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WOW!!! I knew you would figure it out... Can't wait for the next "episode".

Chapter five: Putting socks on an octopus

In spite of my experience of making horns, as I was adding more petals, this horn stated to show all its rebel character. Each petal is in tension in many directions and every seam must be perfectly aligned to avoid making bulges or ending with a twisted horn.

So, the progress was one inch at a time. Aligning, clamping, soldering, aligning clamping, soldering.... inch by inch. The last petal was a titanic fight and I was delighted to see it for the first time in one piece. Next task was to make a new cone but that will be on the next chapter.

Regards,

Pedro Martinez
PedroFono
www.pedrofono.com

WONDERFUL... but what a pain in the a$$...

You're a real Maestro!
One good thing of those titanic and rare works is that one always learns something new! Enhorabuena!

Walser, that's quite the achievement !

I made a horn when I was in high school, it was just butt jointed with solder.

If I had to do it again, I would assemble it symmetrically.
Pick a middle and start there, adding petals to each side of the horn, the advantage to this, is you can make sure that the last pieces will meet up. You can adjust the sections as you go along.
This assembly method also helps to keep the horn over-all from buckling.
The metal gives as you assemble it, doing it this way helps a great deal to keep the metal giving and stretching evenly.

By starting and adding sections in only one direction, the last two sections never meet up right and one has to really reef on the thing to get it to line up.

It looks like that's what happened to you too.

The assembly problem, I think, is that it is not symmetrical - it has eleven petals, not ten. So, even if you assemble the right and left halves separately, you have to squeeze an extra petal in the middle somehow when it is put together... Once any petal is soldered to another, it becomes rigid and not flexible.

You try to be as symmetrical as possible, starting with the longest petal and adding petals left and right so when it comes time to join the whole thing together it will come together more easily.

Not working just from the left or right, but both so in the end it comes together more easily.

I think it has to flex, if I understand what's happening in this photo. The whole thing has to flex enough so the two ends meet up and can be joined.
It looks like he may still have a few sections to add there as well, but that will make it even harder to join.
By building the horn up by adding petals from the left and right starting with the longest, I think it would make things easier.
It would help prevent what I think I am looking at in the photo a copied and arrowed out.

I have never built a horn, only stained glass lamps, so what do I know?

JeffR1 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 12, 2021 8:23 pm You try to be as symmetrical as possible, starting with the longest petal and adding petals left and right so when it comes time to join the whole thing together it will come together more easily.

Not working just from the left or right, but both so in the end it comes together more easily.

I think it has to flex, if I understand what's happening in this photo. The whole thing has to flex enough so the two ends meet up and can be joined.
It looks like he may still have a few sections to add there as well, but that will make it even harder to join.
By building the horn up by adding petals from the left and right starting with the longest, I think it would make things easier.
It would help prevent what I think I am looking at in the photo a copied and arrowed out.

On that picture, there were still 3 petals to be soldered. The main problem is not to go as symmetrical as possible or not. You are dealing with basically a straight petal (the one on the top) and 10 banana shaped petals that are bent outwards and sideways at the same time. On a conventional horn, they are only bent outwards.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that all the edges of the tinplate are razor shape

I admire the tinsmith that did these kind of horns +100 years ago for a living without thermostat controlled solder irons and flux cored tin wire.

Regards

Pedro Martínez
PedroFono
www.pedrofono.es

Most folks could make a paper gramophone horn, but this one is incredible, and I imagine must have caused some real headaches along the way. MARVELLOUS!