Broken ferrule

The repair issue is a broken ferrule that attaches the bell to the remainder of the horn.



What is the recommended way to repair it? I suppose it could just be squeezed together and soft soldered to the bell and branch. But should it be silver? soldered together before reassembling the horn? And, if so, are there any considerations in doing it?



Reply #1 - Jun 10th, 2006,

Hey, good that you got it! I was looking... I'm sure it may not be the right way, but if I was still able to work like that, I probably would have externally wired it shut, and then soft soldered it closed, then removed the wires.



Reply #2 - Jun 12th, 2006,

If you just soft solder it back the joint will remain fragile, and probably not tight.



What you should do, is remove all soft solder tin carefully. You really need to be careful and get it all away. All. ALL!!!

Make sure that the break does fit good together, if not, help it in way with a file, but be careful, you have not much excess material to give away here.



Then you get a medium or lower than medium melting hard solder, and some suitable flux. With a fine file, you file the hard solder, to get fie grains. Mix these grains with solder flux. If you solder flux is in powder form, add a little water (one drop!) and mix the metal powder, and the flux until you get a greyish semi thick paste.



You now need to fix the ferrule so that it stays where it is, and the broken ends stay together. It must be on a fireproof base. Add your grey solution to the break, and give a very soft flame, the softest you can get, until the water in the solution has boiled away. Then you can heat a little more, but the ferrule may not turn red, eventually a little dark red, but it should not. You will see that your matt grey paste turns blank, and it hopefully melts the two open ends together. Eventually I will have a little hard solder ready if it does not.



Then you let it cool and clean the inside. And outside. You will have a blank inner side in the ferrule, and it would be good to tin-plate this before assembly of the instrument.