I have sprung a major leak on my bass reg feed pipe. The pipe has begun to split along the ferrule roll line. I believe this to be structural requiring a pipemaker to replace a 10" section of bass reg pipe just above the stock plate…as it holds the arm rest extension of the bass reg. This is a Dave Williams set of pipes. I thought I might try to solder the crack as a tempory fix but thought id check here first since I have no experience with metal works. The section in question is attached ..soldered to the stock plate. Any suggestions?
Don’t worry I’ll remove the plate before soldering.
I would recommend not doing anything yourself if you have no prior experience with this sort of thing. I’d try and contact a pipe maker relatively near you first and foremost, failing that, an experienced metal worker.
Hi mypipes,
as I understand you the soldering is just leaking and has no mechanical fix. In this case soft soldering is strong enough and since all the rest of the base reg gear is silver soldered you don´t have to be afraid that this will come apart, since silver soldering takes a much higher temperature (a bright red glow).
In a shop for plumbers you get this mixture of soldering-paste and soft-solder in the consistency of porride. Simply brush that into the crack and heat it with - any - blowtorch until it melts.
Cheers,
Hans
Or a good brass instrument repair. The folks that fix saxs and trumpets should be able to repair the tube. I would think that is closer/more available.
Giving instruction on soldering via this board would be a bit like saying playing the pipes involves pumpng the bellows and flapping your fingers up and down.
A sound solder joint requires clean metal surfaces - at the minimum you run the risk of making a mess cosmetically and having the seam open up again.
I suspect that soft solder may not be strong enough - it’s fine for mechanically supported ferrule joints in tubing but not for a seam that’s going to be subject to any load. Also, trying to silver solder a joint later that has traces of lead solder is a pain.
Time to find a friendly pipemaker.
Thanks…I will defer to expertise..this is load bearing…Ie.. folks dont try this stuff at home.
Hello ,
I pay my respects to D.W. for the sets he has made ( “for me” these sets are the best ) . But there is a recurent problem with bass reg pipe solders or with rhe rigidity of this pipe because the very thin metal he used . The décoration line around the pipe fragilise this pipe . Here in France I know three pipers they have the same problem ( Marc Guilloux , Patrick Molard and Ronan Le Bars ) . The three have silvered metal pipes and very thin metal ;
But how beautifull they sound !!!