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Re: raw brass?
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 10:28 pm
by Chuck(G)
cyras21 wrote:is there a readily available chemical I can use to strip the lacquer off my tuba?
This seems to be the chemical-du-jour:
Most audo supply places should carry this stuff (it's called "aircraft stripper").
Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2005 11:08 pm
by Chuck(G)
bloke wrote:...however If it's a Cleveland, Ohio-made tuba with its factory lacquer, no over-the-counter strippers will touch it.
(This is the orange-ish colored lacquer--if one can indeed call the stuff lacquer)
Sacre bleu! The stuff doesn't even
burn off nicely.

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 6:05 pm
by Dan Schultz
HarbourLight wrote:Wait for a hot, hot, hot day. ....... I did this on an old 1966 Conn 20J.
Yeah.... but that blasted orange/gold KING stuff is yet another breed of cat!

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 6:12 pm
by Chuck(G)
TubaTinker wrote:HarbourLight wrote:Wait for a hot, hot, hot day. ....... I did this on an old 1966 Conn 20J.
Yeah.... but that blasted orange/gold KING stuff is yet another breed of cat!

I've heard that one of these will do the trick:

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 12:20 am
by Dan Schultz
FDRosenau wrote:Some years ago, while flushing out a tuba in the bathtub I learned, much to my horror, that too hot water can cause huge chunks of lacquer to pop loose.
Yeah... it would certainly be nice if the darned stuff stayed on when you want and came off when you want

Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 1:34 am
by Daniel C. Oberloh
Ah yes, the infamous King "red lacquer". I myself tried a lot of off the shelve strippers and not-so-off the shelve, searching for an effective way of removing the stuff. The best workable off the shelve stripper is Easy-Off oven cleaner. In fact, I just stripped a 3-B trombone the other day. It took about two and a half hours for it to remove 99%. If you leave it on too long it can etch the brass a bit and weaken the engraving. it is nasty stuff to work with and less then perfect but still, it beats trying to buff and sand it off.
Daniel C. Oberloh
Oberloh Woodwind and Brass Works
Saving the world, one horn at a time...
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 3:14 pm
by Sam Gnagey
We have the right equipment to strip off the King lacquer. I've done lots of those instruments. Let me know if you'd like for me to do a horn for you. It doesn't take more than a couple of minutes to do the job. There probably aren't a lot of places that will do it, and you can't buy anything in a commercial stripper that will work.
Sam