The Clarinet BBoard

RE: Tenon cork temporary fix

Author: ron b  Date:   2003-02-03 19:48 Your lower tenon cork is coming undone and you don't have the materials to re-cork it yourself and your friendly neighborhood repairer is booked solid for at least a week. So, what's new??? Ralph, kidding aside, you've come to the right place. Welcome to the "Society of Do-It-Yourself QuickFixers") The quickest method I know about is to wrap some sewing thread around the cork. That's about as easy as it gets and you can leave the ends loose if you're not good at tying small knots. A little cork grease will hold the thread in place to get you through a few days if you're careful. Try to keep as much of the cork pieces in place as you can manage while wrapping the thread as evenly as you can. Another trick that works quite well is plumbers teflon tape. If you have some handy or can get to a hardware store to get a small roll, just wrap it around a time or two while keeping it as 'flat' as you can. Overlapping and pulling on it, just a little bit, will help keep it in place. I wouldn't use any cork grease on the tape as it's already pretty slick. Some folks choose to wrap ordinary paper around it. It's quick and readily available. Newspaper or copier paper will work. Tear a strip about as wide as you need to cover the cork, wet it in your mouth and wrap the tenon cork. Let's see what other trick we can find up our sleeves. Well, here's one that should be outlawed. It's about the least effective -- cellophane tape. More time consuming and maybe not effective in your situation would be to attempt to glue the loose cork with contact cement. That would be my least desireable recommendation for you at this point, in my 'long-distance' opinion. It's messy and may not work at all if grease has gotten into the break. Hope you find something you can use until you can have a heart to heart get-together with your repairer. Happy Tootin'

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RE: Tenon cork temporary fix

Author: ron b  Date:   2003-02-04 00:26 Hi, John I've found that the shop that'll take a week to get around to a ten-minute job will just keep doing it, no matter what anyone says about it. That's why I saved my last little jab for my last little paragraph. There are a couple of 'fixers' around here that are the same way. They create problems, like making customers wait a week for a ten minute job, to create the illusion that the demand for their services is at a high premium - I suppose. These are the same 'techs' who are always invited, but never show up, for get-togethers and will neither give nor accept advice from other techs about improving their craft or their public relations. I don't understand it any better than their disappointed customers do and my only advice is go somewhere else, where you can talk to an adult. - ron b -

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