In Defense of the Flute

     Defending the flute has not always been on the top of my moral compass, so to speak... (Or type, I suppose).  The daintiness... The heavy effervescence of the proper and blindingly technical approach, while impressive, does little to tickle my musical intrigue.  If it were not for the likes of Eric Dolphy and 'Rahsaan' Roland Kirk, I may have very well arrogantly and ignorantly written this instrument off as horribly limited and predictable.
  
The never ending debate of musicality aside, I begrudgingly enjoy working on flutes... HA!  Though they can be quirky and sensitive, much like their intonation (as well as players...),  they bring a wonderful systematic approach to adjustments and function of the instrument.  While I'll take floating a pad over shimming, the regulation, venting, and lost motion involved were much more straight forward than the clarinet seemed.  Perhaps it is because the clarinet was accompanied with me unknowing of what I had stepped into, but it seemed less linear than the flute...

     Here is my project flute.  It was not going to be put up for sale due to it being sort of a Frankenstein... The head (Artley) and foot joint (Gemeinhardt... maybe) were both silver-plated but the body (Artley) was nickel-plated.  We didn't have matching or closer matching head or foot joints, so I made these work and some lucky student after me will have the pleasure of working on it!

This is after I washed my hands... The picture doesn't 
completely give credit to how tarnished these parts were.
(I also should have thought to take a 'before' picture...)

The knock pins on this flute made my first two days frustrating.
Corrosion Cracker really helps, but it still ended up taking forever to
get the entire flute clean!
(Knock pins are mostly permanent steel pins that fix parts of
keys into position.  They need to come out in this case so
that the parts can be safely cleaned in the Pickle

After the cleansing, dents were removed, and tenons were fit 
(which fortunately went smoothly even though all 3 parts were
from separate flute models), I tended to the tone holes.  Much
leveling took place

A key-fitted, shimmed, seated, vented, and regulated flute body 
without lost motion. A small but glorious victory!

A finished repad!  
Note the difference in finish on the flute body and 
foot (the head is hard to see).

     Along with the troubled knock pins, leveling tone holes, and removing dents, I replaced 3 springs that were dead and/or broken.  Key fitting was a breeze and overall, I'd wager this was a pretty standard flute repad!  

In the Beginning, There Were... Clarinets?!

     In the beginning of my new found profession, we tackled the elusive and temperamental clarinet.  Amidst flashbacks of my time spent in a practice room learning this tricky specimen for big band, we were introduced to several universal concepts to the repair world, such as key fitting, venting, regulation, lost motion, and the function of levers versus touchpieces.
     
     We received our project clarinets a few weeks into classes.  They were covered in miscellaneous grease, dirt, dust, and other unidentifiable materials.  If cork was there, it was a sad sight to behold.  Most of the pads on mine were surprisingly OK for aged shellac and only a select few were ripped.

Here you can see the beginnings of my key fitting journey

in the upper joint of the clarinet as well as the joy of

floating pads.

There was much rejoicing as progress slowly but surely 

was made! 

On to corking... and blood loss...

An idea to condition a thick piece of cork to the contour of 
the thumb rest.  Using a Popsicle stick for some support and a flute
 pad clamp to supply the pressure, I left it for an hour or so
 as I worked on other issues.

During the corking process, with venting in mind, I found the stop
post for the Ab touchpiece to be oddly and undesirably shaped.
Disagreeing with the manufacturer's vision, I was advised to shave 
the stop post with a bench motor until it would provide a more
 appropriate resting place.

It ended up being successful!

A successful upper Joint!

After battling the lower joint in its challenges with way 
more regulation and lost motion, on to regulating the bridge

Tenon corks... 
I found using a vice to be more efficient, yet less satisfying, 
than using a mallet and wood block.

And a clarinet emerges!

     The trials and challenges of this first project gave me a glimpse of things to come.  Snapping my Low F/C key in half as I was flexing it two days before it was due let me feel the burn of pressure at the bench.  I was also introduced to the glories of metal memory, particularly in the 3 Ring Key... 

     On to the flute...............