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.