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I just bought an old Eb tuba that needs some soldering, cleaning and several dents taken out. Some are large around the bottom bow, others are in the slides and are much harder to reach. I know some large magnets would work for the magnets on the bottom bow (any suggestions) but how would I get the dents out of the leadpipe/slides?

Dent work is not "do-it-yourself." By any stretch of the imagination. You need the proper tools (quite expensive) and years of dedication and training. Magnets are mostly ineffective in nearly all cases and an unfortunate result of our impatient society.

Take the horn to a good repairman and get it fixed correctly.

For dent work and soldering, take it to a repairman. Those themselves are "arts" of themselves in the repair field. Yeah, dent magnets work when used right, but used wrong, will do more damage than good. As I heard another repairman say today at the clinic, every tool we use can ruin a horn. And that's no joke.
yes, you can clean a lot of it yourself, but you don't have the chemicals to do a chem clean.
Seriously, the tech will most likely follow this order...
Clean it
repair dents
fix solder joints
my theory behind that, is that a horn has to be clean to get the dents or the crud on the inside will show on the outside. Then, to solder, things have to fit right. If they don't, the solder will look horrible.
But yeah...it's worth it to have it done right

Perhaps I should have clarified, this was a $75 "project horn."

Got a picture of it?

Dent magnets will cost you $350 for the cheap set. For dents in the leadpipe, the leadpipe tool is likely around $200. You would need dent balls for that. Which would run anywhere from $300 to $650. For slides and stuff, you'd want some dent rods, which could run you $400. With a different set of dent balls. Will be $100...and there's more that I haven't mentioned.
I forgot to mention that doing it yourself would be more expensive too...cheapest stuff would be rolls of solder and cans of flux, or a $20 hand torch

Bob Kolada wrote:Got a picture of it?

Here are some pictures that I got (over email) from the seller when I was looking at it.

I am not sure how to load them onto here, so I will link my Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48118193@N04/" target="_blank" target="_blank

And the bow would have to possibly be pulled to get the dent near the guard...

Rochester2013 wrote:I am not sure how to load them onto here, so I will link my Flickr.

You can't figure out how to upload pictures on this site, but you want a TubeNet lesson on "do-it-yourself" dent repair? Not likely.

Listen carefully, please. Dent repair is not easy or inexpensive. Anyone who tells you otherwise or tells you that you can do it yourself is yanking your chain. Either spend the money to have it done right or live with the dents. Your choice.

I'd love to hear where you can purchase horns like this for $75. That was an excellent deal for a pretty nice looking little horn. Even after spending the money to get it restored properly you will likely be way ahead.

Todd S. Malicoate wrote:..... Magnets are mostly ineffective in nearly all cases and an unfortunate result of our impatient society.....

Where in The World did you hear/read THAT!

TubaTinker wrote:

Todd S. Malicoate wrote:..... Magnets are mostly ineffective in nearly all cases and an unfortunate result of our impatient society.....

Where in The World did you hear/read THAT!

Ok...a bit over-dramatic and exaggerated. ALL magnets aren't ineffective...just that damn Dent Eraser thing.

Better?

Todd, a big fan of the Ferree Z60

bloke wrote:A friend of mine used to like to pull the wool over the eyes of folks who had no clue and explain to them how to fill up their tubas with sand and compact it with the end of a baseball bat to remove bottom bow dents...

So...your advice is to NOT pound sand?

Todd S. Malicoate wrote: I'd love to hear where you can purchase horns like this for $75. That was an excellent deal for a pretty nice looking little horn. Even after spending the money to get it restored properly you will likely be way ahead.

Craiglist. I thought it was/is a fairly nice horn. It is a Conn with the initials "USQMC" on it (standing for United States Quarter Master Corp?) I have not been able to find an appropriate date yet. The serial is "150100" as far as I can tell, anyone have any idea?

Todd S. Malicoate wrote:

TubaTinker wrote:

Todd S. Malicoate wrote:..... Magnets are mostly ineffective in nearly all cases and an unfortunate result of our impatient society.....

Where in The World did you hear/read THAT!

ALL magnets aren't ineffective...just that damn Dent Eraser thing.

I'd agree about the Dent Eraser...that thing is about useless...
if you know what you're doing with the MDRS, that thing is really good stuff...wish I had pictures...

the elephant wrote:If you try to do this it will become a $75 POS in about 30 minutes. You can accept advice or you can search for someone to agree with you. Good luck. I hope you learn a lot from this experience.

I don't think I am going to do it now, I just wanted opinions. I know someone on this forum (possibly inactive now), tubaing-I believe-used to do this stuff as a hobby.

Rochester2013 wrote:It is a Conn with the initials "USQMC" on it (standing for United States Quarter Master Corp?) I have not been able to find an appropriate date yet. The serial is "150100" as far as I can tell, anyone have any idea?

"Conn" + "150100" = made in 1917

That took all of 60 seconds to "Google" and reference in a chart.

The instrument in the pictures doesn't look that old to me, though.

Todd S. Malicoate wrote:

Rochester2013 wrote:It is a Conn with the initials "USQMC" on it (standing for United States Quarter Master Corp?) I have not been able to find an appropriate date yet. The serial is "150100" as far as I can tell, anyone have any idea?

"Conn" + "150100" = made in 1917

That took all of 60 seconds to "Google" and reference in a chart.

The instrument in the pictures doesn't look that old to me, though.

Well, I did google it, and all I could come up with 155,000 closest to it in 1918. I wasn't entirely sure if ALL the serial number of that year were 155xxx or if that was the starting, as the chart I was reading didn't have directions.

The instrument doesn't look that old, and I thought maybe the 1950's by sight.

Rochester2013 wrote:I just bought an old Eb tuba that needs some soldering, cleaning and several dents taken out. Some are large around the bottom bow, others are in the slides and are much harder to reach. I know some large magnets would work for the magnets on the bottom bow (any suggestions) but how would I get the dents out of the leadpipe/slides?

You just need a bunch of this stuff and maybe some training and experience. if you want good results.





Good luck.

Daniel C. Oberloh

I can fix just about anything that goes wrong around my house. I can take Jaguar 6-cylinder overhead cam engines completely apart and put them back together. I can rewire electric guitars all day long in any number of configurations, including my rewiring diagrams for Rickenbacker guitars have literally gone worldwide (just check out my thread on the RIC factory forum).

But when it comes to my tubas, we all sing together to the tune of the William Tell Overture, "To the tech, to the tech, to the tech, tech, tech!"

"A man's got to know his limitations." -- Harry Callahan

Sorry for hijacking your topic...but I had a taking out dents question too....
How much would cost a dentjob for this horn approximately? And it is possible to remove most of the dents?

Thx! -Joost-