130 year old helicon - valve trouble

Repair and modification discussion
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Tubachin
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130 year old helicon - valve trouble

Post by Tubachin »

I hope the repair experts on this site can help me.

I have a BBb Higham helicon and I will be playing it in a parade this Saturday. I was getting it ready when I noticed that 2 valves have small holes in the port walls (ports are what I call the channel that diverts airflow to valve slides).

The horn still sounds the same, and I am wondering if there is an easy fix, an expensive fix or I should just leave it be? I suspect that over time the holes will get bigger and a fix now might be easier. Thanks for your help...
Matt Chin
Yarmouth, Maine
MW2182W
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YorkNumber3
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Re: 130 year old helicon - valve trouble

Post by YorkNumber3 »

Several approaches, but in this case how I would repair these holes would be to clean the valve ports and float just enough Sta Brite solder to seal them. Takes a wee bit of finesse, but easy enough with practice.
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Tubachin
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Re: 130 year old helicon - valve trouble

Post by Tubachin »

YorkNumber3, Thanks for your recommendation, I will try it and report back...
Matt Chin
Yarmouth, Maine
MW2182W
Cerveny F Helicon
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