oldlou

About a month ago I lucked into a VERY ancient and collectable York Weldon Model cornet with the original case,( in great condition ), and all of the toys that belong with it, even the lock key. This blows my mind, considering that the little horn was made in 1901.


When I got it the valves were a bit leaky, taking away a good bit of the enjoyment of playing it. I cleaned the valves thoroughly with denatured alcohol and when they were completely dry I applied Break Free CLP as a valve lubricant. After replenishing the CLP three time I can find no leakage or loss of compression and the valve action is lightning fast. The little horn now sings!!!


Heck yes, I am bragging. I feel very lucky to have such a jewel in my 'accumilation'. It even came with a low pitch leadpipe 'bit' to put it into A 440 pitch.


My intent for the long term is to hone out the cylinders, spin the pistons in my machine lathe to true round and copper plate them back up to a very tight fit, prior to lapping them for smooth action.




OLDLOU>>

rowuk

Congrats on the new toy!

That break free stuff sounds pretty good! Synthetic and not all that poisonous!

Here the safety info:
http://www.hazard.com/msds/f2/bgj/bgjgm.html

oldlou

OLDLOU>>

Decentplayer

Lou, was it you who sent away your trumpet and not gotten it back?? What ever happened?? If it's not you, sorry, my mistake.

flugelgirl

So where's the pictures of this baby? It sounds too cool not to post pics!

Vulgano Brother

Sounds fun, but I do have some concerns:

1) Metals of the same type seem to stick together quite well; when a Monel valve plating wears, the valves drag a lot more. I don't know how copper and brass might react with one another.

2) Replating the valves is a big change on a horn that is in such good shape, I'm thinking along two lines here:

a) It's a major job done to a horn that is otherwise all original--I'm thinking in terms of historical value here.
b) There have been some fine old horns (by this I mean old and horns as in french horn) that have been ruined by tightening up the valves--they were built around the leaky valves, so to speak.

I think you have a great find, oldlou, and I'd hate to see it harmed. I'll shut up now, and not nag again.

Eeviac

Break-Free CLP is great. I use it on my motorcycle chain, other odd stuff around the house, my trumpet and cornet, etc. It lasts a long time, smells a little funny but not too bad, and if it was irritating or poisonous I'd know about it by now! It's good for guns too BTW.

MFfan

Hi, not to answer for Lou, but he did get his York trumpet back and told me it looks great , but that he was concerned about the state of the valves. I'll let him tell the story if he wants to.

I was lucky enough to get to play a few notes on his York Weldon model and others, in his van! We meet once in a while half way between where we live. Nice little horn (before his valve work) and the use of the leader pipe extension is kind of strange if you are not used to those styles.

MFfan

Go to the York cornet line on Horn-u-copia, pg 2. There is a picture of a nice York Weldon of 1899, with some comments by Lou relative to that one and his.