TubeNet

I am interested in fixing up old tubas. But where do I start? Are my options of places to look limited to ebay? Does this cost a lot?

I suggest you look down this list and get in touch with Tubaing. He seems to be a very resourceful young man and I bet he could answer your questions. Good luck. Tools are expensive as is your time.

Chuck

Look at schools when they sell off surplus band equipment, that is where most of the ebay fixer uppers come from. Most school districts use auction houses to sell their old surplus. Find out which auction house your local school districts use to sell their stuff and keep an eye out for tubas. Cut out the ebay middle man, and save some money. Also look in estate sales, garage sales, flea markets, etc...

Maybe you could see if your band director has an old roach in the back room.

Ebay is a good source but not necessarily cheap. I'm guessing if you just keep your eyes open, you might find what you want.

It used to be cruising estate sales and antique shops. ebay has taken over a lot of estate distribution now, but I imagine that the old ways still work, too, just maybe not quite as productively. Try repair shops for things even THEY don't consider worthwhile, espescially for practice.

Or steal bloke's mailbox...

It's a lot of foot work, but it can be done.

As a general statement, start by researching and reading alot.

Another often overlooked aspect of repairing/restoring is safety. There's nothing like having your lungs feel like crap because you've inhaled lead and acid all day.

Chuck Jackson wrote:I suggest you look down this list and get in touch with Tubaing. He seems to be a very resourceful young man and I bet he could answer your questions.

I use magnets to take dents out of the body.
http://www.magnet4less.com/product_info ... cts_id=222
http://www.magnet4less.com/product_info ... cts_id=151
I use a plastic (no rubber or metal) headed hammer to roll out dents in the bell. Plastic doesn't scratch up the bell too much and it does slide easily so it works very well for me.
http://www.steveweissmusic.com/category/chime-mallets
Flitz Metal Polish
I get all of my inexpensive tubas on eBay.
(The 4 instruments on the right in my signature were bought for less than $150 each)

Good Luck!

Those Magnets are really powerful enough to take dents out of the body?

Richardrichard9 wrote:Those Magnets are really powerful enough to take dents out of the body?

Yes, but not on all tubas. Some have metal that is just too thick; such as my Buescher. And even then, I can still "bang" the dents out with the magnets.

nmtom wrote:Tubaing, you are my hero. I had thought of just getting some magnets and giving it a shot but it took your post to get me to do it. I can't wait to play around with them.

As to using the plastic hammer to "roll out" dents, do you just get on the protruding side and rub the hammer back and forth over the area? I have found it surprising how little info on working dents in brass I have found on the Internet.

Have fun but be safe! Always have a durable cloth under the cylinder magnet otherwise you WILL get some nasty scratches in the brass (experience.) Be careful with the magnets, they can chip fairly easy and can pinch pretty hard.

With the hammer, I rub out the dents with nothing on the other side of the brass.

nmtom wrote:As to using the plastic hammer to "roll out" dents, do you just get on the protruding side and rub the hammer back and forth over the area? I have found it surprising how little info on working dents in brass I have found on the internet.

Hopefully these pictures will help.

http://tinyurl.com/2jmdrk
http://tinyurl.com/37xh2a
http://tinyurl.com/3dc7pb

Those Magnets are really powerful enough to take dents out of the body?

When you get into the 2 t0 3 inch N50 magnets, they get powerful enough to cause a dent from the inside out.

Another suggestion: don't limit yourself to tubas, euphoniums can be found cheaper & are easier to handle.

Tubaing wrote:Another suggestion: don't limit yourself to tubas, euphoniums can be found cheaper & are easier to handle.

I was actually considering Euphoniums. So just in case I mess up really badly (which I am not anticipating *crosses fingers*) I wouldn't have wasted as much money.

I've found that those size magnets Tubaing provided the links to are just entirely inadequate to do the job. Way to weak. I have the 1" ball he recommends and a BIGGER disc that he listed and it still wouldn't even come close to getting the dents of the bottom bow of my 11J. I now have a 2 1/2" steel ball and a 362lb pulling force magnet and it barely has the strength to smooth the dents. I'm going to get a 500+ lb pulling force magnet next to see if that will do the job.

They also make a roller to smooth dents on bells, that will be even more forgiving when is comes to not marking up the lacquer. I've made a bell curve template out of wood and use a rolling pin to smooth the creases.

NDSPTuba wrote:I've found that those size magnets Tubaing provided the links to are just entirely inadequate to do the job. Way to weak. I have the 1" ball he recommends and a BIGGER disc that he listed and it still wouldn't even come close to getting the dents of the bottom bow of my 11J.

Where are the dents? If it's in a guard, yes, you are going to need a much stronger magnet. I never said these can fix all dents.
What "N" strength do you have? Was the ball also a magnet?

I don't know why it didn't work for you.

It defiantly works for me most of the time.
Here is some of my work from 7th grade (with help from my dad) using those magnets. This is to show what the magnets can take out.
Before
http://tinyurl.com/2mq7c2
After
http://tinyurl.com/3yfxb9
We had to take off the bow guard to remove the dents. We did not use magnets on the flare, and of course the magnets did not polish it.

That one looks nice. What did you use to polish it? It almost looks relaquered .

I have removed the guard so it isn't in the way for dent removal. I have 3 different types of balls. A 1" steel, 3/4" Magnet, and a 2.5" steel. My puller magnet is a N52 with 362 lb of pull force. The only combo that does a good job of getting the dents out is the 2.5" ball with the bigger puller magnet. And even then I have to prepare some of the dents with a hammer, smoothing the dent out to get rid of sharp creases. My first "puller" magnet only had 150ish lb of pull force and it didn't do a thing.