Being surrounded by so many inspiring and enthusiastic techs has its benefits. That is why I decided to create a new page to share some of the wonderful instruments I am coming in contact with while in Red Wing. Just look under the "Other Instruments" page to see several fascinating examples of instruments that are a little less common.

Our project clarinets were due last Friday and I am really excited with how it turned out. You can see the final results on the updated Project Clarinet page.

As it turns out, oranges are good for clarinets too. Here are a few bells being moisturized by the orange peels in the bag. A few days of this and they should be back to new.

Everything is busy as usual. I just finished reading The Preservation and Use of Historical Musical Instruments by Robert Barclay, and I took the two days off from class that we had and made a tool holder for my work bench. I am still getting everything set exactly where I want it but the tool holder has all ready made me more organized and efficient while working.

Practice, practice, practice.

This is my work bench at the house and
my new screw board that I made
the first day of woodwind lab.

Today we moved to the woodwind side and I will begin to work on clarinets for the next eight weeks. The move is exciting but I think I am going to miss the brass side. Here is a view of my new bench.

Here it is. I finished my client trumpet (for now). Go to the Project Trumpet page to see all of the details.

Today, Greg brought in a neat horn made by M. Jiracek & Sons. Look at the valve arrangement, they are definitely different. The link to this company's website is www.jiracek.eu/en.html. This is a Czech company that offers several interesting instruments, as well as some historical brass instruments. I can not speak to the playability of such a valve arrangement on the horn but it was definitely a joy to see.

Just another day in the shop. This is Greg and John, two of the instructors for the course.

This bell fold is far from being done but I want to go ahead and post some pictures of the progress that has all ready taken place.



The picture above shows the fold, which stretches all the way around the bell, making this more of a restoration than just a quick fix. There was no reference with which to rely upon in order to know when the bell had returned to the original shape.

After several trips between the bell mandrel and the roller it is possible to see the bell starting to lie flat. I still need to spend a good deal of time with the burnisher in order to restore the surface to being as smooth as possible and will update as soon as that happens.

Today I built a first valve slide assembly.



First the parts.




Add the solder.




Then buff.

These parts were kindly donated to the school by the Yamaha Corporation, and this project would not have been possible without their help. The crooks for all student line Yamaha trumpets are the same size so I was able to use a Yamaha trumpet that the school owns for alignment and to hold the pieces while they were assembled.

More on the trumpet bell today. The first picture is after the chem room, the way the bell looked first thing this morning. Last week I filed the brass rod so that it would fit both the bell tail and bell stem to serve as a brace. Today I was able to solder the brass rod to the bell using a 63/37 soft solder and then began to buff. I had to hand buff the tail, crook and part of the stem and then used the buffing wheel for the rest of the stem, throat and bell flare. I think it turned out nicely and I am looking forward to the final buffing process soon.

The result of my first trip to the chem room. First a detergent soak in Simple Green and then the pickle with Slime Away.

Today was my first time using the buffing wheels. Here you can see the before and after of a trombone bell. We were only allowed to use yellow rouge for the entire process but this is by far the most dramatic difference that I have seen in an instrument at this point in the program.

My first time seeing Minnesota, after several days of driving! This is crossing the Mississippi River from Wisconsin. What a beautiful state.