Klarinet Archive - Posting 000615.txt from 2001/11

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Reamers
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 16:16:46 -0500

On Mon, 19 Nov 2001 00:03:40 EST, GrabnerWG@-----.com said:

> Josh....
>
> There are no commercially available reamers for mouthpiece and barrel
> makers. You have to make them yourself, or have someone else, say a
> friendly, music oriented machinist, make them for you.

I'm sure that you were talking about the tools you need to *make* these
objects from scratch; but I want to say that the situation is a bit
better for *adjusters* of these objects.

In the UK, several years ago I bought a Dormer HSS expanding hand
reamer, ranging from 13.49mm to 15.08mm. (Given that the availability
in the US of such things, by mail order even, exceeds anything that we
can provide over here, I'd be surprised if something similar isn't
easily obtained.)

That reamer has enabled me to adjust (very carefully, and very slowly, I
have to admit) the bores of several instruments and barrels.

One such adjustment saved my life, metaphorically: in that by adjusting
the bore and hence the twelfths on my newly arrived and still-changing
copy of Muehlfeld's Ottensteiner instrument, I found I could at least
attempt a performance of the Brahms Quintet a few years ago, 'live' on a
late-night RAH Promenade concert.

> And first, you have to decide what measurements you want to use, and
> that's a trip in itself!

Yup:-)

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN artist: http://www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

.... Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.

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