My Eb Tuba Project

Repair and modification discussion
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

bloke wrote:If you've not yet soldered those casing braces in place, how about (though your spacing isn't the same) making them from some brass rod that's the same diameter as the other casings' braces?
I did consider that, but in the end, this was easier. I actually went back and forth for quite a while trying to decide if I wanted to cut, grind, and shape the brass rod or find some braces. When I found these that fit with just a readjustment of the curvature of the feet, I went the easy route...

I know it doesn't look "original," but in my mind, I plan on using this horn for a while (aka, I'm not building it to sell it), and it's in a rather hidden spot on the horn to the average onlooker, so I went with convenience. That and I'm really itching to get the 4th valve circuitry finished up and I didn't want to try and solder around all that extra tubing to brace that valve. I had put this off for quite a while and just moved on with the circuitry when I probably should have done this without any of the tubing on there at all.

Oh well, it's on now, it's functional, and I can keep moving! Although my new helicon is really tempting to start tinkering with...focus Jordan, focus!

SIDEBAR - What I would love to do is have my helicon straightened out in time to play for our band alumni game at UNL this fall AND get this Eb project done before December so that I can take a different horn to a couple different Christmas events. We'll see if time is on my side in that regard...we have a lot of home projects that need attention this summer as well...
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

I started soldering the 4th valve circuit last night. Next will be to make a crook by cutting one in half and using tubing to get it the width I need for the lower slide.

Image
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

Little by little, I'm moving along. I got a joint or two soldered, but I also got a crook cut in half and ready to start measuring, parallel-ing, and soldering that lower slide for the 4th valve circuit. A few more braces here and there and I think the valve section will be complete!

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As I looked over my upper circuit, I think I need to add another brace. I think I'll move the existing brace closer to the crook and add a second one closer to the valve port, as marked by the poorly drawn red braces in the photo below:

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What do you think?
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

Last night I had the itch to work and my wife was kind enough to let me do so! I got the whole 4th circuit soldered on minus three braces that still need to be cut, fitted, and soldered. It feels really good to have it this far along though!

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After I get this all squared away and cleaned up, it will be back to finishing the body work (still some dents, get the bow guards back on, etc.). I feel some momentum here folks!
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

YORK-aholic wrote:Keep plugging away. It is coming along.
Bit by bit...solder a joint here, cut and fit a brace there...
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

I got the bracing all soldered in last night. I'll post some pictures when I get it all cleaned up. That should be it for the valve section (minus when I need to add the thumb ring and linkage, wherever that ends up).
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
Ken Herrick
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Ken Herrick »

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!

Just imagine...……… Could there be a 4 or 5 valve Martin helicon coming?

This has been a very interesting saga. It looks like you have really developed your skills to a high level. Could be a pleasurable and profitable sideline business for you in the future.
Free to tuba: good home
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

Thanks Ken, good to hear from you!

I have a friend who also suggested I do this on the side for money, but for now, having it for a hobby is good enough for me. :)

In regards to the helicon, I actually thought that if for some reason this project turns out to be a bust (which I doubt, but you never know), I'd have an Eb valvset all made up that I could put on the helicon!

As promised, here are the pictures of the 4th circuit all braced up and cleaned up!

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I can still clean this up a little more and give it a bath to get all the crud and particles that have likely found their way into the tubing and casings. After this it's back to the body work.
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

bloke wrote:8)

' you know what takes about half the time in one of these projects...??

doing "the last little bit". :roll:
Haha, that's like us and our home renovation projects...we get it to where it's functional, then say "eh, that's good enough, we need to get going on XYZ now..."
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

I haven't update this in a while, so here's a little bit of what's been going on. I sent the bugle, braces, etc. (anything silver) down to KC to have the silver stripped off by a plating company there. The silver wasn't very good looking anyway, and as much as I love the look of a "half and half" horn, I decided to go all raw brass on this one. I'm also having some work done to the body that I don't have the tools or know-how to do on my own. I should have that back by May 9th if all goes as planned.

In the meantime, I've been picking over the valve section so that it will be ready to go. I've been taking more time cleaning up solder joints on this project to make it look a little less "homemade" than my other projects. Here are some shots of the upper and lower crooks of the first valve circuit:

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I also got some synthetic washers from J.L. Smith and got the valves aligned. I also polished up the valveset for a few "glamour shots."

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I also added a Jupiter/Getzen version of an Amado water key. I like them because they're small, I like how they look, and they only require one spot of soldering. I drilled the hole out to 1/8" and had to reshape the curve to fit the tubing using a Dremel tool.

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I will start a separate thread asking for advice on assembling the bugle, since that's what I'll be doing next after I get it back from KC! Thanks for looking!
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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roweenie
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by roweenie »

8)
"Even a broken clock is right twice a day".
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

Small update: The original horn had a smaller shank receiver on it:

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I plan on replacing it with another vintage King receiver that I had in my drawer. It didn't look quite as bad as the one above (I forgot to take a "before" picture), but it still had the silver coming off, old solder, etc. Today I cleaned it up by carefully sanding off the remaining the silver (and the solder spots), cleaning, buffing, and polishing until it now looks like this:

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Small thing, but I like that it will still have a vintage King receiver on it!

That is all.
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

My family and I took a quick trip down to KC to pick up the parts I had some work done on (stripping the old silver and putting the bow caps and wire back on).

Here they are after a bath:
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Starting to mock up the layout:
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Mocking up the layout some more:
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One issue was to make sure I could get the 4th valve bottom cap off. The bows are narrow, so there's not a lot of space to move things around, but I should be able to get the cap off if I orient things like I've got pictured.

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I need to decide what to do for the finish. I'm leaning towards having a "scotch-brite" finish on the bows and leaving the valveset as-is. The brass alloys appear to be quite different, so I don't think there's much hope of getting the brass to match in any way without silver plating the whole thing (not gonna happen). It's already a frankentuba, so I'm not too worried about. I just need to exercise some patience and get the bows finished up before I get too anxious about soldering it all together!
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

I've been working on getting the bugle assembled. I decided to just polish the bugle and not worry too much about a scotch brite or any other finish. The horn was satin silver, and being 102 years old, there are some parts that are worn perfectly smooth, and others that still have the satin finish.

Here are all the bugle parts after a polish:
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After I polished them, I dry fit everything together and laid out the valveset just to see what this might look like. I really like the proportions on this horn.
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I began soldering the bugle together:
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I took my time to solder carefully and cleaned up after myself as I went along. I was very pleased with how clean I was able to get the solder joints:
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This brace was missing, so I had to cut down a brace from another part of the horn that wasn't going to be used. Cutting it to fit, reshaping the feet, etc. took quite a while, but I'm happy with the result:
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Another brace shot:
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More bugle soldering:
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This was a Holton brace and I cut the tips off of the diamond to fit on the ferrule I added to turn the dogleg the other way:
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Here is the bugle all soldered together. I am most proud of the fact that I only had to use wire in one place to hold a brace down (the bell to top bow brace) to keep it from slipping off. Every other part fit together so nicely it just stayed put while I soldered it all together.
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Next up will be getting the main tuning slide legs parallel and cut to length to fit, though I might do a hose test to see what length I'll need before cutting any tubing (attach a hose to the end of the dogleg the approximate length of the leadpipe+valveset+MTS). That will also let me hear the tuba for the first time in months! Stay tuned! I'm hoping to have this buttoned up in a few more weeks (especially now that school is out)!
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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roweenie
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by roweenie »

That is looking spectacular!
"Even a broken clock is right twice a day".
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

Hello again! I'm getting down to the last few things. I'm hoping to have this together enough to play on it by the weekend.

Here, I was checking the position of the leadpipe (from the 12J I got the valveset from). I was thinking about bending a new one, but I think this one will work.

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Here is a mockup after I got the main slide put together for it:

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The position of the 5th valve was causing me trouble (it was right under the lower 1st valve slide, so I couldn't pull it, I didn't really want to redo the 1st valve circuit or move the whole valveset up on the horn), so I got the parts from Conn-Selmer to make it removeable!

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Here's the back of the horn along with a really rough drawing of my planned circuit. I've got the tubing to do it, but won't build it until after the valveset and everything is soldered on. Linkage will be last.

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Lots of little things to do, but I'm getting there!
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
harmgsn
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by harmgsn »

Hey Jordan,

Any updates on this project? This has been a highly entertaining and educational thread for me to read... Thank you!
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Tubajug
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Re: My Eb Tuba Project

Post by Tubajug »

I completed it and have been using it for the past 18 months or so teaching lessons, brass quintets, and polka gigs. Here's a link to see the finished product. I'll post some YouTube videos sometime as well. It's a great little horn!

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https://www.tubaforum.net/viewtopic.php?t=640
Jordan
King 2341 with a Holton "Monster" Eb bell
Eb Frankentuba
Martin Medium Eb Helicon

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving's probably not for you.
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