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Over the weekend my repair tech and I took a stab at "flipping" my first valve slide on my King 1240. Overall it went off without a hitch and he even let me try my hand at soldering (he said I'm a natural)! It went very well and now all I have to do is take it back to the Strategic Air and Space Museum and bead-blast it again! I'm very pleased! He enjoyed not having to make it "pretty" knowing I was just going to bead-blast it again. Enjoy the pictures!

In pieces on the ground:


Put back together for a test-fit:


Soldered together!


Closer view


I might still round up $100-$150 or so and see what kind of work with the "dent eraser" that would buy me just to clean up the outer branch that's all dinged up.

KiltieTuba wrote:That's pretty cool. Are you going to spray the bell?

I thought about it, but it polished up so nice I think I'm going to leave it. I like the "two tone" look it's got.

goodgigs wrote: Personally I'd cut the slides a little
at a time with a dremel tool until it plays how you want it to with whatever mouth peice you want.

That's a good idea. I figured I'd have to pay a tech time in his shop to cut it down, but I guess I really could do it at home with a dremel huh? Thanks for the idea!

goodgigs wrote:...The magnet might not glide over bead blasted surface as well as smooth anyway and it could leave marks.
That's why you should do the dent work before bead blasting so you can hide any scars you might make with the magnet.

Tubajug.... get an old plastic drum head and put it against the outside of the horn before you 'hook up' the magnet and the steel ball. Apply grease to the drum head and let the magnet glide over it. You probably won't need to re-blast the horn where you've used magnetic tools.

Cool! Why not make the 1st slide tubes as long as possible?

I had the same thing done on one of my tubas by the guy I bought it from. On this horn, he had to trim the inners just a bit so it'd pull out without hitting the bell. It's nice to have the option of pulling either 1, 2 (full length), or 3.

bloke wrote:Doing what you suggest, Bob, requires acquiring new tubing. I don't think this young man paid very much for this tuba, and I suspect he's trying to keep any improvements' costs proportional to his cost of the instrument.

You are correct, sir. Besides, with this horn playing flat, I don't think I'd want to lengthen anything.