Lesson Learned - 5/25/12

If you have only one set of dies for making screws (metric or english), then you have limited capabilities for making screws. But have if you both metric and english Screw Check'rs, you can sometimes use them to help you get around a lack of properly sized dies. The other day I needed to make a stop arm screw for a bass trombone rotor, but it was a European instrument with metric screws, and we only have American taps and dies. I needed a 3.0x0.5 metric screw (3.0 mm major screw diameter, 0.5 mm thread length), but we didn't have any on hand, so I was in a tight spot. My work-around was to cut a screw with 5-40 American threads (0.125 in. major screw diameter, 40 threads per inch), which is the closest American equivalent I had to a metric 3.0x0.5. In metric screw measurements, an American 5-40 would be about 3.175x0.635. Once I cut that screw, I carefully threaded it into the 3.0x0.5 slot on the metric Screw Check'r to recut the threads to that size. The reason I was able to do that is that the screw I was making was brass, which is much softer than the steel of the threads on the Screw Check'r. For a metal any harder than brass, I can't imagine the technique would work especially well. It's not a perfect solution - the threads weren't perfect - but the screw worked and I needed to get it done ASAP, so there was no time to find or buy a metric die. This way I didn't have to alter the threads in spindle to force an American screw to work, and the screw I made worked perfectly well.

Lesson Learned - 5/24/12

Today I learned that, no matter how hard you try to keep your birthday quiet from your co-workers so that they won't feel obligated to make a fuss over you, someone will find out and blow your cover. On the upside, though, your fiance may stop by after that with delicious cupcakes and macaroni & cheese. If you don't have a fiance, though, it's probably best to just keep your birthday on the DL.

Lesson Learned - 5/21/12

If a flute crown rubs up against the wall of the head joint as it's screwed in - in other words the crown screw isn't centered - it can push the crown cork off to one side and cause it to leak. This can be remedied by partially screwing the crown onto the crown screw, then tapping it with a rawhide mallet until the proper alignment is achieved.

Lesson Learned - 5/18/12

My coworker is regularly able to do what I am unable to - to recognize that a job has gone wrong before it's even finished, to stop, and to start over. I am irrationally afraid of doing the same. I will follow a task through to completion, through blinding frustration, even though I know it is doomed. My problem soldering a sax post last week was just such a task. Instead of stopping when I realized solder wouldn't flow because of the lacquer around the joint, I forged ahead, blasting the post with heat and flux until I'd burned off enough lacquer to allow the solder to flow. It created a huge mess and took extra time to clean up, which I fully knew and expected as I was doing it, but I kept going anyway.
Maybe I'm afraid that starting over will force me to admit that I don't always know what I'm doing. Maybe it's because I constantly try to avoid sunk costs, even though they are by their very definition irretrievable and utterly meaningless. M spent at least an hour shaping a brass rod to braze into a broken sax neck strap ring, realized the fit wasn't that great before he started brazing, and then started over again with a fresh length of rod to create a better fitting piece. He spent at least another hour on that, but ended up with a great result. Why I'm so afraid of doing the same I don't know - maybe because the prospect of one major failure is somehow better to me than two minor failures followed by a third successful attempt. The possibility that my second attempt might be no more successful than the first is upsetting, but it's one that I need to face. I know that I'll only get better through trying things until I get them right. I need to do a better job of overcoming my tendency to put on blinders and press on, and become more self-evaluative.
I need to remember that a self-criticism of my work is not the same as self-loathing.

Lesson Learned 5/17/12

Today I realized that my normal process of removing dents from an overhauled or repadded instrument after doing all other work on it is foolish. Dent work should come immediately after cleaning. Normally I do things like realign posts and raise dents that will affect the function of the instrument immediately after cleaning, then do all the other work (installing pads/stropping slides/porting pistons), and only then do I do cosmetic dentwork. But dentwork is easier to do when the instrument is disassembled, so it makes no sense to do it after putting things together.


I should come up with a tagline for these posts.

Lesson Learned - 5/16/12

Today I left a flute in silver dip for well over an hour because I forgot about it and was working on something else while I was cleaning it. Silver dip is fairly harmless so it didn't do any permanent damage to the instrument, it just came out super shiny. It reminded me of a habit I've fallen out of, though, which is to always use a timer when soaking an instrument in any sort of solution. Had the flute been in a more potent cleaning bath, some damage could have been done to the plating for certain. We have a timer in the shop, but I've fallen out of the habit of using it. Henceforth I resolve to serve the almighty timer once again!

Lesson Learned - 5/15/12

I crapped up a head joint tenon on a flute today while removing dents on a head joint mandrel and learned a simple lesson - always place a tenon shrinker on a head joint before doing dent removal. Even with the shrinker on, extra care needs to be exercised when removing dents from the top of the head joint, where a lot of leverage is needed.