TubeNet

Greetings,

I am making a 4-valve baritone as a project "practice" for my later attempt at building a 4-valve set for an Eb tuba. I have enough tubing for the fourth valve circuit, but I need to connect some long, straight pieces of outer tubing. I don't have any ferrules of the correct diameter to put ferrules around the joints.

Is it acceptable to solder small bits of inner tubing to the inside of the joints to connect them? I'm trying to build this out of what I've got on hand, so making an outer ferrule from scratch isn't really an option for me.

Thanks for your input!

When you say long sleeve, do you mean a piece of inner tubing that runs the whole length of the outer tube?

I would think that about an inch into each outer tube (inner piece measuring about 2 inches in length) would be sufficient.

Are there going to be tuning slides at either end of this new one-piece outer tube? You can try to coordinate the length with those inner tubes.

Basically, you want the connecting inner piece to be long enough to keep the two outer tubes straight and even with each other.

Putting a sleeve inside is a much neater job than putting a larger sleeve over the outer tubes. The trick (without a lathe) will be getting the outer tubes to be cut squarely so they mate exactly - this is not so much a practical matter (the inner tube and solder will make an air-tight seal) as it is a cosmetic one.

Actually, some brands have a sleeve inserted to keep the bore consistent between tuning slides (my Conn 4J has this, for example).

I generally build tuning circuits with all inner tubing... using the outer slide tubing only to create outer slides and ferrules. In some cases where I have not had long enough lengths of inner tubing... I join two short lengths with a ferrule made of outer tubing.

The short answer is 'yes'.... if I constructed a circuit out of outer tubing I would still 'stuff' it with inner tubing.