Well, hello, it's been a while. Other things have had my attention for the past weeks. (Including putting hurricane shutters up, and down, and up, and down.) But finally some progress in the forward direction on the old flute.
I thought "What had I better do before I try to re-tune this flute?" One thing was to make sure all the pads seal, and they do. The other was to make sure all the joins seal, and they didn't. So, what to do? Since this flute isn't of great historical importance, and since I still have many chances to mess it up, I thought I'd take the most expedient approach.
The socket at the bottom of the barrel was poorly patched by someone before I bought it and this needed fixing. You can see just by looking at the photo the surface was not smooth and even.
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I considered another coating of epoxy resin or putty that I could turn to size once hard. But I had just read about making a thick patch material out of the CA glues (Super Glues) and baking soda. So I thought I'd give that a try since it was A) quick and B) easy to control where it went since it set up so quickly.
I held the barrel horizontally and put the baking soda in position, smoothing it out as much as practical with a short section of PVC pipe. I then dripped some CA glue on the baking soda and tilted the barrel around to help it flow into all the baking soda. I had more glue than soda, so I added some more soda and created a lump that I had to remove. Otherwise it went well.
I made a split bushing out of PVC so I could grip the barrel in the lathe and slowly turned the ID nearly back to where it was supposed to be. I stopped before I removed any of the original wood, and hand sanded and then steel wooled the ID until it was smooth.
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The white looking material is the baking soda/CA glue patch. It looked clear until I scratched it up with the lathe and sandpaper.
Now on to the corks. Nothing fancy there.
This is the original cork, completely compressed and not at all interested in sealing the join. I ordered some 3/32 sheet cork from an on-line supplier and followed some instructions I found for re-corking a clarinet. These particular instructions recommended contact cement, which I have and it's quick, so that was my approach.
Here's a look at the before...
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I could scrape the cork of with my thumb nail it was so dry and crumbly...
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And then the after:
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The cork was thicker than needed so I carefully hand sanded it round and round until it was a good snug fit. It might be too snug still but I don't know if new cork takes a set after a bit or not. I can always sand it a little more later. It goes together without much bother, but after being together for a while it takes a little grip to get it to start moving. Perhaps the ID needs to be smoother.
I did the same on the other end, but didn't bother with photos. I had to remove a couple keys to make room to work, but that all went well without any surprises.
So, now, what to do about the tuning? Since I plan on removing material only to give myself a bit of slide exposed when at A=440, I think I'll see if I can tune the flute to itself with the slide fully closed and then once that is done to my satisfaction I'll see about reclaiming some tuning slide from the head. Of course if it's too far off while fully closed I might have to attack the head first.
Carey