 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: MSK
Date: 2012-03-04 14:34
I used my A clarinet for the longest consecutive period time since purchasing it used 5 years ago. I played an hour dress rehearsal, took an hour break in which I swabbed it out and then played a one & half hour concert - all on the A. The conditions were such that I had to push the barrel all the way in for tuning. I greased the cork with Doctors grease before assembling it. Once the concert was over, I found my barrel stuck. I've let it equilibrate & dry overnight, tried to the rocking it and twisting it approaches, as well as trying to warm it under a lamp & cool it inside the fridge in a ziplock. Nothing has worked. It is a Zimmer barrel customized by the seller (recommended on this board) on a R-13 body. My questions 1. Anything else I should try? 2. Can a local band shop tech handle this or should I ship it to the seller? Thanks for your help
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Author: Campana
Date: 2012-03-04 15:04
Wood doesn't do the expansion/contraction bit with heat as good as metal and certainly not at the temperatures you can afford to use on a valued instrument. In any case you would want one half to be heated while the other half was being cooled. Even so, heating an annular ring would give problematic results as the mean diameter might expand but so would it's thickness which could, depending on it's geometry, expand into the bore making it tighter.
The only thing to shrink both halves away from each other is drying out. Maybe mild dry heat would accelerate this and may even soften the grease but drying out is the real solution.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2012-03-04 15:25
Keep rocking it and that should eventually loosen it, then get the tenon skimmed so it fits well but neither binds nor wobbles.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: mvjohnso
Date: 2012-03-04 18:39
I have had lots of issues with clarinet pieces getting stuck together especially the top and barrel. What you want to do is as putz suggested and heat one side and not the other. This is what I did in times of desperation: first lightly wet a paper towel then put it in a zip lock baggy; the freeze it, when it is frozen thaw it out till it is malleable; then put that part on the top joint near the upper tenon; finally, you want to warm the barrel by rubbing it with your hand, friction is by far the most controllable source of heat. Do not do it the other way around as the barrel is the piece that will take the best to being warmed, and as the socket piece you want it to expand. Then when do get it apart you really should get the tenon skimmed (I have had to do this with both the Buffets I have, I think its just a common brand issue, but it could just be me), it is a simple process and it will save you from the horror of binded pieces in the future. Also, you may want to remove the left and right hand keys for more leverage (and less possibility of bending), but watch out for the Ab spring.
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Author: MSK
Date: 2012-03-04 22:58
Well I kept trying rocking it as well as cooling the joint and warming the barrel without success. It's off to the repair shop on Monday.
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