Re: Re: Re: How to be a repairman?


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Posted by Daniel C. Oberloh on August 27, 2001 at 13:48:21:

In Reply to: Re: Re: How to be a repairman? posted by Jay Bertolet on August 26, 2001 at 23:11:45:

Well, I don't think ebay is the best place to go for training but I can see how alot of folks can get despirate enough to consider it. I'm not sure if I know the answer to your question as I have only the approach from a comercial view.
This is a suggestion. Find yourself a junker horn to experiment with. Don't work on your good horn until you are absolutly confident with your ability. Learn to do the basics such as soldering, basic valve maintenance and how to do touch up work and leave it at that.
I say this because the tools for repairing large brass are very expensive. If you want to do it correctly and avoid wrecking a horn as well as your back, you need to buy this stuff. You may wish to pay a skilled technician to show you the basics in soldering and dent work. I have been asked to do this sort of thing in the past. After a couple of days the interested parties were able to do basic brass repair and had an understanding of how large brass repair was approached. Granted they were not ready go to work on such horns but they had enough understanding to be dangerous which is about how much understanding most Tech school grads have.
The skills of soldering are not as obvious as you think and there is a lot to learn about dissassembly and reassembly. Dent work has some simple applications and they are not tough to learn although access to the dents can complicate what would seem rather simple. Another way to glean some info is to order a tool catalog from Ferrees Tools 1-800-253-2261 and go through it cover to cover. You will be surprised how much you can learn. If you can get an Allied Supply catalog you will learn a little more from it. Ferrees will supply any and all items in there catalog to who ever is interested. Allied supplies only comercial opperations so they are not a source for hobbyists. My company web site is also a source to get ideas on how dent work is performed. We expect to have a series of pages on rebuilding Mirafone tubas in the very near future. I don't know about summer classes. You would need to contact the repair schools and see if they have any thing to offer. Hope this info is of help.


Best regards
Daniel C. Oberloh
Oberloh Woodwind and Brass Works
www.oberloh.com



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