Trombone Restoration

[Barry Daniels]

About a year ago I started playing the trombone again after a layoff of 53 years. I am in a community band and also a small jazz band. Really enjoying it. And of course, as soon as I started playing I had to start repairing them. It was like I had no choice in the matter. But there is a lot of new techniques to learn and new tools to acquire. Here is a recent project. A 100 year old Martin Committee (no relation) trombone. Lots of dents to remove and parts to be realigned. I basically took every joint apart. Also sanded and buffed all surfaces and did a satin brush surface with a very thin coat of nitro lacquer. Here are "before” pictures.

[Barry Daniels]

Here are some “afters”.

[Barry Daniels]

One more pic of finished horn and also one in progress photo showing parts after disassembly. One thing that is cool about brass instrument work is you can quickly take things apart and solder them back together quickly and as many times as you want.

[Bob Gramann]

That’s really cool! Is it like sweating pipe? Do you use regular plumbing solder? Or, is it more like brazing?

Anything I can play has strings, but I keep getting tempted by the trombone. I know better—it would be another instrument in my collection that I don’t play.

[Bryan Bear]

Great job! Awesome that you are having so much fun.

[Barry Daniels]

Most joints are with normal 60/40 or 50/50 solder which is just like sweating copper tubing. But there are a few joints that are brazed with silver solder. I have learned a lot about soldering and working brass. One of the first tools I bought was a Smith Little Torch that burns propane and oxygen. It makes a very hot flame and is highly controllable.

[Barry Daniels]

Bryan, I am having a blast. I’ve been doing guitars so long that it is getting a bit stale, so mixing in the brass instruments has breathed new life into my shop. Here is another instrument that I refinished. It’s a marching trombone.

[Barry Daniels]

Why stop here. This is my daily player. A Holton TR-150. Got the same treatment as the others. It’s got a rose-brass bell. One of the coolest things is that a brass instrument only needs one coat of lacquer and no post sanding of buffing. Who needs pore filler? Not me.

[Jim McConkey]

So cool, Barry! Beautiful job. Congratualations! Too bad our old staff member Julian Barton is not still around. He makes his living doing brass repairs for the Army bands and was a wealth of knowledge (and I'm sure some of it is in our Library). It would be very neat if you have any pictures or descriptions of how you worked the dents out.

[Karl Wicklund]

Ah! I’ve also got the TR-150 with the rose brass. I love it.
I’ve got a few brass horns here that need tlc. I don’t know that I’d have the guts to do that work on my own. But what’s to lose, I guess.

Wonderful work!

[Barry Daniels]

Karl, if you are interested in repair work check out Ferree’s Tools Inc. They are the Stew Mac of band instrument repair. Here are a few pics of some dent removal. I DIY’d my own version of Ferree’s dent machine. One of the basic principles of dent removal is you can push a dent out from the inside with only a single tool on the inside. But when pushing outee dents from the outside you have to have a rod or some other tool on the inside to press against.

[Darrel Friesen]

Very cool Barry. I have had an old Roth/Reynolds one I think is from the 50s that has been hanging on my shop wall for many years. It works but is stiff. I may have to work on restoring it now that I'm inspired. So many projects these days.