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You may be mechanically incline and careful enough to take the rotors apart. But... I suggest that for the first time.. you take your horn to someone who specializes in such and pay him (or her) to let you watch.

I would echo what TubaTinker said...there's stuff that repair people know that a lot of normal players don't.

I can rewire, set up, do general maintenance, and even replace some neck-related issues (like position markers, rudimentary fret work, spot finish repairs, etc.) on electric guitars that take a great amount of patience and working in close confines and tolerances.

I can rebuild a Jaguar E-type motor from scratch, including setting the valve clearances which are measured in thousanths of an inch with a drawer full of seeming identical shims, which only vary in thickness on the order of closeness of tolerance to Johnson blocks, torque all bolts to a single pound of torque variance, using the factory tools and my ear literally "tune" with my ear the balance of the carburettors and the tension on the wheel spokes.

That said, I send my tubas out to qualified techs for anything that goes even a step beyond "normal" user maintenance. The combination of necessary tools and experience I do not have.

To quote Harry Calahan (Clint Eastwood) from Magnum Force, 1973: "A man's got to know his limitations."

bloke wrote:Believe it or not (though far from ideal choices of tools) rotors can be safely removed and reinstalled (excepting the obligatory screwdriver) with only these items:

Ain't that the truth!

and if I know what he used the steel punch for, he should have used something softer on the stem...because steel being stronger than the brass that the rotor is made of means that you will do damage to the rotor before you do any damage to the punch...

tubaguy9 wrote:and if I know what he used the steel punch for, he should have used something softer on the stem...because steel being stronger than the brass that the rotor is made of means that you will do damage to the rotor before you do any damage to the punch...

That was most likely what they call a 'pin punch'. ... a punch with a small end on it that extends to the bottom of the tapped hole in the end of the rotor shaft. That's actually a very safe way to 'bump' the back bearing plate out of the rotor housing.