I've got a piece of tubing I'd like to use, but there's a piece of spacer inner tubing stuck inside.
What's the best method to remove it? I've tried the fire wrench, with not much results.
Thanks!
Removing stuck inner spacer tubing
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roweenie
- pro musician
- Posts: 2165
- Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2007 10:17 am
- Location: Waiting on a vintage tow truck
Removing stuck inner spacer tubing
"Even a broken clock is right twice a day".
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Tabor
- 4 valves
- Posts: 753
- Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2004 11:34 am
- Location: New England
Re: Removing stuck inner spacer tubing
I was waiting for someone to chime in with a GOOD way, or the right way to do it. Maybe you have your own wrong way...
....Here is the wrong way I have done it. It usually works quickly and doesn't require special (well, "real") tools:
I have a steel tube I think, that I use on King tubing like this. I just kept it when one of our $9 floor lamps broke, it is one of the segments of the lamp so it is really nothing special. It is a little smaller than King inside tubing, but has a much thicker wall and is flat on one end. Tt gives some rounded and flat surface area to spread out as much of the force as I can against the edge of the inner tubing.
I get my fairly heat resistant leather/denim work gloves on, torch and this bar/tube thing, heat up the brass tubes (especially the outer) and put the bar inside the tubes and feel for the edge of the inner tubing with that flat edge. (inner tubing to be pushed up by the edge, outer tubing travels down)
I grab the tubing and the bar together, pressing into it bit, sideways to give the bar some grip against the inner tubing edge and tap/pop the whole thing up and down against my granite-topped work desk. I reposition/roll the tubing around in relation to the bar with repeated tapping and always feel for that edge of the inner tubing. Usually that gets the inner tubing to move, where it can be treated like any stuck slide. Once it starts moving, however, a couple more light taps or just twist-pulling on it by hand usually does it.
This "high-end precision operation" should probably damage/mushroom/scrape/ the inner spacer tubing a little, but I have salvaged usable inside tubing from it and don't remember having a problem. (maybe I was lucky?) If I have messed up the edge, I probably put it on a mandrel and give it a quick twist just to round out the edge. IF I were to damage the end of some tubing really bad, I'd cut/grind off the end to where it was straight and then file and sand it smooth, (and probably still give it a quick twist on the mandrel to make sure the end is round). This could also be accomplished (better) on a lathe if you have one. Much of the time when removing inner spacer tubing, the plan is for the pitch of the instrument to be higher, so not as much is needed.
work gloves that can handle some heat are important not to get burned, and also when the outer tubing comes down, it would be almost a 100% chance of pinch-slicing a bloody chunk out of your hand without a pretty heavy glove on. I don't recommend this method for anyone.
Good luck, and I hope someone chimes in with a better way to do it!
-T
....Here is the wrong way I have done it. It usually works quickly and doesn't require special (well, "real") tools:
I have a steel tube I think, that I use on King tubing like this. I just kept it when one of our $9 floor lamps broke, it is one of the segments of the lamp so it is really nothing special. It is a little smaller than King inside tubing, but has a much thicker wall and is flat on one end. Tt gives some rounded and flat surface area to spread out as much of the force as I can against the edge of the inner tubing.
I get my fairly heat resistant leather/denim work gloves on, torch and this bar/tube thing, heat up the brass tubes (especially the outer) and put the bar inside the tubes and feel for the edge of the inner tubing with that flat edge. (inner tubing to be pushed up by the edge, outer tubing travels down)
I grab the tubing and the bar together, pressing into it bit, sideways to give the bar some grip against the inner tubing edge and tap/pop the whole thing up and down against my granite-topped work desk. I reposition/roll the tubing around in relation to the bar with repeated tapping and always feel for that edge of the inner tubing. Usually that gets the inner tubing to move, where it can be treated like any stuck slide. Once it starts moving, however, a couple more light taps or just twist-pulling on it by hand usually does it.
This "high-end precision operation" should probably damage/mushroom/scrape/ the inner spacer tubing a little, but I have salvaged usable inside tubing from it and don't remember having a problem. (maybe I was lucky?) If I have messed up the edge, I probably put it on a mandrel and give it a quick twist just to round out the edge. IF I were to damage the end of some tubing really bad, I'd cut/grind off the end to where it was straight and then file and sand it smooth, (and probably still give it a quick twist on the mandrel to make sure the end is round). This could also be accomplished (better) on a lathe if you have one. Much of the time when removing inner spacer tubing, the plan is for the pitch of the instrument to be higher, so not as much is needed.
work gloves that can handle some heat are important not to get burned, and also when the outer tubing comes down, it would be almost a 100% chance of pinch-slicing a bloody chunk out of your hand without a pretty heavy glove on. I don't recommend this method for anyone.
Good luck, and I hope someone chimes in with a better way to do it!
-T
Tubas