[Henning1]

Hello

I have two music school clarinets that have similar "hurts". One wooden piece in the bell joint is missing. Please see the photo. I don´t know what to do with this Leblanc Sonata. Do you have any advice?

regards
Henning

 

[jbtsax]

We repair these from time to time by filling the space with grenadilla dust mixed with superglue. The area is then filed, sanded, cut down on a lathe to match the surrounding wood. A much more expensive but more permanent repair is to drill out the existing tenon and replace it with an insert. The other option is to do nothing since the crack in the tenon does not affect how the clarinet plays or sounds.

John

 

[bruce bailey]

I would file the rough edges smooth to prevent any more cracking to occur. Not a big problem, just use it as is.

 

[Henning1]

Thanks for you answers. I´ve considered to put a little superglue at the wood end to stabilize the missing piece. A complete filling with superglue grenadilla powder might be best (as I don´t have any other wood crack repair utensils).

regards

 

[bruce bailey]

Too big for super glue. If you really want to fill the area (whcih is not important as it is at the bottom of the clarinet) you should put a wood rod inside the bore and build up an area of filler using 2-part Epoxy. Remove the rod and file and sand to get even.

 

[Henning1]

I put superglue on the edges, then smothed it out with a file to avoid somebody getting stuck with a sweater or get stitches.
I believe the way with epoxy might be done with super glue too. If you put a piece of tape inside the bore:

1. then lay out a layer of grenadilla powder on the tape
2. pour on some super glue & let it dry - Goto 1.

and repeat until the lacking piece is filled. (But might be more work then epoxy, but will be harder(?))

Afterwards "remove" tape and smothen out, etc.

 

[Gordon (NZ)]

That's how I would do it. I used to do it with black-pigmented epoxy, after gluing into holes in the timber, an arc of stainless steel wire (say 0.5 mm) bridging the gap, and maybe a couple of other lateral ones, for reinforcing. I don't know if this was really necessary, but felt I needed to do this to guarantee the job, considering that the timber may be saturated with grease in this area.