Silver Plating?

[shoedumas]

Hey there. I'm working away on my project conn 20J and thinking about what I'd like to do with it.

Do any of you know of a good place to get a tuba silver pated?
Any idea how much it would cost me?
I live in Vancouver, Canada, but wouldn't mind a road trip somewhere to get the job done right.

Thanks

[bisontuba]

Hi-
Ordering a new tuba in silver plate is Much cheaper than getting a used tuba silver-plated. Anderson's in Indiana is the place for silver plating, but the prep work- dent removal, buffing, degreasing, etc. Is expensive. A few thousand dollars I bet.
Mark

[shoedumas]

Hey, so I didn't mention that I am a repair apprentice and will do all necessary dent work myself, so that should reduce the cost by quite a bit. I'm not necessarily set on silver plating it yet, but just wanted to see how much it would cost. I may just leave it unlacquered or have it re-lacquered. Any good places to have a tuba re-lacquered?

[Ken Herrick]

All of the prep work you would have do to get this ready for a good lacquer job would pretty well have it ready for plating and the end cost wouldn't be all that much more.

You might want to go ahead and learn as much as you can, take your time, do the absolute best job you can and go the whole way and get it silvered. Take an approach like Jake would say about "practicing". Don't practice - perform!!

Take pride in your work and you could end up with something to keep for a long time as a testament to your hard work in becoming a skilled repairer / restorer of instruments. While you are at it, make sure you have the valves right up to scratch.

Good luck and enjoy the journey.

[shoedumas]

All of the prep work you would have do to get this ready for a good lacquer job would pretty well have it ready for plating and the end cost wouldn't be all that much more.

You might want to go ahead and learn as much as you can, take your time, do the absolute best job you can and go the whole way and get it silvered. Take an approach like Jake would say about "practicing". Don't practice - perform!!

Take pride in your work and you could end up with something to keep for a long time as a testament to your hard work in becoming a skilled repairer / restorer of instruments. While you are at it, make sure you have the valves right up to scratch.

Good luck and enjoy the journey.

Thanks for your kind words! For me, this is not necessarily about money. It's like restoring a classic old car. It's something I enjoy doing, and in the end, I can say: "I made that." I'd like to go start to finish on this horn to see how far I can take it. It's also a learning thing. I won't necessarily silver plate it, but was just curious about what it would run me. This old tuba already plays fantasically, so anything I'm doing is purely cosmetic. Labour is free because I'm the one doing the work, and my inital cost was only $500, so that leaves plenty of room for the finishing costs without ending up spending too much on it. It needs very minimal in the way of parts. Valves are great, so I'm only going to buy a new lead pipe and some new slide crooks, totalling about $150 in parts.