Aligning your valves

[miketeachesclass]

Do any of you align your own valves? If so, what tools do you use, and what do you use for felt spacers?

Thanks,
Mike

[carbogast]

I have some old instruments that I've aligned myself. With my Sterling, I just use the standard felt set. Regarding the former, I bought a variety of felts of various sizes online (don't recall at the moment where I got them). I made a tool to view the alignment of the ports. The tool consists of a drumstick cut at a 45 degree angle. I bought some 1/4" decorative mirrors from a craft store and glued one to the drumstick. I feed the drumstick from the bottom of an adjacent valve (valve removed of course) and view from the top. Crude, but effective! I also have a dental mirror, but it is too large to fit in many valve blocks.

[davewerden]

I have some old instruments that I've aligned myself. With my Sterling, I just use the standard felt set. Regarding the former, I bought a variety of felts of various sizes online (don't recall at the moment where I got them). I made a tool to view the alignment of the ports. The tool consists of a drumstick cut at a 45 degree angle. I bought some 1/4" decorative mirrors from a craft store and glued one to the drumstick. I feed the drumstick from the bottom of an adjacent valve (valve removed of course) and view from the top. Crude, but effective! I also have a dental mirror, but it is too large to fit in many valve blocks.

I love that ingenuity!

[Howellsimon]

A subject very close to my heart following what I believe to be alignment issues with a brand new instrument.
I purchased a cheap endoscope with a 45’ mirror attachment (I think you might call them boroscope?) it was £12 or so on eBay. It was ok, but would have been better if it could have focused at closer distance - as it was at the limit of its focus compared with the picture clarity. But for £12, it does the job.
Hope that helps. But lots others on this forum have way more experience than me.

[superted]

I bought a tool from Dawkes that was out of the Ferrees catalogue that uses a tube with a fixed needle, and a sliding needle that allows you to measure the distance from the top of the casting to the port hole.

It was too fiddly for me to use (my error was about 2mm), because you need to get the horn and the gauge aligned along the axis of the casing. So I've given up and just my tech do it for me.