 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2005-10-29 20:50
I'm overhauling a old hard rubber (at least the greenish colour suggests so) clarinet, and I noticed both the b and c# lever pin silencers/dampers are gone.
I understand the usual approach would be fish skin (eg from an unused pad) or teflon tape. (my favourite would be to put some ultra-thin silicone hose over the pin, though).
I don't really trust the tape trick (won't it leak goo and solvent from unter the overlap over time?), and I have no spare skin/bladder available.
Any other suggestions?
And how can I get rid of the oh so fancy camouflage colours and restore the blackness?
--
Ben
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2005-10-29 23:09
The contact area of the metal parts is very small, so the pressure exerted over this area is quite high - enough to easily shove Teflon tape away from that critical spot and restore metal-to-metal contact.
The same applies to most other plastic films, including a wide range of packaging materials.
As a test, see how easily you can puncture a material between the the grinding tips of your canine teeth. BTW thin leather fails this test miserably!
The properties needed for this silencing material is thinness (about 0.02 mm for most clarinets), resistance to puncturing under local pressure, flexible, low friction, preferably able to be glued, and not 'rubbery - because this gives an odd spongy feel to the linkage.
'Goldbeaters skin', as pad skin is known, has all these qualities. However this skin is more or less the same as uncooked sausage skin, so you could try that. Cooking tends to make the skin stiff and brittle - hence easier to bite through.
For clarinets with space for a slightly thicker material, the best I have so far found is an extremely fine woven 'spinnaker cloth' of the type used on racing yachts, 0.05 mm thick. I have to grind my canines really hard together to get through that! But it is not so easy for most people to obtain. I got off-cuts from a local sail-maker, making sails for the Americas Cup race.
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Author: redwine
Date: 2005-10-29 23:38
Hello,
To turn your rubber clarinet back to black, try some of the Drs Products Bore Doctor. Take the keys off, then just rub a very thin layer of the oil into the body of the clarinet. Then, dry it off with a cloth so that it is not oily any more.
Ben Redwine, DMA
owner, RJ Music Group
Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America
Selmer Paris artist
www.rjmusicgroup.com
www.redwinejazz.com
www.reedwizard.com
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2005-10-30 00:04
Thank you both for your insights.
Gordon - I tried the skin of a pad I replaced, and indeed the clicking noise disappeared, but the pin still has ample play. I will try with two or even three layers of pad skin before I contact the Alinghi team. ;-)
Ben - I noticed that my greasy fingers left black spots on the rubber. I'll try some of the household oils tomorrow. (No, I won't digress into one of these organic vs. mineralic oil debates...)
I vividly remember our mom who's given us some bacon rind to buff up the shoes or shine easter eggs. Mhhhh. Long time since I've last eaten bacon, green beans and potatoes...<stomach grumbles audibly>
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Ben
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2005-10-30 04:18
If you use multiple thicknesses of pad skin, then I recommend that you first glue the thicknesses together with contact adhesive. This, if it is any good, sets to some pretty tough stuff, which probably adds to the toughness of the laminate. I also glue these silencers to the pin, prtly fro the same reason, and partly for security.
The sheet I generally cut these silencers from is already two thicknesses of 'goldbeater' glued together in this way.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2005-10-30 14:17
On my Selmers, Yamaha 24, Buffet Eb and Leblanc LL where the pins are metal and tolerances small between them and the holes they go into, I've heated the pins and melted polythene (usually cut from the corners of a self-sealing polythene bag) over them which has effectively covered them in a layer of plastic, then heated them up in a flame again to melt the plastic more uniformly, and put them back on while the plastic is still pliable, then take them off after they've cooled to trim the excess plastic off - and add a drop of gearbox oil to them when they're put back on to make the action more fluid and keep any noise down.
The problem with Teflon is that it will crumble and give under pressure.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2005-10-30 19:11
Here's what worked for me:
Took the skin of a decommissioned large pad, put a tiny drop of PVA glue in the middle, folded the pad and squeezed it between thumb and index finger to uniformly spread the glue. Put it over the lever pin, insert pin into lever hole and loosely mount the lever. Let dry, then cut off excess skin.
Thank you all for your ideas.
--
Ben
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