The halfway point of the semester means that we move workshops. We are now in the brass lab. Immediately we went to work on trumpet nomenclature. We took apart our trumpets, learned about the various parts and the metals they were made of. In order to do any work on aligning the piston valves, Greg Beckwith helped us make a porting tool.
This was our first time silver soldering. I was successful in soldering my part at a 90 degree angle. After sanding and buffing, I was able to use my porting tool for the first time!
Using plastic tubing, I can mark the height of the knuckle to the valve threads. From there, I am able to make sure the down stroke of the piston lines up precisely between the port and the knuckle.
Piston valves are an extremely interesting system. By simply lining up ports with their respective knuckles, specific lengthening and shortening of tubing on the instrument produce different notes. The tolerance between the piston and the valve casing is only 0.010". With measurements this small, it is important to be extremely precise with our maintenance and repairs.
To finish off the week we marked trombone bells with marker to show the direction of the buffing wheel. After completing the buffing of my trombone bell I am looking forward to a lathe project, a soft soldering project, and more practice on repairing and maintaining brass instruments next week.
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