The Manual of Saxophone Repair.
This is a first rate book that turns the light on as far as saxophone repair is concerned.
I wish to share some aspects of the book with other members.
When doing an over haul, straiten the body- if necessary before doing any thing else.
You do this with all the keys on.
Then you straiten bent keys alining them over the tone holes.
Now you strip down the instrument swedging as you go. You can swedge some keys in situ.
Throp says that metal shims tend to leave there mark on toneholes.
However, I think that if I were to use shims and the rawhind hammer at the beginning, truing the toneholes would remove the small bit of damage I might cause,
I say small because I intend to go easy on using the metal shims.
I understand the the north south walls are stronger as Gorden points out.
You reassemble in this order
Bottom stack
Side keys
Top stack
Octave mechanisn
Bell keys.
When regulating a horn, you simply work down from the top.
Leaks at the top cause more problems than leaks at the bottom.
Repadding. Two principles he insists on; The pads should protrude at the same distance, the key bars must be straight.
Here an interesting excentricity; He suggests backing off the ajustment screws as he doesn’t trust these.
Another point; he has no preferance for shellac or for hot glue. He calls both pad cement.
He uses pad irons to put the pads in place; also he heats the irons to iron a seating that he says should not be too deep..
He suggest you make your own pad irons from spring metal and offers the template and dimensions.
There are exact instructions for making your own key cups, pads, pillars, and pivot screws
For tone hole leveling he suggests using wide flat tone hole file or use rotary files.
A wide flat tone hole file: I ask members: Could I use high quality sandpaper glued to glass ?
Tone holes can be raised using a burnisher- it looks like a round file with a handle- acting like a lever with a tone hole raising plate as a fulcrum..
Use high quality thick oil for keys and car grease for pivot skrews.
Springs should be bent in a even curve looking like the bend in a feather.
You should bent the spring more than necessary because when the horn is reassembled it is easily to unbend the springs into their proper position.
Drop a bit of oil in the cardle of the spring
Burnishing the springs revitalises them
Kraus springs as as good as blue needle springs. Otherwise he seems not to be crazy about other brands of non- blue needle springs.
End play is best dealt with by using the lathe to make a plug out of nickel silver rod soldering it on and drilling it out.
Various forms of rethreading connected to shaky action are dealt with.
With a lathe, this book, the right materials and patience, the diligent student could make considerable progress in creating a first class action.
He recommends the the jl smith key bending lever.
The is a sections dealing with the the history of lacquer and cork cultivation, customers relations and pricing
A generous and erudite exposition of the art of woodwind repair.
Though this book is comprehensive, there are ideas I have picked up on this forum Thorp doesn’t mention.
This is a first rate book that turns the light on as far as saxophone repair is concerned.
I wish to share some aspects of the book with other members.
When doing an over haul, straiten the body- if necessary before doing any thing else.
You do this with all the keys on.
Then you straiten bent keys alining them over the tone holes.
Now you strip down the instrument swedging as you go. You can swedge some keys in situ.
Throp says that metal shims tend to leave there mark on toneholes.
However, I think that if I were to use shims and the rawhind hammer at the beginning, truing the toneholes would remove the small bit of damage I might cause,
I say small because I intend to go easy on using the metal shims.
I understand the the north south walls are stronger as Gorden points out.
You reassemble in this order
Bottom stack
Side keys
Top stack
Octave mechanisn
Bell keys.
When regulating a horn, you simply work down from the top.
Leaks at the top cause more problems than leaks at the bottom.
Repadding. Two principles he insists on; The pads should protrude at the same distance, the key bars must be straight.
Here an interesting excentricity; He suggests backing off the ajustment screws as he doesn’t trust these.
Another point; he has no preferance for shellac or for hot glue. He calls both pad cement.
He uses pad irons to put the pads in place; also he heats the irons to iron a seating that he says should not be too deep..
He suggest you make your own pad irons from spring metal and offers the template and dimensions.
There are exact instructions for making your own key cups, pads, pillars, and pivot screws
For tone hole leveling he suggests using wide flat tone hole file or use rotary files.
A wide flat tone hole file: I ask members: Could I use high quality sandpaper glued to glass ?
Tone holes can be raised using a burnisher- it looks like a round file with a handle- acting like a lever with a tone hole raising plate as a fulcrum..
Use high quality thick oil for keys and car grease for pivot skrews.
Springs should be bent in a even curve looking like the bend in a feather.
You should bent the spring more than necessary because when the horn is reassembled it is easily to unbend the springs into their proper position.
Drop a bit of oil in the cardle of the spring
Burnishing the springs revitalises them
Kraus springs as as good as blue needle springs. Otherwise he seems not to be crazy about other brands of non- blue needle springs.
End play is best dealt with by using the lathe to make a plug out of nickel silver rod soldering it on and drilling it out.
Various forms of rethreading connected to shaky action are dealt with.
With a lathe, this book, the right materials and patience, the diligent student could make considerable progress in creating a first class action.
He recommends the the jl smith key bending lever.
The is a sections dealing with the the history of lacquer and cork cultivation, customers relations and pricing
A generous and erudite exposition of the art of woodwind repair.
Though this book is comprehensive, there are ideas I have picked up on this forum Thorp doesn’t mention.
