Tuba Restoration part 1 of 4, 2023, band instrument repair, Wes Lee Music Repair
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- Опубликовано: 10 янв 2023
- New for 2023, a 4 part in depth series of teardown, dent work, tips and tricks, rebuilding, hammering, etc. to get this tuba back in shape for the customer. Techniques to help elevate your work.
Tools by:
Ferree's Tools- www.ferreestoolsinc.com
Intro & Music by: V6 Creatives- v6creatives@gmail. com
Thanks for watching.
Man, that’s a lot of work. Hey kids, take good care of your instruments!
I appreciate your profession. Saving instruments daily. You do a great service for music, bringing more joy to the world. I approve. 👍👍👋
Wonderful to see a craftsman at work. Watching I became aware of the number of cuts each video contains. It must be a lot of work editing these videos to show the minute changes in the piece being worked. Thank you and know that your effort is appreciated.
Don't be a simp
Fascinating to watch. Always beautiful work. ❤
You are an amazing craftsman. I love your channel and your work on the Tuba is over the top fantastic!!
I'm so happy to see another long term project on the channel! Personally not a fan of shorts when it comes to instrument repair. Need that hands on experience 😊
Love this. Played tuba in high school. It was owned by the school. Always wish I owned one to play in local community band. The only thing I own is the mouthpiece🤣
I kept my tuba mouthpiece too. Just in case....
@@runwillrobinson I kept my tuba mouthpiece from high school as a keepsake for 30+ years…it wasn’t until my daughter started getting serious about playing euphonium in high school that I even THOUGHT about playing again. Several years later, I’ve bought an inexpensive tuba and now play in two community bands…you never know how life will turn out!
Right about that !!!
That is off to a GREAT Start! I don't think they ever made a horn that you couldn't fix! I wonder how many times that one fell off the bus!? Fantastic video, as always!
Very cool to see this instrument restored. I enjoy your fine work and patter. Keep em coming!
Thank you so much I did not know my 3 slide could come out
Can’t wait for part two!
Wes, every time I watch your videos I am amazed at how you are able to manipulate the brass. I Know it would take a lot of work to take still photos as you work a piece and then make a video with those stills and watch the transformation of the metal in your hands. The patients that you show when working on all of those baninstruments has helped me to slow down and be more patient on the wood and steel parts that I work on. I'm converting a bus into an RV.
I subscribed to him with 3 thousand subscribers
Wes, your artisan skills are phenomenal and a joy to watch. It will be nice to see the rest of the repairs. Blessings to you.
Love your channel!
Impressive cleanup on that dent. Looking forward to seeing it good as new. I remember pulling tubas out of the chem clean dip. Always a fun time. Thanks for sharing!
Bring on part 2!
I'm sure you don't make any money on school instrument resurrection but I do love to watch them. The pro bono of the instrument industry.
love all of it!
I would definitely love to take a closer look at your “post raising tool”! I’ve used a similar technique over the last year by soldering a saxophone post and raising it with the sax post tool.
That's what I did for 20+ years. Worked quite a bit of the time.
I have 4 or 5 of them, different shapes. I have sax post as well, but sometimes it has too much surface area. But thinking about it after the fact, after that first round, maybe could have gotten the wider flanged sax post to raise that area more. Next time.
Yes please.
Love the intro - great content!
I've been waiting for 2 months for another video! Glad you're finally able to make time for us again 😀😀😀
Refreshing to see very skilled labor. I'll be following your work.
Love these videos, thanks so much!
Your patience humbles me-well done!
It's amazing the repairability of brass instruments. Just takes a lot of elbow grease and the right tools.
Love the intro!
Really enjoy watching you work your magic on those horns. It's amazing. Thanks for sharing.
amazing work you do
My new favorite channel. You a a real artist.
Perfekt 👍
Thank you again, so inspiring to see just what can be “saved”.
Amazing. I'd never think the dents would come out.
Love your work. I appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Always interesting ..never thought you would straighten it, but rather replace .. 👍
Very satisfying! Looking forward to the next one...
Bump for work well done, thank you for the lesson.
Daron and I have used that dent procedure before. We used the slide hammer that is available and used a piece of brass bar with a hole drilled in it. It gave us more surface area for the solder while allowing us to shape the bar to our need. Great video.
I’ve got several different versions of this theme, sometimes they work more than others. This one moved a bit and did save some time. Hope y’all are doing well buddy!
That’s pretty severe. Quite a challenge. I can’t wait to see the final work.
I've got to bring my tuba in for similar treatment.
Good video. Thanks for sharing.
Man is a true artist
I would love to see a tube of dent series!
I love watching you remove the dents on big tubes, as i can see the method better and I can use the techniques in small tubes!
I don't consider tips and tricks as cheats, as it is knowledge you earned over the years.
One thing I don't understand is the lime scale remover. Does it neutralize the flux, and wouldn't it be safe to rinse after using it?
trabalho fantástico! ansioso por mais videos.
Great to see a horn brought back to musical life.
very great skill and knowledge about materials.
Looks like a kid threw it out of a bus window on the highway. Nice work!
the amount of damage was terrifying, nice work!
Wes. Ever see how race teams get dents out of dirtbike exhausts? Water pressure! Kinda neat.
These must be very expensive to buy new, as all that skilled labour hours cannot be cheap. Great to watch a craftsman in action
good video, esp. the welded post idea, car repairers use it to dent pull too, esp. if the job has to be painted anyway, and it saves having to expand from the inside (esp. if you can't).
Have you considered using Hydroforming to remove large dents? Seal off the dented section and pressurise it with water, which will press harder against dents and other imperfections than the rest of the makeshift pressure vessel, rounding things off to at least a decent starting point.
I’ve always found soldering a plug and pulling large dents out before doing traditional dent work to be really effective. Typically on thicker brass I use the same style tool you fashioned to use a striking motion. But for thinner brass and really wide dents I usually just pull on the plug with vice grips by hand in one motion so the brass doesn’t flex. I found it comes up more and takes less time.
God, I love to see him working on the tubas?
👏👏👏👏👏👏
Have you seen people doing painless dent repair on cars? They often hot-glue little plastic attachments onto the painted car body panel and then use a slide-hammer to pull out the dents. It could work on your instruments.
It works to an extent. Brass is a lot more malleable than sheet steel, so it tends to deform and has to be worked back into place, whereas sheet steel is easier to "pop" the dent out of because it's so much harder and more springy. It (sheet steel) retains it's memory better, so to speak.
Softer metals tend to be less forgiving.
Source: many years in a paint and body shop, but I work with brass, copper and aluminum as a hobby.
I have watched several of these videos now and there is no doubt that you are a highly skilled craftsman. Artisan even. What I can't help but wonder about though, is how in the world do these horns get that beat up? Some of them look as though the damage may have been intentional.
I always want to know what happened to it and why did it happen?
On first sight, that tuba looks like it was in a demolition derby.
Fascinating to watch you work. Thank you. Have you considered sealing both ends of a dented part and plugging in a pressure washer to blow out the dents?
Got any tricks for removing a bow alone. Very good work love your videos.
Hello from Russia, good job
😱👍
Отличная работа! 👍👍👍 привет из России!🖐️
Владимир.
Was thinking, "You need a dent puller...."!
Next you might try taking an old jigsaw, remove the base plate, and attach a padded wooden or rawhide "fist" where the blade goes, and use that for tippy-tapping creases. No as much tactile sensation, but might speed things up and save some effort. Such things are used in hospital respiratory therapy departments to help clear lungs.
That jigsaw idea is really a good one!
When you send the instrument back, do you include a video of what it took to fix it ?
👍👍👍 see you later ! ☺
God bless you for continuing a profession that relies on our God-given physical talents. I do have a question tho - in this case, wouldn’t it have been better to just replace the two largest damaged parts? I see on Yamaha’s website, you can buy any part on the instrument. Curious also as to the total number of hours you put into this restoration.
Traducir
Al español,muchas gracias: trabajo muy valioso.😊
My dad's a body man now days we use a stud welder and pull dents with the same slide hammer
This is a lot like body work. They weld rods onto the bent in body panel and then pull it out just like you did.
Wes, your work is amazing. How many actual hours did it take you to pull out those dents you worked on today?
I think this part took 3 hours. I was filming. The 4 part series took 2 days.
The soldered stud worked well enough, but you would be better off buying a modern stud gun. You would most likely have to make your own brass studs, but a spot welded stud would be a fair bit stronger. With it being made out of the same material, you wouldn't have to worry about the solder causing a light spot on the brass.
that technique reminds me of the Same process as pulling a dent on a car
I've been a musician all my life and I've carried instruments around with me A LOT and have never even come close to doing anything like this to one. How on earth did that happen?!?
When you repair dented instruments can or does it affect the sound quality. I'm amazed at your skills.
I heard some people get rid of dents by making it super cold in the tuba, air locking it then letting it warm up again and dents pop out
You do amazing things Wes, but what I want to know is how the hell does an instrument end up looking like that ? Seriously that looks almost deliberate with multiple attempts to smash up the tubes !
If you had a metal ball that fitted into the tube it would make removing the dents easier
Wes what about using 'hot glue tabs' as they do on cars when they do 'paintless dent removal '
Another thing car body people use is air-bags that go inside and inflate. They come with a rubber bulb to blow them up. I suspect one of these inside that crushed pipe might push it out effectively.
Always impressive this big of an instrument can be repaired
profissional americano. eu tiro o chapeu pra voce rapais
yes, good tip, but at 11:04 this is called a 'rose_bud', welders use it for manipulating metal, NOT for welding or braising, as this produces a fat large fire, not a controlled beam of heat.
When I watch this, I wondered, is there a tool that holds that ball, and vibrates so you can put pressure on the piece being repaired and let the vibrations work like little hammer taps? That would be an interesting experiment.
Hi Mr.I have a smaller tuba .it's very old and the bell comes appart.Is a two pieces tuba.
I wonder if you could use a pressure cuff to expand the metal.
This is awesome! The damage is unbelievable! How many man hours do you estimate will go in to the repair of this horn?
I was the camera person for this 2 day event.
l appreciate watching a great craftsman do his magic !!! THANK YOU !!!
Were is your email address. I am a retired tool designer, amongst a lot of other crafts. Id like to brainstorm some with you, to come up with shortcut tooling, that only YOU have....just for giggles. I have watched your channel for quite a while.
Is there a tool consisting of a pneumatic bladder that can be snaked inside a sever dent like these and used to push outwards?
Seems like a rubber bladder that you can blow up with compressed air would take some of those big dents from inside.
For automotive paintless dent repair they use Hotglue and special puller tabs, with slide hammer. I wonder how well it would work in this application. You can even get a cheap set on Amazon.
Tried the hot glue method but did not work on my applications. Thanks
I've been watching you work on the tuba in this video. I'm seeing one thing that begs to question. I do a little bit of blacksmith work. I also worked with brass and bronze. The primary ingredient in both brass and bronze metal alloy is copper. Copper responds in very specific ways when heated. You have to reshape the metal anyway.
Copper, Brass and Bronze can be heated to a dull red color and quenched in water. This is a shock treatment and heat treating cycle. However, the specific nature of the primary copper ingredient is that it does not harden when quenched like normal steel. The act of quenching copper actually works opposite of steel quenching. So when you quench any copper based alloy steel you are actually annealing it. So, why is this important?
Copper is a work hardening metal. It cannot be heat treated to harden like most other metals. Bronze is made from a mixture of copper and tin. While Brass is made from a specific blend of copper and zinc. Pure copper by itself is good but is not very hard. It becomes work hardened, but also becomes very brittle and prone to cracking. Brass is harder than pure copper but responds the same way to heat treating as copper. It becomes annealed in a normal heat treating and quenching in water. The same exact process happens with bronze. Bronze came about in the bronze age because copper was plentiful, but made a poor weapon that did not hold a good edge. Bronze was discovered by accident when a small amount of tin was accidentally dropped into a copper smelting furnace. The resulting alloy metal proved to be much harder than a copper blade and held a sharpened edge better than the pure copper did. Brass came at a much later age.
But both metals responds the same way that pure copper does when rapidly cooled in water. It becomes soft and malleable.
My point is, since you obviously must reshape and restore the damaged segments of the tuba and other brass instruments that you service and repair, why not just heat the metal to a dull red color and then quench it by dropping it in a tub of water. Yes, the finish will be destroyed in the process. But that will happen regardless because of the repairing work you must do in this restoration. Why not anneal the metal to dead-soft, then do your reshaping. The metal will quickly be shaped to its original form. And, because it is a work hardening metal, the strength and structure will be restored during the reshaping process.
I've worked on repairing brass instruments. I know that trying to reshape any kind of a fold is a very tricky thing to do because moving it too much and too fast introduces even more stress. Too much stress will cause the brass to become brittle and unstable and could cause it to split and tear. Annealing it to dead soft consistency removes that danger. As long as you don't move too quickly or hammer too hard, you can more easily remove the damaged dents and restore the original shape far quicker. I was asked to repair a trumpet with a badly damaged bell with severe creases. I annealed the horn bell by heating and quenching it. The metal became very soft and malleable and I was able to restore the bell shape almost to its exact and original shape. I polished it, then returned it to the owner. He took it to a shop where it was professionally refinished with fresh new lacquer.
Why not take some damaged horn pieces too far gone and too damaged to restore and practice annealing it, then try to reshape and restore it then. You will be pleasantly surprised with the results and it could make your restoration efforts much easier. No, I did NOT film my restoration work. I didn't have a camcorder back then and have not done too many horn restorations. I do have a trumpet with broken braces that need to be reattached. But the area where the brace separated is corroded and I am not sure how to deal with it. It's a personal instrument that I bought from an antique store. I may just silver solder and rebuild the area that is badly corroded, then grind it down and re-true the shape when I reattach the brace. But that's for another time.
Nice video. I appreciate the hard work you do and I learned a little bit about your work as I watched your video... thank you.
Any time you deform the metal you are work hardening it, even if you are using a rawhide hammer.
The end of a bow of my tuba is been a little. How would I fix it?
Honest question? Is repairing what’s seems to be a cheaper instrument cheaper than just buying a new one? Your work is amazing but is the instrument really the same after that much damage?
I would like to know how the damages occur ?
would hydro forming work?
Curious how much this kind of dent repair would cost. I have a horn in similar condition but want to sell and curious if the horn is worth the cost of repair! Thanks!
Have you ever tried pressurizing the instrument with water to fix dents?