A foot for screwing on one of the individual key guards on the lower end of my sax came off. I assume these are soldered on. If I have prior soldering experience, would it be reasonable to expect that I could repair this on my own? Are there any other acceptable ways of reattaching the key guard foot without soldering? Could I go about this without damaging the surrounding lacquer?
Reattaching an unsoldered keyguard foot
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Yes they are soldered on...soft solder. Yes, if you can torch solder skillfully then you could do the repair. Acceptable alternative repair methods?...IMO no. Temporary fixes that will be a PITA to undo or take time to clean away for a proper fix yes, many. Will you damage the lacquer? Probably a bit, minimally if your solder skills are good. If your skills are not good then not only could laquer be damaged, you can heat it enough to detach other parts, burn lacquer and possibly crystalize the soft solder so that fixing your mistake will be costly.
I've used super-glue with great success for the same problem and no lacquer damage. It was suggested to me by a well-known tech who posts on this forum so it almost comes recommended! He seemed to think some super-glues were better than others, I just used the one I had on hand, worked great.
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If that tech was me, then be it known that I would suggest superglue only as a highly makeshift measure. And I don't recall ever suggesting it. I actually hope it was not me!
It is nowhere near as reliably strong as solder for this situation.
It creates one hell of a mess if it gets on neighbouring lacquer!
If you must use glue, then a slow setting epoxy would probably be more reliable and a lot less risky. E.g. Araldite Superstrength.
But definitely, some superglues are a lot better than others.
As for doing a good soldering job after glue has been used with care... For me the removal of the glue is a bit of a pain, but with my equipment would not take more than a couple of minutes. Not really any worse than removing heavy tarnish in preparation for soldering, IMO.
It is nowhere near as reliably strong as solder for this situation.
It creates one hell of a mess if it gets on neighbouring lacquer!
If you must use glue, then a slow setting epoxy would probably be more reliable and a lot less risky. E.g. Araldite Superstrength.
But definitely, some superglues are a lot better than others.
As for doing a good soldering job after glue has been used with care... For me the removal of the glue is a bit of a pain, but with my equipment would not take more than a couple of minutes. Not really any worse than removing heavy tarnish in preparation for soldering, IMO.
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Don't worry, it wasn't you...
It's a method that works well in certain circumstances - the most critical being that there should be as little stress as possible on the guard foot.
When a guard foot pops off it's usually because of a knock to the guard, which deforms the guard. This must be corrected first.
They also pop off because a guard has been fitted under strain - it didn't line up neatly with the feet and was squashed down before fitting. This too must be corrected.
If it's just because the joint has failed and the guard sits more or less square then this method can work quite well, and last for quite some time.
The trick to using the glue is 'less is more' - a drop of about 3mm in diameter is plenty enough. For a bit of insurance you can surround the mounting point with masking tape.
Pop a drop of glue on the body, place the foot down on it and hold in place for a minute or so. Make sure the body is held level to avoid any glue from running away from the joint.
It's a quick-fix method that won't damage the lacquer unless you use too much glue - and can last quite a long time. There's an East German bari out there somewhere with a low C guard that's been hanging on with superglue for around 5 years now (and a couple of pillars)
As for removing any superglue prior to soldering, a short-bladed sharp scalpel deals with it in no time at all.
It's by no means a replacement for having the joint soldered properly, but as you'll probably lose a bit of lacquer during the soldering process you don't have much to lose by giving the glue a go - and you'll do a lot less damage than trying to solder it yourself if you don't have the right equipment and the right skills.
Regards,
It's a method that works well in certain circumstances - the most critical being that there should be as little stress as possible on the guard foot.
When a guard foot pops off it's usually because of a knock to the guard, which deforms the guard. This must be corrected first.
They also pop off because a guard has been fitted under strain - it didn't line up neatly with the feet and was squashed down before fitting. This too must be corrected.
If it's just because the joint has failed and the guard sits more or less square then this method can work quite well, and last for quite some time.
The trick to using the glue is 'less is more' - a drop of about 3mm in diameter is plenty enough. For a bit of insurance you can surround the mounting point with masking tape.
Pop a drop of glue on the body, place the foot down on it and hold in place for a minute or so. Make sure the body is held level to avoid any glue from running away from the joint.
It's a quick-fix method that won't damage the lacquer unless you use too much glue - and can last quite a long time. There's an East German bari out there somewhere with a low C guard that's been hanging on with superglue for around 5 years now (and a couple of pillars)
As for removing any superglue prior to soldering, a short-bladed sharp scalpel deals with it in no time at all.
It's by no means a replacement for having the joint soldered properly, but as you'll probably lose a bit of lacquer during the soldering process you don't have much to lose by giving the glue a go - and you'll do a lot less damage than trying to solder it yourself if you don't have the right equipment and the right skills.
Regards,
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