All Brass Horn Repair

[whitedogfive]

I have a zonophone all brass horn with a few small tight cracks. I am afraid that over time, the cracks may expand. What type of repair is appropriate for brass? Heat is the enemy of brass so I do not want to use hot solder as that may expand the crack. Is there an epoxy or cold solder method that can be used? What success has others found in this type of repair? Thanks as always.

[Henry]

Soldering is the standard way to assemble and repair brass musical instruments. Of course, there are different kinds of solder, and different alloys with varying proportions of metals that are called "brass." One way to repair a tear or a hole in a brass instrument is with a soldered-on patch of the same or similar material. Such a repair is by nature more or less visible. It may be that a neat solder job, i.e., filling the cracks with solder, is the only way to fix your horn's problems. If I were you, I would wait to hear from others on the board who have knowledge of this topic before I acted. Also, you may want to consult skilled brass repair people in your area.

[gramophoneshane]

I always thought annealing (heat) was the way to go with old brittle brass??

[Phototone]

I would consider having this done professionally. There are lots of shops that repair and restore brass musical instruments. As long as there are high-school bands, there are millions of brass instruments (trumpets, french-horns, trombones, tuba's) that need un-denting, resoldering, polishing, etc. I would check with your local high-school band director and see where the school has their brass instruments repaired. A quality craftsman can return an instrument looking brand new, from what was essentially scrap brass. Your horn would require identical repair skills that brass musical instruments require.

[Henry]

As an example, a friend of mine, fellow trolley nut, had a pair of horns off of an interurban car. They were pretty banged up, and he wanted to display them in a museum setting. I referred him to a former pupil of mine who owns a music store, and who does excellent brass instrument repair work. He straightened, removed the dints and dings, soldered a crack or two, and got them looking like they were new. He offered to buff and lacquer them, but it seems that they were originally painted (!) when installed, so we passed on that option. My craftsman remarked that the brass was a lot thicker than on musical instruments.