GordonH

I have managed to drop a mouthpiece into my trumpet case and dent one of the valve casings on my piston valve piccolo trumpet (yes it was a heavy mouthpiece).

Anyone had any experience of getting valve casings repaired?

I have a good local repairer but I am away on business for the next few days so I cant get him to look at it till midweek at the earliest.
Does anyone know if this is fixable?
Its not too big a dent but is stopping the valve going up and down.

Thats my first dent for a long long time and my worst one everr.
And it had to be a few weeks before a wedding.
Fortunately I have two pics so its not the end of the world but I would be hear broken if this killed my Besson one.

__________________
"O trumpeter, methinks I am myself the instrument thou playest,
Thou melt'st my heart, my brain--thou movest, drawest, changest
them at will;" (Walt Whitman)

rowuk

It is fixable, but will probably involve removing some material, so that valve won't be quite as tight as before.

No reason to worry - much...........

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GordonH

OK, thanks for that.
I don't know anyone who has had to get casing damage fixed before so I have no idea how successful it will be.

No doubt I will find out when I get back and have it looked at.

__________________
"O trumpeter, methinks I am myself the instrument thou playest,
Thou melt'st my heart, my brain--thou movest, drawest, changest
them at will;" (Walt Whitman)

Vulgano Brother

You've got two options, Gordon--one would be to bump the dent out of the valve casing, which usually involves re-lapping it and building up the valve by plating (and more lapping) to get it to fit. The other option would be to force the valve to work by pushing it up and down until it digs enough material out of itself to compensate for the dent. If the dent isn't too close to any of the valve ports you should be ok. Aren't you glad you bought a cheap Chinese spare piccolo?

Good luck, and please keep us posted!

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Brekelefuw

The repairman might have a valve mandrel that fits to valve. If he does he can push the dent out from the inside and hammer out the dent if it isn't too sharp.
Lapping or using a honing tool is the last option a good repair tech would try because you can't put back material that has been removed.

Indian

There are a few fixes already mentioned and all work. I would rather wear a tool than a valve though. I had a Conn 80A and the first valve would not even go into the casing using force. I took it to my repairman and he had a resizing tool (mechanical pipe expander). Basically it is a little smaller than the valve and is inserted into the casing. A through bolt is tightened which pulls two cones toward each other, one on each end into the expander body making it expand. Control is excellent and the valve fits and works like new with no lapping or removal of metal on valve or in casing. It cost only about $75.00. The repair is a year old and the valve still works flawlessly. Just another idea.

__________________
Rob,
King Liberty SilverTone (3)
King Liberty (7) Super 20 (2)
Conn Vocabell 40A - Conn 80A (6) - Conn 81A (1) - 22B - 4B Symphony
Conn 16B (Coprion Bell)
Holton French LeBlanc (1) - Al Hirt 550
Olds Studio (1) - Special (1)

Vulgano Brother

Yikes! Now you tell me! Good thing I'm used to leaky valves!

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stchasking

The valve expander is good. Some people use a steel ball forced through the valve casing to resize. I am not too sure if this galls the material and requires lapping.

Pipe expanders have been around a long time.

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Brekelefuw

As long as the steel ball has no damage to it to mar the valve casing which is quite a bit softer than the steel used in dent balls, it should do the trick, but I would be weary of trying with a ball because you wouldnt have that much control and the tolerance between the ball and the valve casing would have to be perfect in order to not over expand the casing.

Indian

The ball is a tried and true solution but it only contacts the tubing in a very narrow range and could ripple the casing. Oval balls are better, the expander is longer and can distribute the forces more evenly and MAYBE a little safer??? There are a lot of solder joints in a valve casing that need to be considered also. What ever you decide a trained technician that has performed the repair before is the most important ingrediant!!! GOOD LUCK!!!

__________________
Rob,
King Liberty SilverTone (3)
King Liberty (7) Super 20 (2)
Conn Vocabell 40A - Conn 80A (6) - Conn 81A (1) - 22B - 4B Symphony
Conn 16B (Coprion Bell)
Holton French LeBlanc (1) - Al Hirt 550
Olds Studio (1) - Special (1)