Epoxying on a key post!?!?!?!?!?

[JPrince]

Before I get flamed :), I am not wanting too do that, but I found out thats what the previous owner of my horn had done. I was going to take my The Martin Tenor down to my tech today to have him soldier on a lyre holder (A $25 job) and, when I opened my case to clear out reeds, musi (In the pockets.... its a Pro Tech gig case) etc, I picked up the horn to just look at it, and lo and behold, the C# keyrod's post just FELL OFF!!!! After about 5 mintes of profanity by me, a quick inspection revealed that I had not hit it (Which I already knew) but that, as the tech later confirmed, whoever owned the horn had simply epoxyed or superglued it on when he broke it off. So, $45 later, I have it fixed, and a new lyre holder on my sax.


P.S. I was amazed with the solder quality. The lyre holder doesn't look soldered on, but more like it had always been there!

[Bootman]

MArtin key posts, especially the long ones often fall off. This is usually because they weren't soldered on with enough solder in the factory. It is an easy repair for any good tech.

[KEN K]

When a repair tech sees a slopy solder job one with solder all over the place we say it was done by a plumer. When a plumer solders a pipe they load it up with solder because it does not matter what it looks like and nobody sees it because the pipes are hidden.

When you solder somthing like a post and want it to look good you only use the amount of solder needed to do the job and make it look good. It is not as hard as you think .The parts have to be clean and add flux and just the right amount of solder and heat not get it too hot and you have a perfect job. It does take a little pratice.

[Stencilman]

One of my Martin sopranos had the bottom C# post that looks like it was soldered on by a plumber. The original post was probably knocked off and lost because the post was replaced by a brass bolt fashioned into a post. Tons of solder all over the place. I've played the horn this way until recently when I decided to add a neck strap ring and replace the missing key stop under one of the palm keys.

Ken is right. Soldering isn't that hard, but it takes more than a little practice, at least for me. I was lucky that my soprano is bare brass or I would have a nasty mess all over my horn from running solder. I've got two student model "soldering project" horns that are lacquered that I'll keep practicing on. I think the only way to learn to solder well is to watch an expert do it for a while.

[Saxdaddy]

Soldering is easy, its the prep to make sure that things match up, and not burning certain lacquers that sucks. A post that has been knocked off many times is way out of shape at the base, and the body where the post attaches can also get messed up. So making those parts match up again can take some effort, and time. Then there is the lacquer that will burn, not might burn, but will burn. Then mixing pigments to match for spot lacquers. But soldering, yeah thats easy. :wink: