 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: abrogard
Date: 2019-06-29 05:16
I got a cheap little clarinet repair kit off ebay and it comes complete with many little steel springs.
But they're all flat.
Is the kit incomplete or is it usual to have to bend such as the A key spring ourselves before fitting?
I'm wondering if they even can be bent. Isn't spring steel unbendable by nature - if you force a bend it snaps?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: clarnibass
Date: 2019-06-29 08:55
It is usual to bend both flat and needle springs when installing them. They can be bent. Any spring would break if you bend it too much. The better springs have a better temper to make the best compromise between hardness and brittleness.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Chris P
Date: 2019-06-29 10:01
All springs, both needle and flat, are supplied straight and it's up to the fitter to fit them and put the required bend or curve in them.
Provided they're correctly hardened and tempered (which is what gives them their blue colour), they shouldn't break when putting the bend/curve in them an retain that bend/curve thus retaining their tension.
Work hardened phosphor bronze or beryllium copper springs are far more prone to breaking if you overdo it.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: abrogard
Date: 2019-06-29 12:02
Thank you for that information. I will experiment.
A little counter-intuitive I think - 'here's a piece of metal we call a spring because if you bend it then it will spring back where it was - unless you bend it and then it'll stay there !'
A matter of degree I suppose.
A force or strain range within which it will bend without springing back and without breaking.
Fascinating. I wish I knew. Who knows? Metallurgists? Chemists, Physicists?
I wish I'd done science...
:)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: donald
Date: 2019-06-29 13:11
I had exactly the same reaction when I first ever bought clarinet springs - in about 1983 I recall... no internet, and I lived in a town with no repair tech- I actually telephoned a repair shop in a different city with the same question, and my dad was mad at me for the long distance charge on the phone bill....
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: abrogard
Date: 2019-06-29 13:49
I remember those days - the reluctance to make phone calls because of the cost... I was 12,000 miles from my family and would wait three weeks for a return letter rather than spend that money....
For all the horrors we hear about today all around us there's much that's better I think... or I hope so...
music...
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
