[Rick Detroit]

Hey repair people! I have an old silver Chu that has some of the ugliest Eb cage resolder "work" I've ever seen. Have any of you techs ever cleaned up someone elses sloppy repair for cosmetic reasons? It's such a shame, the horn is pretty fantastic other than the amateur-hour repair.

just curious if I should even pursue this thought. Cheers!

 

[turf3]

If that's really solder, then cleaning it up is pretty easy, though tedious. I'd probably start with a giant soldering iron and some solder-wick, then use various different scrapers/knives, and maybe end up with one of those tiny little polishing wheels on a Dremel.

But it looks more like JB Weld to me. If that's the case, I'd probably scrape off what I could and leave it. Or, unsolder the whole thing, clean everything off properly, and resolder carefully.

 

[milandro]

I agree that it can be done , whether epoxy or solder. Unsoldering or removing the epoxy and then resoldering again, which on silver has the potential of leaving little marks.

I know a few technicians with a background as a goldsmith, they are the best at doing clean solder work and if you are able to convince a person like that to take on such a job and the price agrees with you ( it may not) . Ask even a goldsmith ( who may not be as busy as a technician in time of corona when everyone is having horns repaired , at least over here)

 

[saxoclese]

I regularly "clean up" poor or amateur looking repair on saxes that come into my shop. Not only for aesthetic reasons, but so no one might think since it was in my shop that I did that quality of work.

 

[datsaxman]

I would definitely clean that up. And no, it does not look like solder. Ick.

 

[JayeLID]

Yeah it is some sorta cold-weld product, I think.

Would probably burn off under heat, or could be removed with a silicone wheel on a dremel. As Milandro said, on a plated horn the possibility exists there may be some marking or plate loss as a result of getting that..stuff...off. But I'd rather have it off and a few plating marks than leave it on, myself.

Although the counter-argument might be....if it is holding the guard on OK, it is really only visible to the player sooooo...maybe just leave it ? Which isn't a terrible counter-argument to make, really.

 

[datsaxman]

Well, sure. But it sure is unsightly.

 

[clarnibass]

I imagine most repairers have done that.
If it's part of a bigger repair, it can make sense anyway.
Otherwise it can depend on the owner. If it's just cosmetic, and they brought the sax just to have a torn palm key pad replaced, there is a huge ugly solder blob, but they can barely afford the pad... well that situation happens occasionally.

One issue is that, if you remove it with heat (whether it's solder, or any epoxy that loses its hold by heat), then it might pop out and you then see alignment is off, and possibly can't be corrected without unsoldering and resoldering the entire guard. It's not really an "issue", it's just that it might be more work than it seemed at first.

 

[Rick Detroit]

Wow! Cool! Thanks for the responses, I am going to look and see if I can find someone who can do this well. The repair is terribly ugly: I can handle some plating loss!

 

[PigSquealer]

Just keep in mind a goldsmith / jeweler may not understand sax mechanics. IE burnt pads & warped tone holes. Be prepared to remove a key on the spot. If the tech completely removes the guard. Anticipate adjusting the adjacent pad some.

 

[ptung]

Hey repair people! I have an old silver Chu that has some of the ugliest Eb cage resolder "work" I've ever seen. Have any of you techs ever cleaned up someone elses sloppy repair for cosmetic reasons? It's such a shame, the horn is pretty fantastic other than the amateur-hour repair.

just curious if I should even pursue this thought. Cheers!
View attachment 4583

Worth a note: 20 years ago, this was not bad. Those who remember Jason DuMars's famous webpages from that period reviewing some repair work photos may remember how different the norm of "bad" was then, compared to now. You're going to see much worse, consistently, on repair done 20 years ago, which that may well be.

Re its appearance, old solder will often look like JB Weld on silver solder that's been polished, because the solder will not polish if it's lead/tin or a lead mixture. I agree it looks like JB Weld, which is not as uncommon as one would like, but old solder will also tend to look like that after tarnished silver plate around it has been polished.

 

[ptung]

Also: sometimes, a clean-up of really bad (lumped up, melted Disney Matterhorn looking) soldering jobs can end up looking like that, if one's not hired or charged with doing a more invisible job. I interject this in part because I just did a clean-up of a bad old repair a week ago, and it looks just a little better than that, because to clean-up further would just increase the cost to the customer without actually changing anything (on a horn being readied for sale), in a place where nobody's ever going to see it unless I take photos of it (which I did, of course).