Loree Oboe Overhaul Time-Lapse Video

I've been wanting to do a time-lapse of a major repair for some time, so when this oboe came across my bench it seemed like the perfect opportunity. This is an AZ series Loree oboe from the late 1950's that hadn't been serviced in some time, so it needed a lot of attention. 6 minutes is probably a bit too long for a time-lapse, but the job took 20+ hours so I cut out as much as I could. That means a lot of little steps have been left out and some of the tasks that are shown will appear simplified. This video doesn't begin to show the amount of fussing and fiddling that goes in to every part of a comprehensive repair, but does give an idea. Most of the steps are directed toward ensuring that the pads are dead level to the tone holes and that they will close exactly the same way, in exactly the same position, with exactly the same relationship to other keys, every time for hundreds of thousands of repetitions.

That baking soda bath to remove tarnish was somewhat effective, but this was my first time trying it and I'll need to tinker with the process to see if can be improved. There was still a lot of polishing to be done after that.

The musical accompaniments are Perpetuum Mobile and Trish-Trasch Polka, both by Johann Strauss II.

Oboe Octave Touchpiece Extension

This Loree oboe belongs to a local university, and is in use by a student who has difficulty reaching the thumb touchpiece for the octave key. Her professor asked if an extension could be made to improve the ergonomics, based on one she'd had made by another technician for another oboe. Making an extension plate is simple enough - it's just a piece of nickel sheet with the edges rounded over to remove any sharp burrs, and curved a little bit to match the contour of the body and fit in the case. In most cases, it's then soldered or brazed on to the original touchpiece. However, with this being a school-owned instrument, the extension will need to be removed at some point so that another student can use it. Removing a soldered or brazed part would require bringing it back to the shop and would leave residue that would require some amount of cleanup. So it made more sense to manufacture an extension that could be affixed mechanically, in this case by screws.

The extension needed to add at least 3/16" to the left side of the touchpiece, and I chose to make it a little longer than that just to be safe.

The process of making the extension isn't very interesting. A template was marked out on a sheet of nickel, cut out, and the edges sanded to achieve the right shape and contour. Then it was formed into a curved shape to somewhat match the curve of the instrument body. Holes were drilled in the plate where it would meet the underside of the touchpiece, then matching holes were drilled and tapped in the touchpiece. A couple of 2.0x0.4 metric screws were modified to fit, and the part was ready to install, which was as simple as screwing it on. That's it! The next few pictures just show the completed part.

The extension in place. It's thinner in the area that sits under the touchpiece, to allow for adequate travel of the key.

A view from under the key. The extension can be removed by anyone simply by unscrewing it.

With a cork on the extension, the screws are hidden. The cork contacts the body when the touchpiece is depressed to control key travel. When the extension is removed, a piece of cork affixed directly to the bottom of the touchpiece will serve the same function and cover up the screw holes, so there will be no visible evidence that the extension was ever installed.

The touchpiece with extension mounted on the instrument.