Posted by Carl Kleinsteuber on May 13, 2001 at 03:22:32:
In Reply to: amateur horn-building posted by Scott on May 12, 2001 at 18:54:18:
>I don't know what I'm going to do for the valve tubes (branches?) yet.
>I didn't follow Carl's explanation in his article at this point, although
>I was planning on inquiring tuba manufacturers about the cost of buying a
>complete valve set (with tuning slides).
Well, for the curved parts (crooks and vaious angled pieces) I just bent straight tubing using the 'lead' method. For the straight parts (inner + outer slides) I used stock pipe from the metal store. If the outer slide was 21x20mm (21mm outer diameter, 20 inner), then the inner slide would be 20x19mm, and would almost always fit pretty well, although sometimes I'd have to sand a bit off.
The big exception here was the 2nd valve crook, which you oughta buy from the factory / repairman. I'd love to watch someone make one by hand. I assume it's possible!