Your advise about hammering on the stop arm retaining screw will result in bending the screw or breaking the threaded portion off. The safest method is to remove it completely and use a pin punch bottomed in the empty screw hole. Nice if you have the parts. If you at least are using a properly sized screwdriver, retighten the screw then back it out a turn or so, no more, center the driver in the screw slot, and hammer on the screw driver until the screw is bottomed out again. This indicates you have loosened the top bearing plate. Slowly unscrew the retaining screw while continuing to tap on it. If you do it this way, the screw can't bend. Also, the screw will keep the rotor safe in the housing. -----Original Message----- From: Gordon, Heather <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: horn@music.memphis.edu Sent: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:08:14 -0600 Subject: [Hornlist] fixin' horns
Nick, I?m not a specialist in the area, but I?ve been fixing up an old Conn 6D recently and I successfully did this without damaging anything. My friend, who works at an instrument repair shop, has been teaching me. As others have pointed out, you probably have some kind of gunk or corrosion thing going on. I?d remove the rotor completely and clean it out. It took me about an hour for one rotor (mostly because I?d never done it before because I?ve always had access to a professional, but I wanted to learn). If you have mechanical rotors, I can?t help you, but the process might be similar. Remove all the screws from the cork stop plate and the stop arm (this will also mean removing the strings) and take off the valve cap on the other side (important!). Then unscrew the stop arm retaining screw. Find a rawhide hammer. If you can?t find a rawhide hammer, a regular one will do, but you?ll have to find something to protect the horn with (I folded up a thick towel and used that as protection). To drop the valve, use the stop arm retaining screw to focus the impact of the hammer by placing it back in the hole you unscrewed it from (and maybe turning it once). The valve (and back head bearing) should pop out nicely after a few taps on the top of the screw (protected by the towel). Once the valve is free, the problem should become very evident. Be very careful at this point though, because the valve fits pretty tightly into the casing. Damaging either could spell disaster. Clean out all the dirt and corrosion and anything else you see you might need to fix. If you want to soak the valve in soapy water, use the most basic soap you can find (something that won?t cause more corrosion). Before you put the valve back safely in its casing, be sure to lubricate both the valve and the inside of the casing generously with a very light oil. The tricky part is putting the valve back in its casing. Make sure that as you do this, it goes in straight so it doesn?t get stuck (and possibly damaged as you try to free it). Once the valve is safely in, put on the valve head bearing. Make sure you line up all the little notches on the valve head bearing with the notches on the edge of the valve casing (nearest to the trigger). Once you have the notches lined up, put the towel over the back head bearing and lightly tap it with the hammer to secure it in place. Then screw on the cork stop plate and the stop arm. Once the stop arm is back on, check the alignment of the notches a final time before replacing the valve cap. Retie the strings on and you?re set. Hopefully you or one of your horn buddies has some extra horn cord so you can put a new string on, but if you don?t have any, the old one will at least last until you can get a new one (it?s just harder to work with ?cuz its probably shorter). Anyway, good luck with that. Hope this helps at least somewhat. If you really care about this horn, you might just want to play on the other you have coming and wait to take it to a professional. I did this to a horn that I bought for $75 (couldn?t resist ^_^), and I wasn?t really worried about damaging something that couldn?t get worse (its pretty bad). As a future preventative, make sure your mouth is really clean before you play (I always brush right before now, but that might be a little extreme). When greasing your valves, only put the grease on half the slide (as in the half closest to the part people can see) so the grease doesn?t work its way down into the rotor. Blah, blah. I?m sure you heard all of this from your first band director. Sorry about that (I teach a lot of beginner horn players). Good luck. Wish I were at a music camp in Saratoga. Heather ?Red? Gordon _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/billbamberg%40aol.com _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
