Monday, March 11, 2013

Week 21- Body Work and Leveling Tone Holes


Dent removal is a very important part of bringing a saxophone into great condition!  The first step is to ensure that the body is straight.  Inspect braces to see if they are dented in.  Sighting the body, look for a bend in any direction (sight on both planes!).  If the body is bent, using a straightening tool is necessary.  Leaving a bend in the body could lead to binding keys, unlevel pad cups and pads that aren't sealing tone holes.  The list of potentials is nearly endless, so fixing the root of the problem is imperative.  To straighten the body a socket plug can be used.  Finding the apex of the bend, brace the fulcrum and hit against the socket plug to straighten.

Body dent work is very similar to brasswind dent work.  After all, a saxophone is made of brass.  Dents are best taken out of the bow using a curved dent rod with a round dent ball.  Starting in the center of the bow limits the amount of blow outs in one's dent removal.  Rebounding is usually necessary on the brass guard found on the bottom of the bow.  From the bow to the bell, a pear shaped dent ball is very effective.  The bell flare is treated exactly as a bell flare in the brasswind family.  It is important to keep the flare round.

Body work is mostly completely by drawing out dents.  Some rebounds on posts are necessary.  The barrel shaped dent balls are used in the body, and some have slots that allow for easy movement beyond the octave pip.  After taking out all dents, restraighten the body.  Sight the inside of the tube, with a leak light in the bell to aid the sighting process.
My instrument had previous dent work on the upper post of the High E key and the octave pip.  While working on post alignment on my instrument, the High E upper post came unsoldered and it was then visible that the octave pip had been corroded around the solder joint.  Using lead free solder, I resoldered the octave pip and the post in place after removing dents that still remained in the area.  I had to clean the excess tinning and spot lacquer the area.  I also resoldered the Side F# key guard and spot lacquered there as well.

As the week came to a close I began leveling the tone holes on my project horn.  I used a variable speed hand drill with a diamond grit abrasive to level.  Using oil is useful here, as a cleaning agent and a lubricant.  Removing burrs lightly with a scraper or tin foil is very important.  The process will leak into next week's to-do list, but the end result will make seating pads much easier.

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