Project Flute

The project flute I work on was an Artley 18-0 model. When I did the first inspection I filled out a sheet on venting and what materials I would use when I put the flute back together. I also made a note about end play and lateral play in the keys. The tenons were loose and the beauty ring on the end of the foot joint was pushed up onto the foot because the solder joint was broken due to it getting hit by something. The head joint had multiple dents and scratches. The body and foot joint didn't need much body work. I chemically flushed the flute and made sure to take apart all of the pinned sections before doing so. After it was clean I was ready to do mechanical work. Once the keys were in proper working condition I polished the keys and got ready to pad. Padding was a learning process. I started to gain predicability when adding shims. I still need more practice but I started to get faster as I kept doing it. After it was padded I corked keys, set the venting for the F key and then regulated. I skipped one regulation (not realizing it) and moved to venting and lost motion. Since I missed one regulation I couldn't get rid of some of my lost motion. After a lot of brain storming I figured out that I skipped a step and had to go back and fix that first. This flute was a great learning experience and I cannot wait to work on more!

This is what was on the case when I started! I knew it would be fun

What it looked like in the beginning

I dissasembled the flute, took out the pads, and taped them to
this leak chart. There were no shims in the pad cups so they
must have used a pad oven to seal the pads

All of the dirt and tarnish on the flute body

Very dirty

Flute in pieces and ready for the chemical room. The keys
with steel rods pinned to them were un-pinned and dipped
seperately so that there would be less copper exhange when
placed in the phosphoric acid 

Out of the chemical room and looking very nice

All of the tarnish was removed. The last step of the process
was using silver dip to remove the rest of the tarnish

Clean keys

Once I finally got the pins out of the keys they were unable to be used again. They were too short and needed to be replaced. I used the pin replacement kit from JL Smith.

Pin replacement kit from JL Smith

The kit includes broaches to ream out the holes, new pins that
can be trimmed to length and a drill bit to make new holes

I replaced all of the pins on this flute because they were to
short and damaged. In this picture I have reamed the hole
and have inserted the replacement pin. I have to shorten it
to the correct length and round the ends

Tenon fitting and body work were another part of this project. The tenons needed to fit together without wiggling. I also took dents out of the body and foot joint. 

Another part of this project was tenon fitting. This is the end
of the headjoint that is out of round and dented

This is the tenon swedging die. I used it on the
head joint and foot joint tenon

I used this head joint expander along with the swedging die
to make sure the tenons were round and fit properly

The assortment of expanders and swedging dies

The beauty ring on the foot joint was pushed up and the tube was out of round. I first took off the ring and made the tube round. I then put the ring back on and soldered it back in place.

This is the foot joint. The solder joint on the beauty ring has
broke and the ring has been pushed up the foot. Also the tube
of the foot has been dented from exposure

Showing the out of roundness of the end

The beauty ring was taken off so that I could make the tube round

I rounded out the tube and made sure the ring fit. I then soldered
it back on with a lead free solder because the color of lead
free matches the silver plate better than other solders

I used a little too much solder

Foot joint after buffing and removing excess tinning

Polished inside and out

Before padding I polished the keys and body
with Tarni-shield. It polished and prevents keys
from tarnishing as fast as they would in normal
conditions

The upper keys have been polished and are shiny. The bottom
key and lever have not been polished yet and are still dull

After the keys were polished it was time to pad and cork the flute

What my desk looked like while I was padding and corking.
There are shims, pads, and sand paper everywhere!

This is the low C key and roller. There is a full 0.002" shim
that is placed under the pad to level the pad. Then partial
shims are added depending on where the pad is unlevel. 

After the flute pads are level and sealing I clamped the pads
and put them in the pad oven to create a seat in the pads

This is the foot joint in the pad oven. We used a mailbox
and 60 watt lightbulb

While the pads were seating I installed the new head cork

The finished product! I was pleased with how it turned out