Crappy “expanders”

[MiBrassFS]

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[bloke]

I used one of those hack tool expanders on a tuning slide today. It was the right tool for this particular situation and…

I didn’t go too far.

I’m going to apply an over used saying that I’m not fond of, but, regarding this of style tool…

“If you know, you know.”

If you're referring to run-of-the-mill tubing expanders, they certainly are not precise, and - when people bring in slides that are perfectly-aligned, not leaky, but slide like a pair of connected pistons (high-end French horns, or what-have-you) I BEG them to allow me to crimp the end of the OUTSIDE slide tube (only one of the two) by c. 1/1000th of an inch or so - vs. f-ing up their beautifully-built slide.

those same expanders - more:
Those with the tip-ends trailing back INWARD (at least, barely) are the only ones I'll use, and I ask that they be made that way. (or subtly ground down and re-polished - even if the chrome is lost on the tip).

[bloke]

I'll tell you what I did with one of them two or three days ago:

Dan Schultz has some old top action Conn tuba with the main slide before the valves. He sent me an email with two different outer diameters for the two different inside slide tubes. He was hoping to pick up longer inside slide tube for each side, because the instrument plays sharp, and he was just wanting a down-and-dirty let's-not-get-too-fancy remedy.

Well, for the small side, I found an outside slide tube from one of those tiny little old 1970's funky top action Miraphone tubas that was exactly that size on the outside, so that was one.

For the other one, I finally found a Reynolds sousaphone outside slide tube that would work for the large side's inside slide tube, except it had a dead man spacer buried in it. I put some PB blaster in that tube along with some heat, let it set for a few minutes, and then mounted that expander vertically in the vise and set to glide up and down inside that tube with enough friction to hit that spacer but not enough to expand the tube, of course.

Well, I ended up pounding out that ancient stuck spacer with that tubing expander, even though I didn't use it as a tubing expander.

[MiBrassFS]

.

[bloke]

Those bore spacers are one good use for these tools. In a similar fashion, I’ll use one to reach in and grab a sleeve (or “choke”) I’ve made to modify a bore profile to remove or change it to a different size. Not pounding out, but rather expanding it just enough to grab the added tube and not expand it or the original tube in any way. (But, those are essentially a greased slide tube within a slide tube…)

These expanders are useful, just usually not as they were originally intended…

Those things are also useful for removing outside tubing dents underneath braces, when doing rush-rush school repairs.
Also, if someone has a silver plated instrument and whacks it in such a way that a brace dents an outside tube, that's a way to avoid screwing up the silver plating. Hey: I didn't break it.

I used to swear off using those trombone outside tube expanders - unless trying to save one of those hopeless tubes, but I've gotten pretty darn good at tightening the exact spot of the expander right underneath a dent - just enough to flex the spot without stretching the tubing - and then use that hard tension against that spot to carefully tap against with the little hammer, and (of course) tap around the edges of the dent.: trombone slide tubes dents are always small enough so as this seems to work fine, and since it expands I don't have to pull down those multiple diameter trombone rods. I just need to make sure that one of the six teeth of the expander is centered on the dent, so I'm not tapping down against air.

Hey, I just got a tracking notification while typing that Dan's tubes arrived. I wonder if they're going to work for him.