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There used to be this repairman who would cut the bows in half, and then solder them together with a collar in the middle when he was done. Made the de-denting job much faster. NOT something I would suggest. I am sure a person with your talent would never even consider it.

Joe... do you have the fancy-schmancy articulated gizmo that Ferree makes to go inside the bow? I don't have one but have been thinking about buying one. Whatch think? Waste of money? .... or must have?

Yup! Those bows can be nasty alright. Especially the ones with a hard seam on the outside of the bow and LOTS of 'air' under the nickel guard. It's damned near impossible to get bad dents ironed out and get all the stuff to fit back together again. I can't seem to break under the six-hour mark on severe dent removal.

Rounding rings work quite well on the those thin bows. Thats what they used on them originally. Takes a bit of practice to get the hang of it and develop your technique but in the end, yields really good results in a reasonable time frame.

Dent machine, proper dent balls and rods, dent barrels, rounding rings, elbow grease, skill and a fair amount of "snap". Four hours? it can happen.

Speed, quality, price... Pick two.

Daniel C. Oberloh
Oberloh Woodwind and Brass Works
Seattle, WA
206.241.5767
www.oberloh.com

I don't know any other way than time and HARD work, if someone has a better way, I'd pay to learn it.

As I was working on my first tuba repair ( which just so happens to be my first tuba ) I ran into the trouble of getting to the dents in the smaller bows and the magnets not doing the job. So as I was pondering how to get to these dents in the smaller bows with long legs, my working on cars background had me thinking about a tubing expander. Ones like are used on muffler pipes, the smaller manual ones. Has anyone ever used or thought of using one of these I thinking if I could find an egg shaped one that I could snake down inside, that would be Ideal.

Like this: http://www.shop.com/MUFFLER_PIPE_EXPANS ... html?trk=7

These are a bear, no doubt. 3-4 hours is not unheard of.

We have a nice tool shaped well to get in these, but it's still time consuming. A dent machine works wonders on the straight legs, but ours cannot really get in the bow well.

Patience is the only real tool...

J.c.S.

Question: assuming these are school tubas and are going to go back and get beat up again, why make them "look pretty?" Like, why take the time and effort to buff out scratches etc? I can see getting the tubes back in shape so that they will play well, but I can't see spending a lot of time on appearance. Is it a matter of not wanting anything to leave the shop that looks sloppy, even though it is completely functional?

MA

At our store, it's usually by teacher request. We role our eyes and take their money, but we do try to tell them that very some thing (it's a big job, and we've got plenty to do!).

J.c.S.

I am a high school tuba player. I play (for another week or so ) a school owned Yamaha YBB-321. I don't really enjoy the daily experience of playing it. It is relativley new (2-3 years) it has a few tiny dents and the usual scratches. I take care of it like my own, but that is the exact opposite of my fellow tuba players at my school. They rarely oil their valves (if ever), dont look before they do anything (going through doors etc.), and wearing studded belts and such. It drives me crazy! Mostly because I know how much work you repairmen do and I want to be a band director. Now I have a new Miraphone 186 waiting for me in South Bend Indiana that I am going to protect with my life!

-sorry for the rant but I had to let it out