Just thought y'all might find a status report on this interesting:
I got the Caswell Plug-N-Plate silver and nickel materials I'd ordered for Jill's new (old) Euphonium, and decided to start small. I got out my old cut-down Conn mouthpiece and used Bartender's Friend soft-scrub cleanser on it to get the corrosion off the raw brass parts. It shined up nicely, though the rim is still (as it always was) a bit rough---kind of a matte finish rather than mirror shiny. (Not surprising considering I used fine sandpaper on it at the end. I'd lathed it in a drill, holding a file against it, followed by the sandpaper. Amazing what teenagers will do sometimes.) I clipped it to the lab power supply, set it to 1.7 V with a 300 mA current limit to match the wall-wart that they sell, dipped the bandaged wand as per the instructions, and had at it. Miraculous. Almost instantly the raw brass was covered with silver. I put a bit on the plier wounds on the side where a ham-handed unjamming had been done (probably by me back in the day), which masked them very well. I then put a lot (many many passes) on the rim, and it silvered over nicely. I used up a capfull of the solution on the rim, I figured I wanted a heavy coating on the wear surface where it hits your face. The idea wasn't so much to camouflage the DIY rim profile as to cover the raw brass to prevent biological reaction. And, of course, as a non-critical test bed for the Caswell process. I must say that I'm impressed. A new tool for the arsenal, and not all that expensive. (About $20 for everything I used today, and of course the wand is not really a wear item and there is a _lot_ of silver solution left. Considering what mouthpieces cost, even used ones, this job nearly paid for the kit, assuming it holds up. It looks really good, at least when compared to before.) -- Jim _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
