Disassembling a Metal Clarinet Barrel (Lesson Learned 3/5/13)

With yesterday's lesson being so internal, I knew that today I'd want to write about something very straightforward. So I chose a lesson I learned yesterday, which is:

How to Disassemble a Selmer Metal Clarinet Barrel

This post, like all of them, is still for my own reference, because I've already forgotten how to do this once. But as far as I can tell these instructions aren't available anywhere else online, so maybe they'll be useful to someone else who will actually stumble upon this blog. Here goes:

This is the kind of barrel I'm talking about. It's on a Selmer Paris metal clarinet and seems typical of the design for Selmer's metal clarinets. Of course, Selmer doesn't make these instruments anymore. I don't know that any major manufacturers still do, but they had a heyday in the first half of the 20th century. Once plastic instruments became cheap and easy to make they largely disappeared from production, but some people still like them or collect them. In my opinion, the sound is a little too distinct to be useful in ensembles, but I guess some find them pleasant.

The unique thing about these barrels is that they're adjustable. Instead of pulling the barrel away from the upper joint to adjust pitch (or pushing it in), you turn an adjusting lug that lengthens or shortens the barrel itself. The barrel consists of four parts, as shown below. I don't know if these are their real names, but they make sense to me.

1. Lower barrel, which attaches to the clarinet. The collar goes at the top of it, and the adjusting lug turns freely around it. The upper barrel goes inside it.

2. Adjusting lug, which turns to either lengthen or shorten the barrel.

3. Collar, which threads onto the lower barrel and holds the adjusting lug in place. Usually there is a set screw in the collar holding it onto the lower barrel. That screw was missing on this instrument, but don't worry, I made a replacement.

4. Upper barrel, which attaches to the mouthpiece. The threaded section (not visible in this photo) engages the threads on the inside of the adjusting lug, making it move up and down when the lug is turned. It goes inside the lower barrel.

Unfortunately, since these instruments haven't been made in a long time and have fallen out of use, the ones we see come through the shop are usually in very bad shape, having been found in attics, basements, or some other place where they've been neglected and ignored for a very long time. As a result, the first problem we encounter with barrels is that the adjusting lugs are usually stuck and the whole barrel is fused together with gunk, so the first thing to do is to get that moving. A combination of penetrating oil and heat can help break down some of the buildup, and gently tapping directly on the lug with a rawhide mallet can shake things loose (this is the same thing we do on bottom valve caps on brass instruments). Failing that, a pair of soft-jawed pliers can be used, or if you're feeling brave, a pair of regular pliers with a thick piece of leather. Don't blame me when they slip and scratch up the finish, though. I find it's best to put the mouthpiece end of the barrel on an expander that's secured in a vise to provide some anchoring. 

The lug twists counterclockwise (left) to lengthen, and clockwise (right) to shorten the barrel. When loosening it, be sure you are twisting in the right direction. Often they'll be choked up all the way (as seen in the first photo) so that the only direction to go is counterclockwise (left). But if it's partially extended, as visible below, the best thing is to twist clockwise (right), so that you're making the barrel shorter. You'll need to reverse that later to disassemble everything, but the goal here is just to get things moving in any direction, and there is a good reason for not overextending the barrel at this point, which has to do with the collar and will become obvious later.

Once you have the lug moving back and forth, the next step is to remove the collar. The collar only moves one direction, clockwise (right) to loosen. You'll need to first remove the set screw, if present. Then make sure the barrel is partially extended, as shown above, so that you have somewhere for the collar to go as you loosen it. Ideally, once the set screw is out, you should just be able to twist the collar off. In practice, though, it will probably be gunked up, so you could place a sharpened wooden dowel in the set screw hole and tap on that to get it started. Just be careful not to dent it, because it will be a bitch to get back on later if it's dented or out-of-round. 

Here's the collar partially removed. Notice how fine the threads are. They are very prone to getting dirty.

As you unscrew the collar, the adjusting lug may move. Just keep an eye on it, you may want to adjust it to keep things from getting to tight as you work.

Here's the collar fully removed. Now it's free to just flop around up there.

Next you remove the lower barrel from the upper barrel by simply turning the lug counterclockwise (left) until the threads disengage. When the collar is in place, it prevents you from being able to do this and stops the lug before it reaches the end of the threads. That's why it was important not to overextend the barrel earlier - it's only designed to go so far with the collar in place. Here's a picture of the lower barrel partially removed. The large threads in the center are what engage the adjusting lug and allow the upper barrel to move up and down.

Once the upper and lower barrels are separated, you'll have this:

And this:

Separating the lower barrel from the adjust lug is easy - it should just slide off, though you may need to unscrew it as the lug slides over the fine threads at the top of the lower barrel.

Now you need to remove the collar from the upper barrel if you want to clean it really well. The collar has to be aligned just right in order to slip off. In this picture you can see at the top of the collar there is a relief in the threads (between 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock). That relief must be lined up with the large threads on the upper barrel to slip over them as you remove the collar. The collar does not unscrew from the upper barrel, it just slips off.

Here they are separated. The relief in the collar is again visible in the same spot, closest to the top of the photo.

Here's another shot of the collar, showing the hole for the set screw. The collar is upside-down in this photo.

That's it. Once you have everything apart, you can clean it thoroughly, and reverse the process to put it back together. Make sure to heavily grease all the threads as you reassemble. I also like to put grease on the face of the upper barrel before reinserting into the lower barrel, just to help things slide and create an airtight seal.