I recently purchased this euphonium off of craigslist for $30. At the time all that the add said was "old euphonium for decoration or repair" with one picture showing it. I went to check it out. When I got there the guy had just sprayed WD-40 into the hole on the bottom valve caps to free up the valves! He didn't even know they came out. It smelled and didn't make much of a noise at all when trying to play it, but for 30 dollars I thought it would be a fun project either way.
Did some research online and came across the horn-u-copia website. They had a lot of information on the Own Make instruments. With the serial number I was able to find a round-about date of manufacture, 1903. There was records of an identical horn on there with the serial number 3365. The one I have is 3367.
After cleaning up the instrument a little and oiling the valves properly it still wouldn't play. I gave it a look over and found a crack along the length of the leadpipe. I ended up wrapping it with plumbers tape to try and seal it up so i could try to play some notes. It worked but not very good.
Long story short, I ended up taking off the lead pipe and plan on fixing it. I thought I would share the horn with you guys and see if you have any tips or warnings before I progress on this project. Some photos are in the links below.
The brass is showing through on the mouthpiece and I know that there can be a danger of getting exposed to lead.
http://imgur.com/a/de50A
http://imgur.com/a/ufis2