My "New" Toy!

[Tubajug]

I used my piano bench and a rawhide mallet and was quite pleased with how the bell turned out! I'll get some pictures up later today perhaps, but things are moving along pretty well on this project! Next thing is to pull the slides, which might get done this weekend. Thanks for all the help and tips along the way!

[Tubajug]

What you explained seems to match what I tried last night, so that's a relief! For doing it on my own, without any help beyond the advice given here, I'd say it turned out pretty good!

Does it ever come to using pliers? I've got a few spots on the rim that are creased almost into a V.

[Tubajug]

What you explained seems to match what I tried last night, so that's a relief! For doing it on my own, without any help beyond the advice given here, I'd say it turned out pretty good!

Does it ever come to using pliers? I've got a few spots on the rim that are creased almost into a V.

What's your tech say?

He hasn't seen it since I tried the hammer and table method. He had described that to me as well, so I'll see if he has any thoughts now that I've got pretty straight except for those little "V's."

[Tubajug]

I'll snap some photos tonight when I get home. Thanks for all the help (as always!).

[Tubajug]

Here are the latest pics:

After buffing, some parts went down to bare brass without any issues. Others, the silver was much more stubborn. I decided to leave it "two toned." I think it looks cool.



Here are a few shots of the bell rim:

[Tubajug]

Freedom! That's what my inner slides are saying anyway. My tech showed me how to use the brass plugs and a vise to free slides and he let me go to town and do all the soldering and pulling. He was right when he told me that it's almost laughable how easily they come out when you get to this stage of pulling slides. One of the last ones loosened up simply by the weight of my hand on the vise grips, I didn't even put any pressure on it!

So now I am ready to start final cleaning and prepping to get this soldered back together! If you haven't seen my ad in the For Sale section, I'm looking to get a replacement valve button, maybe all three.

Here are the newly liberated slides and their former captors:



After that comes leadpipe and receiver, and I might have a playable tuba by the end of the school year!

[Tubajug]

Well, I believe I have all the joints prepped for soldering. You guys that do this for a living sure are ambitious! (though how often do you take a tuba COMPLETELY apart? I'm curious). I think I'll give it all one more bath before starting to solder it back together.

I bought some copper tubing to experiment with as a leadpipe before buying the real thing.

My tech recommended using wire to hold the whole thing together before beginning soldering. Being an amateur, would it be ok if I wired together and soldered the bugle and valve section separately then connected them? I'm just imagining the whole thing doing a lot of shifting, even with the wire, while I try to solder all the little nooks and crannys.

[Tubajug]

Let the soldering begin! I started with the open bugle the other night and I got this far. I want to clean all the valves and tubing one more time before I get the valve section put back together. Again, kudos to you techs who do this for a living. This is some labor intensive stuff...

[Tubajug]

Small update: I just pieced it together (the only thing that is soldered is the bugle like last time) but it's starting to look like a tuba again!

[Lectron]

Starting to look like a tuba again

[bestprice]

It would look fun in the garden.

[Tubajug]

It would look fun in the garden.

Ha! I hope it doesn't come to that! I'd rather play it!

[Tubajug]

I started wiring it together to begin soldering (if I ever get the time to sit down for a few hours to do it!). I have a generic brace I have to cut to fit under the third valve tubing. Still trying to get this done for Tuba Christmas!

[Tubajug]

I thought about starting a new thread, but wanted to post it here for record-keeping's sake.

I finished wiring and soldering my horn back together (my soldering is getting better, but it's still messy in places). So now all I have left to do is bend the new leadpipe and solder that along with the new receiver and BINGO! I'll have this thing done!

My question is this: How much difference should I have between the inner diameter of the tube receiving the leadpipe and the outer diameter of the leadpipe itself? My calipers say that the inner diameter of the tube into which the leadpipe will go is 0.620."

Should I cut my leadpipe where it measures exactly 0.620?" Or how much smaller would be too small and leave too big of a gap?

Thanks! I'll post some (not so pretty, but progress!) pictures sometime soon.

[opus37]

I like your project. Lee Stofer says placement of braces is important to tone quality. I don't know how the old braces placed, but they need to be at the tonally nodes. you may want to send a note to Lee to see if he can add any expertise to brace placement.

[Lectron]

I don't know how the old braces placed, but they need to be at the tonally nodes.

On what tone?

[opus37]

I don't know how the old braces placed, but they need to be at the tonally nodes.

On what tone?

I don't know the physics of this, but placement does make a difference. Lee may have an explanation that is useful. In watching him work, I saw him check for symmetry and general location. There are likely others who have expertise in this area who can add to the proper placement question. The point is, blindly placing braces where they were may not be the best idea. It's something to check on and learn about before soldering.

[Tubajug]

So far I've only added one extra brace, and that was between the tuning loop and the first valve tubing to help stabilize the new longer tuning slide I used to bring it down to modern (crossed fingers!) pitch. Every other brace went back where it was before. I'll get some pictures up later, but I need to know about the diameter question I asked so I can get going on bending and cutting the leadpipe. Thanks!

[Tubajug]

Here are some photos I took outside real quick (today's high is only 32 in Lincoln, NE...) so they're not great. Pardon the sloppy soldering, but I think I did ok. The paste flux was great, so thank you to Lee Stofer for mentioning it.





Replacement brace for under the third valve slide:




I'm working on the leadpipe almost as we speak. I'd love to give this thing a toot before the weekend's over!

[Tubajug]

Finally got the leadpipe picture to upload. I really like the look of this little horn. I hope it plays decently enough...