Have you ever put musket balls in your tuba?

SRanney · Post by **SRanney** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 8:51 am

Maybe using them to roll out dents?

I've heard that one could roll out some dings in horns using metal balls and magnets - put the ball on the inside of the horn and the magnet on the outside and voila! No more dings.

Just my thoughts.

SR

Carroll · Post by **Carroll** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 9:17 am

Uhh, I would suspect that the musket balls are made from some low melting point metal (i.e. lead) and not from some ferrous metal (i.e.steel) thus a magnet would have no attraction. Any other ideas?

Carroll · Post by **Carroll** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 11:15 am

Dan Schultz · Post by **Dan Schultz** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 1:25 pm

I use brass ball drivers... as I suspect most other repairmen also do. However, I can see where lead ball drivers would work, too.

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 1:32 pm

Depleted uranium'd probably work just fine too.

Dean E · Post by **Dean E** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 6:01 pm

TubaTinker wrote:I use brass ball drivers... as I suspect most other repairmen also do. However, I can see where lead ball drivers would work, too.

I used lead bolt anchors (for concrete and masonry) to drive out a plastic bottle of valve oil

that was wedged pretty far down inside my bellfront horn that the previous owner had not played since the 1950's.

Kevin Hendrick · Post by **Kevin Hendrick** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 7:31 pm

schlepporello wrote:
Carroll wrote:Uhh, I would suspect that the musket balls are made from some low melting point metal (i.e. lead) and not from some ferrous metal (i.e.steel) thus a magnet would have no attraction. Any other ideas?
A little wadding, some black powder, a little fuse..........

... and a kick like a mule!

(also, another use for bell-front tubas -- shooting around corners!

)

Dan Schultz · Post by **Dan Schultz** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 11:09 pm

Chuck(G) wrote:Depleted uranium'd probably work just fine too.

Hmmm.... THAT might be fun! Where can I get some?

Dan Schultz · Post by **Dan Schultz** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 3:35 pm

tubafreaks7 wrote: Along the lines of dent removal, has anyone used an earth magnate? My tech used one on my horn to get to dents in the second wrop of my tuba. It worked well.

You can buy rare-earth magnets from http://www.wondermagnet.com. The company is also known as 'Forcefield'. I bought several of the large 1 5/8" diameter magnets and built my own dent remover several years ago. I shoved the magnets into reinforced 1 1/2" ID vinyl tubing and added a steel plug with a 1/2-20 holed tapped in the backside. I works well with a slide hammer on stubborn dents in reinforced areas. I have to be very carefull when doing 'finicky' work... but on school horns it's a blessing to have. Large steel balls are available from McMaster-Carr.

Joe Baker · Post by **Joe Baker** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 10:58 am

HeliconMan wrote:There was a tuba player, now deceased, that hooked up a small propane bottle to his tuba...

Says it all...

Reminds me of the old tall tale about the Uruguayan bass trombonist playing the 1812 Overture...
http://www.wardle.demon.co.uk/humour/1812.html
______________________________________
Joe Baker, who hopes no one mixes music and pyrotechnics in a way that will get them hurt.