Ultrasonic cleaning problems

[mbeastep]

To wrap up this thread, I am glad to report that I have my horn back and it is playing well. Dan Oberloh was able to spend several hours on it in one day. After doing an acid cleaning on the valves, he poked around and found leaks in the through-ports of both the first and third valves. After cleaning away the corrosion, he made nice, smooth solder repairs of the holes. Beautiful work, and much appreciated. I am urged to keep my horn cleaner.

Thanks again for the suggestions. The comments of Matt Walters were very close to describing my situation except that it seems in my case that the ultrasonic cleaning did not create the problem, but only exposed it.

Special thanks to Allan Horlick for his willingness to help out with a horn and to Daryl Caswell for facilitating the repair.

mbeastep

[tusabtuba]

Matt Walters comments echo what I have heard from Army Band personnel who have had instruments ultrasonically cleaned. If there are any weak spots, they may perforate from the cleaning. I suspect ultrasonic cleaning might best be left to firearms and items of other, heartier material.

Tusabtuba