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Re: Restoration / Repair

Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2015-04-03 23:31

>>A lot of the time you'll have to bend keys so things all line up, vent and regulate well ....>>

Uh-oh. That's an advanced repair technique. Much better to adjust the pads, the springs and the bumper corks until the key fits.

If you do decide to bend a key, please look at the underside of the key first. If there's a number stamped there, it very likely means the key is cast smelter (pot-metal), not forged brass or other malleable metal. If you try to bend a cast smelter key, it will break. Trying to solder the snapped-off pieces back together will not work.

Even forged brass keys that can be bent without breaking can develop metal fatigue, if they're bent back and forth: This is not a technique to use on a clarinet key until you've practiced on brass rod of the same gauge until you're quite sure you can complete the alteration perfectly by bending the metal in only one direction. (Bear in mind that if the key doesn't fit properly now, that may be because someone before you has *already* tried to adjust it by bending it back and forth.) Metal fatigue means the key weakens and can suddenly snap while you're bending it or later when you're playing the clarinet. The better-quality silver-plated or nickel-plated brass key can be soldered back together if it breaks, but the solder joint will remain a weak spot that will almost certainly break again.

(Normally I leave a disclaimer that I'm an amateur and let it go at that, but I know metals: I'm a retired professional stained glass designer-builder-restorationist.)

Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
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