Lots of progress made on the Bass Horn. My tubing showed up sometime in March and I purchased some Cerrobend - then found the paint can full of pitch.... Bought a pitcher, thermometer, pan, and electric hot plate to melt the Cerrobend. Also bought some wood and made the big jig and some drawings of the approximate sizes for the valve crooks.
In bending the tubing, I had to first fill each pipe with vegetable oil, drain it and then fill it with Cerrobend. Then let it sit in a cold bath for 30 minutes, before bending it into the curves I needed.
The first part didn't go to well, I over-annealed on 30+" tube and burnt two holes in it.... ugh.... Second and third try were much better, the the second tube suffered a kink during the bending process. So I had to hammer out the marks and then will have to sand the hammer marks off before buffing and assembly.
The next issue I ran into, was that I couldn't get the ends to be as curved as I wanted. I have a 17" circle by which I'm bending the tubing, but because I have about a 1/2 inch or so where I plugged the ends, I couldn't get the extra bit to be as curved. The solution was to take a smaller diameter circle and bend the ends around that. This helped especially for the tube leading into the valve section and will help when I bend the branch after the valve section (so that it meets up with the fourth valve).
I also bent the leadpipe and cut the end to match the receiver. Just need to buff it and burn out the pitch, then buff again...
On Friday, I got two of the inner bows in relative positions, although I may need to refill them in order to get the exact position... Not much time left. Still need to address the bell and the paddles for the valves.... OH and bend ALL THAT OTHER TUBING, though I might not have enough for the fourth valve if I screw up another 30+" tube. AND I need to find braces!
Finally, I'm almost done with my King Jumbo econo-overhaul. Just need to solder on the last two guard wires and do a final buff/polish/cleanup. I've buffed the bell with rouge two weeks ago, even got inside the back of the bell! I think there's some gold plating left back there. The body should look just as nice once I get around to polishing.
Before and After (almost)
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