Repairing A Tuba I Got

in #tuba6 years ago (edited)

After being in band for almost a decade, I learned how to play most instruments that would be found in an ensemble (the remaining being double reeds due to cost). During my senior year in high school, they had a broken tuba in the drama room's attic and put it in the hallway of the band room, and while helping with packing (half the school was being demolished), my band teacher mentioned it and said because it would likely need repairs, if I wanted to repair/take it to a repair shop, then I could have it. Seeing that tuba's aren't cheap these days, I gladly took the offer and went on to repair it, which is what you're reading now.

Before working on it, I did a search for what kind of tuba I had, using the information on it, the serial number being "478142" and on the bell faintly having engraved in it,
"KING
KING MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS
EASTLAKE
OHIO"
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After a quick Google search, I found it was made between 1970-1975, according to Conn-Selmer. There's also a website I found showcasing a database of King tubas here.

Taking it home, I could see why someone would think it was unrepairable, or simply didn't want to bother with it, as it would look intimidating to fix for someone who didn't have prior experience in this. The costs of repairing a tuba is a bit over my budget though, so I tried self repairing it with the knowledge I got from messing around with my rented tuba and with the help of Google.
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It's pretty straight forward to see that one of the valves is bent, while another one is stuck in it's case. You can also see on the spit valves that there isn't any, and in its place is masking tape.

To get a feel of what's wrong with it, I play tested it and surprisingly didn't find anything wrong with it besides the valves. The first valve works fine, as well as the third valve, but the latter needed a bit of lubrication. The casings were stuck, so to unscrew each case, I used a wrench to move the caps, then twisted them off by hand (this took a painfully long time). After this, I lubricated the third valve with valve grease and valve oil, which made it move how it was intended. For the bent fourth valve, I lubricated it, and seeing that it sprung back up after pushing it down, it felt like it would work if I got it replaced. The second valve wouldn't budge, but after around an hour and a half of valve oil and wiggling, it finally came out of its case. I realized shortly after that the casing itself might be the problem, but to make sure, I decided I'd get two replacement valves and a spit valve from a broken sousaphone in the band room, as it was going to be scrapped anyways (people most likely weren't as careful with their instruments in the past).

Day Two
I went back to the band room to get the needed materials and as there are similar tubas in there to the one I have, I tested to see if the valves we're the same size as a sousaphone and shouldn't have been surprised with the outcome as they're bassically the same instrument (sorry for that). Because the spit valve had a twist off screw, I spent a good 15 minutes unscrewing it from the sousaphone. After getting home, I replaced the bent valve with a working one and it was good as new.
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I found that after trying to do the same with the second valve that my former suspicions were true, in which the other valve didn't solve it, rendering it not needed. I tried cleaning the inside of the case to see if that would change the outcome, but to no prevail. It's still playable, as the third valve can be used for alternate keys to substitute for 1&2, while the fourth valve can be used to substitute for 2, but I plan to have it fixed in the future.

The next logical thing to do is to fix the spit valves, which, as stated before, can be seen wrapped in masking tape rather than an actual spit valve.
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To fix this, I removed the masking tape from the slide, then took the spit valve I got from the broken sousaphone and just screwed it in.
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This is where I screwed up (again, apologies). Because I was so focused on if the valves would work, I didn't account for the size of the spit valve.
No worries, they don't cost too much, do they?

This is currently the only one I can find online.
I don't know about you guys, but I'm not willing to pay this much for a single spit valve. Hopefully I can find these in a music store somewhere for cheaper, like maybe $10 at most. Or maybe I'll 3D print one.

Until then, it looks like I'm going back into the band room tomorrow to see if the other spit valve on the broken sousaphone will fit, or if an extra is lying around somewhere in the room.

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