Bending Tubing, i.e. the Bell
-
does anyone have any experience bending the trumpet tubing ? I have played around with making "Dizzy" style bells but with limited success, I hope some of you can help me increase my success.
I have watched videos of the Conn factory bending tubing filled with a mixture of soap & water frozen but I don't know what percentage of soap to water works best. My results have been anywhere from great to minor rippling to 2 bells actually breaking in two.
I have also tried Cerrobend and had a bell break in two.
The bends I am attempting are just forward of the 2nd valve and just under 45 degrees.
Any advice would be appreciated.
TIA,Ray Z
-
Here is a bell I bent and made detachable. I used Cerro Bend as the filler and annealed where the bend would be. Make sure that the cerrobend cools completely and slowly.
-
@trumpetsplus
Ivan, I have had it suggested that annealing was necessary but an issue I ran into when annealing a silver plated bell is that the plating at the spot beaded up, did I get too hot ? -
@masterwannabe You will lose the silver plating. I am not an expert at bending tubing, but suggest you look at your whole setup. What jigs are you using? How sharp do you want? How gentle are you with the pressure?
-
@trumpetsplus
Ivan, I do wish to get as close to a 45 degree angle as I can and I probably try to bend as slowly as I can so as not to break. I guess I can deal with losing the plating if there is no choice and I will just have to re-plate as needed. I do have a wooden pulley that I have modified the groove to follow the flair for, I think, the required distance of the bell for the bend.