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Thread: IOWA: Bent Bell - Fixed by Lee Stofer in Iowa

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    IOWA: Bent Bell - Fixed by Lee Stofer in Iowa

    I played for one of our church's Christmas Eve services, which was a lot of fun. I did a solo for prelude and postlude and played with hymns as well. Videos will come later.

    However, due to an unusual set of unique circumstances, when I popped the rear hatch open, the horn tumbled out onto the driveway. It was in the Bonna case, but sustained damage to the bell. Because of the modifications to my leadpipe, the horn fits very tightly in the case, which I think contributed to the problem (I'm currently trying to find out if the new extra-large Bonna case made for the Miraphone 5050 would hold the horn with a little breathing room). Regardless, I got a bell wrinkle out of the deal.

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    I decided it was time to visit Iowa and go to Lee Stofer's shop in Camanche. It was a great experience! Lee has a long history of doing serious repair work, especially with tubas a euphoniums. His shop is in an outbuilding behind his farmhouse. My wife went along because we were also going to visit an old friend in nearby Davenport. We heard some interesting stories and met his nice black lab named Chewy.

    Lee went to his un-denting machine, which is a steel roller on which he works the bell (protected by some kind of lubricant). He would work it for a while, take it to the bench and clean it to check his work, then go back to the machine for more smoothing. The results are more than I had hoped for:

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    If you looked really closely you could see a bit of imperfection, but I can't even find it always, and I know where it was! He said he didn't think he should work it more because some adverse effects could show up.

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ID:	6513While we were there I left the horn with him overnight so he could do a cleaning and what he calls detailing. He has a tool he used to polish the inside of the tubing and he also polished the valves and caucades. This should help them stay clean longer, perhaps.


    He uses Hetman oils and grease, and sent me home with bottles & a jar of the products he used. It was interesting to me that he used generous amounts of valve oil, more than I ever have. Lee said that Hetman has an anti-corrosion agent, so he likes to get oil in the caucades. He used Hetman 1 on the valves (he normally uses 2, but I said I liked 1 for quicker action) and Hetman grease on the slides. I also got a bottle of 14 bearing and linkage oil and 15 ball joint lubricant. The latter are for the valve cap threads (I think) and for the Amado water keys.

    Lee Stofer has already been mentioned in the repair shops thread. If you live anywhere near Eastern Iowa, give him a call and arrange a visit to get your horn detailed. It's a big step above getting the horn simply cleaned!

    https://tubameister.com
    Last edited by davewerden; 12-30-2018 at 07:12 PM.
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
    Twitter: davewerden
    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

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