thread regarding the health hazard effects of using super glue to repair or modify brass instruments.