Week 15- Mouthpipe rebuild Project

When a mouthpipe needs to be replaced or rebuilt for whatever reason (red rot, irreparable or costly damage), the parts must be disassembled.  If S-braces are not the issue, only the mouthpipe side of the S-braces need to be removed.  Here, however, I removed both S braces and the casing to mouthpipe brace.  This was for instructional purposes.  I decided to replace the casing to mouthpipe brace with a larger universal part, as my original brace was small and vulnerable.

Cleaning parts and removing lacquer is imperative because solder cannot flow if any lacquer is present.  Above, my finger hook and two S-braces have been pickled, sanded, and buffed to remove all lacquer.

While a bit unrelated, I had to remove the upper inner Main Tuning Slide tube to reach a few finicky dents.  This repair in conjunction with the mouthpipe rebuild added to the difficulty of the project.  This is because the main tuning slide must be parallel in span and skew before it can be used as the exact guide for where the mouthpipe should be placed.

After measuring and removing the receiver and out main tuning slide tube from the original mouthpipe, I had to cut the universal mouthpipe to size.  Using a sander, I opened the small end of the taper up to 0.342".  Then I measured the length of the original mouthpipe and cut the new pipe to size.

The next step was to create shims for the excess room in the receiver and outer main tuning slide that would be soldered to the new mouthpipe.  This, while tricky, was extremely helpful in keeping the parts aligned while soldering the mouthpipe.  However, I ran into some trouble with the outer main tuning slide.  While I was soldering the tube slid up the mouthpipe.  I didn't think how this would react when putting the instrument together, but the result was that the main tuning slide could not completely slide into the upper outer main tuning slide tube.  Because of this, I had to resolder the upper outer main tuning slide.  It was definitely a time consuming process and will be something I check for in the future.

Once I had the outer upper main tuning slide tube resoldered, I was able to place the casing to mouthpipe brace in and solder the casing side.  After buffing the tinning around the brace, I could then solder the remaining mouthpipe side of the brace.  Fitting the S-braces was no small task.  The braces are very finicky, and any stress to the instrument can cause denting or unnecessary repair in the future.  Besides, if any technician were to remove a poorly fit S-brace, there is a potential for excess solder to spray and the part to release with a dangerous springing action.  The fitting of both braces to the new mouthpipe was more difficult than expected and took me about a half hour.  It will definitely be something I need to practice.  After the fitting, I was able to solder the S-braces in place.  I ended up having to add more solder to the braces, but the tinning was minimal and the fingerhook tinning was only a bit overrun.  I was happy with the results and after hand buffing and machine buffing I was ready to fully degrease and spot lacquer my project horn.