Buffet English Horn Day 4 - 2/16/14

Today was devoted to swedging. There's not much to say about that. I did get to use the pliers I made yesterday, though they needed to be thinned out some more to fit some of the upper joint keys. More on that tomorrow. Mostly I try to use my swedging collets wherever possible, as I find them much more consistent and easier to control than the pliers.

The nice thing is that none of the keys were really mangled or completely blown-out, so the amount of swedging I had to do was pretty reasonable, and I'm very pleased with the results.

One consequence of swedging is that it makes the tubing longer. As you squish the tubing, the metal you're displacing needs someplace to go, like rolling out a log of Play-Doh. That means that later some of the tubes will have to be shortened to make them fit between their posts or between other keys. Done carefully, that allows a technician to shorten them just enough that they fit tightly, with no side to side movement at either end. That's how you get really well-fit keys, which move only in one direction - up and down.

Tomorrow is the last of the swedging, and a minor catastrophe.