Where can you get a band (or make a band) to repair a Brilhart Tonalin
Tenor mouthpiece with a cracked shank?  What is the best method to
accomplish this repair?

Thanks
David.

-- 
"Je Suis Charlie"

Sometimes metal tubing can be found that fits the cracked mouthpiece perfectly.  More 
often than not you mus machine tubing to the proper ID to fit the shank's OD.

I hesitate to advise reducing the OD of the shank to fit a more readily available size 
of tubing.  This weakens the mouthpiece just ahead of the band.  Sometimes this is 
the only way.

What I do is choose thick wall aluminum tubing, cut a piece a few inches long, and 
put it in my mini-lathe.  I take out material from the inside until it fits the shank as 
desired.

I use 5 minute epoxy to put the band on.  

First I dry fit the band, and use vinyl tape to mask off the mouthpiece forward of the 
shank.  I'll explain further in a bit.

Then I coat both the inside of the band, and outside of the shank, with 5-minute 
epoxy, and put it onto the shank.  In this way there are no gaps under the band.  
The whole area under the band is filled with epoxy.  This is important both to 
prevent the band from coming off and to prevent the shank from expanding and 
cracking further.

When the band is pushed on the excess epoxy is pushed onto the tape and 
wiped away.  This way it does not blemish the body of the mouthpiece.

As soon as the remaining epoxy becomes very stiff so that it will no longer 
flow I remove the tape and clean the around the mouthpiece and band with 
a paper towel and alcohol.

Set aside to harden fully.  Go get a cup of coffee.  

A little metal polish and soft cloth to finish the metal.

Done.

Paul C.

Repair rings are typically machined to size using a metal lathe.  I usually cut rings and bands out of a selection of brass or aluminum tubing I stock in different sizes.


> On May 23, 2015, at 6:21 PM, David Spital dspital@gmail.com [MouthpieceWork] <MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> 
> Where can you get a band (or make a band) to repair a Brilhart Tonalin Tenor mouthpiece with a cracked shank?  What is the best method to accomplish this repair?
> 
> Thanks
> David.
> 
> -- 
> "Je Suis Charlie"
> 
> 

You can get a good fit from one of these.  Then cut off the tab and glue it on.  

http://www.amazon.com/SE-Ring-Sizer-Metal-36/dp/B002Y1XB54/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid32587681&sr=8-8&keywords=Ring+sizer

> 
> 

GREAT idea!

Paul