A Fallen Flute

It may be your worst nightmare -- your flute rolls off your lap and falls to the floor, or is knocked off a stand, or...  There are a number of circumstances that may result in your flute dropping to the floor, and it certainly makes every flute player panic!  We had two "fallen flutes" come into the repair shop this week and had a chance to catch up with Repair Tech, Rachel Baker, to find out what could be done.

Rachel showed us the flute that had the most visible damage.  There was one bent rib, one end of a rib that had come unsoldered, and a very loose mechanism tube.  So, how exactly will she she repair the instrument?  Well, there are a couple of steps:

1) For the bent rib, Rachel will put the flute body on a mandrel and hammer out the bend with a small hammer.  She will not hammer directly onto the rib, but rather hold a small piece of wood against the rib and hammer the piece of wood -- which in turn will press against the rib to straighten it out.  The rib is straightened because it is pressed against the hard, solid surface of the mandrel--as opposed to pressing against a hollow tube (the flute alone).  The straightened rib will then be resoldered to the body.

2) For the rib that has come unsoldered, Rachel will solder it back down onto the body of the flute.

3) Once everything is soldered back into place, Rachel will align the posts.  The mechanism tube that is loose has become that way because the posts which it lies between are misaligned from the fall.  Once the posts are properly aligned, the mechanism tube will fit  back tightly in the proper position between the posts.

The bent rib lifting off the body.

Rib that has come unsoldered.

Mechanism tubing is loose and not flush against the post.

Other end of the loose mechanism tubing.

Dented Headjoint

Have you ever accidentally hit your headjoint against, say, the corner of a music stand?  Seems like no big deal, but then you check to see what the damage is, and yes -- it's dented.  No need to worry, though, because it really is quite simple to repair.  We recently stopped into Powell's repair shop to our find repair technician, Rachel Baker, about to repair the dented headjoint in the photo below.

The headjoint was dented in, so it needed to be corrected by bringing the dented metal up and smoothing it out.  Cleaning everything first is very important, so Rachel began the process by running the headjoint through the ultrasonic cleaner.  She then used alcohol to clean the inside of the headjoint and the outside of the repair mandrel.  The cleaning process is very important, because any dirt particles could cause separate bumps when you are burnishing the metal against the mandrel.  Once everything was clean, Rachel placed the headjoint on the mandrel.  She then pressed the headjoint against the mandrel and pulled it toward the mandrel's edge, using the mandrel's edge to push the dented metal back up.  This step was repeated a few times to really "iron out" the dent.  She then took a burnishing tool and burnished the metal back down against the mandrel to smooth out any high spots.  Finally, she polished it, and that was it!  Done and good as new.  The whole process was complete in a matter of minutes.  So, remember, a small dent is not the end of the world -- it can be corrected!

The dented headjoint

Cleaning the inside of the headjoint.

Visual inspection -- making sure it's clean.

Placing headjoint on mandrel.

Pressing headjoint against mandrel and pulling toward edge.

Mandrel's edge helps bring up the dented metal.

Burnishing to smooth it out.

Last step -- polishing.

Good as new!

Dented Tenon - Part II

In our last post, we saw a badly dented footjoint tenon.  We'll now take a look at the steps our repair technician took to reshape the tenon back into its original form.  Because silver is a soft metal, you do not need to heat the tenon for this repair.  Our technician initially placed the joint onto a body mandrel.  She then tapped lightly around the tenon with a small plastic hammer, pressing the metal of the tenon against the mandrel.  The goal is to press out any gaps between the tenon and the mandrel.  After tapping out the gaps, she then burnished the tenon -- smoothing the metal along the mandrel once again.

Although it may look like a simple process, it is always best to take this type of a repair directly to your repair technician.  Theoretically, it is a simply process to reshape the tenon.  However, because the metal is soft, it is also very easy to cause more damage to the instrument if one attempts this repair without the skill and experience of an authorized repair tech.  As you can see, a successful repair with leave your flute's tenon as good as new -- perfectly cylindrical and sealing properly.

Gap between tenon and mandrel is visible on the left

Reshaping begins by tapping tenon against mandrel

Gap is now closing from the tapping process

This side is much more flush against the mandrel

Final step is burnishing tenon along mandrel

Tenon is round again -- good as new!