I can’t believe this could happen to me!!! I set my flute on my desk, but I saw it rolling off, and tried to catch it, but I missed! And now, the headjoint is cracked!! The air leak is so bad I can’t even play it! I’ve broken my flute! I can’t believe it! Is there anything I can do, or do I have to buy a new headjoint? Can it be repaired? Here is a photo, so you can see how bad it is. The crack is a little hard to see in the photo, but it’s toward the middle, at the edge of the headjoint.
Basically, get some thin cyanoacrylate glue - couple of bucks at a good hobby shop - and let it wick into the crack. If you are careful, it will wick in completely and leave no residue on the outside. If any does stay out side, wipe it off quickly. Give it a few minutes to set up and it should be a nearly invisible repair.
I too have made a panicked grab at a rolling flute, but got lucky. I wonder why noone makes square flutes…
While I can appreciate Roger’s “Do it yourself” attitude and approach, I strongly suggest you send the flute back to Casey for a proper repair: Glueing a crack correctly, particularly in that spot, requires a bit more than just wicking some glue into the crack - do it wrong, and you’ll have a crack that is unevenly rejoined, and therefor a socket that may very well never seal properly.
Bad news, Max. If you decide to go with the do-it-yourself cyanoacrylate job, use the thin stuff, not the gel, and apply it in several applications to ensure that it dries properly. Do NOT oil the crack prior to doing this.
Superglue is just not strong/flexable enough to hold a crack like that in place. That joint needs to be snug to ensure that the flute is airtight, and is putting pressure to expand where it’s cracked all the time it’s together. I’m not sure what Casey will recommend, probably pinning or a metal band. But having superglue all in the crack may make the repair harder.
As a temporary fix you could wrap the outside of the tenon where it’s cracked with waxed thick thread. If you make it tight and wound neatly you can make it playable. Don’t do that if there’s a crazy finish you could hurt, and I never seen that done to a piece with a ridge like yours. Might work though.
Hmmm, it makes you wonder if we makers (or anyone else!) should supply anti-roll devices for keyless flutes. It’s hard to think of anything on the flute itself that wouldn’t detract from its appearance. Perhaps two small rounded triangular blocks at the top of the body, set so that they form a flat between them, exactly 180 degees around from the fingerholes? Or a cast ring with a similar flat spot for the big barrel ring?
Heh heh, having an indexing device could help with the other problem assoicated with keyless flutes in darkened pubs. You grab for your flute when they suddenly start playing your favourite tune, but then can’t find the holes.
Or perhaps just something like 1 or 2 pieces of metal, plastic or wood with a flat bottom and a top shaped like /___/\ could be sat upon the desk or table to secure the flute when not in use?
Or how about a g-clamp that attaches to the edge of the table, with a partial ring protruding outwards into which you slip the flute vertically when not in use. The ring is plastic covered and of a size that will catch your flute just below the barrel. You position the g-clamp so that the flute doesn’t dribble on your foot.
How about a long rubber block flat on the bottom and with a curved top to fit the surface of the flute. I have one for my mp3 player for my stereo which is a long aluminum cylinder.
I glued a 16 inch long dowel into an 8 X 8 inch piece of plywood. When I’m resting or taking a break - and after oiling - I slide the flute over the dowel and let it stand for a bit. All the grunge rolls to the bottom and any escess oil goes there too. When I’m ready to play again I just reach down a bit and pull the flute off the dowell.
I have the same kind of crack. For a temporary repair, I tightened a nylon cable tie around the end of the socket, and covered the crack with transparent tape. Plays well until it’s repaired.
The pic on Jack Coen’s c. 2000 album shows that he has a band-type pipe clamp toward the top of the head. It would serve as an anti-roll device, plus I presume it’s sealing a crack, so it would serve both purposes at hand.
Sorry to hear about your accident. Note that I never received email about your cracked headjoint and just read about it here. Note everyone: use only my casey@caseyburnsflutes.com address. The old address (cburns@telebyte.com) has thankfully gone extinct, along with 99% of the spam I received.
Cracks like this arise from a sudden blow such as dropping the flute or allowing it to roll off a table or sitting on it while assembled - all not uncommon accidents at sessions. However, these are fairly easy to repair though the best thing is to send it to me. What would be best would be a replacement.
Otherwise my usual procedure is to let it settle a bit, glue it, and pin it with a few pins and then to wrap a few turns of button thread against the bead at the end, and entomb it permanently with more glue. Usually the socket doesn’t need to be reshaped.
I think the beauty of the turned object with a little dose of common sense precludes the need for fail safe devices such as flat spots machined into the wood. Keyed flutes are less likely to roll off a table - but an astonishing amount of Boehm flute repair work results from such events. I have also heard of flute players arms going numb from fatigue and losing a grip on a favorite instrument. This has almost happened to me in long sessions of tuning and voicing in some rather non-ergonomic postures (required for undercutting with a handpiece).
There are things worse - a few of my clients have oiled their flutes, then left these on a table top within handy reach of their dogs who found them to be an ideal chew toy, usually with terminal results. For some reason the headjoint is always the part to be destroyed first, followed by the middlejoint. The dog is usually bored by the footjoint and only gnaws a few tooth marks into it. I’ve seen a few 18th and 19th century flutes with such trauma.
Casey
PS: Everyone please donate for the earthquake and tsunami relief!
The next time it could be the Northwest coast of the USA - we’ve had at least 5 or more megathrust earthquakes in the last 2500 years, with a rupture from Cape Mendocino in Northern California to Vancouver Island, a distance similar to the 1000 km rupture in Sumatra, with a similar oblique subduction scenario with plate convergence of 3-5 cm per year. The last was recently dated to Jan 26, 1700 based on Japanese tsunami records, and was estimated to be a 9.5!
Excellent post by Casey Burns…you can’t get better advice about a flute repair than from the man who made the thing in the first place!
Regarding Boehm flutes, they rarely roll off of anything…the thumb keys and the A-flat touch pretty much make it roll-proof. They do get frequently damaged, though, especially by school kids. In marching band, sometimes the foot joint will fall off the flute and land hard…if on grass, this usually does no damage, but if on concrete, it can be quite drastic. Flutes are left on chairs and then sat on with surprising regularity. Another pretty frequent disaster is the flute sat on the lip of a music stand which falls off.
I also knew one girl, who, upon deciding her flute was “dirty,” promptly filled up her bathtub with hot water and bubble-bath, and then soaked the flute in it for a good hour. The flute, by the way, turned out to suffer no mechanical damage, but did require a repad. And I suppose it could be argued that is was quite clean.
The flute, by the way, turned out to suffer no mechanical damage, but did require a repad. And I suppose it could be argued that is was quite clean. 