Finding a crook was never so easy...


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Posted by Tony E on July 29, 2003 at 00:09:04:

I managed to take a few hours off this afternoon and hang out at Dan Oberloh’s shop.
The initial purpose of my visit was to pick up a Miraphone 182 BBb that Dave Fedderly shipped there. I’ll post on that after I’ve had a couple days to get some face time on it.

While I was there I watched as Dan began the process of fabricating a crook for the 4th valve tuning slide on my Holton 345. This crook is a common problem area for the 345s, and mine, like several others, has a patch over a hole that developed sometime over the last 40 years. Unfortunately, the crook (or an equivalent) is not available.

The first step is to make the correct diameter tube from a sheet of brass, a process which I’d never seen done before. After heating the metal to make it pliable, and forming it around a rod, it is silver brazed, hammered into shape, and cleaned with an acid bath. The trick is to get such large diameter tubing to bend in a very tight radius without kinking, splitting, or otherwise becoming useless. This involved the creation of a special jig and lots of time as the tube is gradually bent, hammered free of creases, bent again, hammered again, etc. The radius is so tight that the silvery goup they fill the tubing with breaks its seal to the brass or collapses and has to be re-heated and a new seal formed. I had to leave before it was finished, but I learned this evening that the new crook is completed and was a success.

So, Holton owners with deteriorated 4th valve tuning slide crooks…there is hope in Seattle!

Also, for you F tuba folks, there’s a B&S F tuba for sale at Dan’s shop that plays like a million bucks. What a sweet sounding horn. I don’t play F worth a crap, but even I sounded good on this one...but not nearly as good as Dan.

Tony E



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