Brass Insert for Clarinet

 This project is for a clarinet with a worn down finger hole on the upper joint. Over time and with lots of use these finger holes can wear down and something needs to be done. One thing that a tech can do is make an insert out of brass to create a new spot for the players finger. 


This is what a finger hole looks like. It is just a hole that is drilled into the body and there is no key that covers this hole, just the players finger. 


The first step is to drill out the old hole so that a larger diameter chunk of brass can fit into it. To prevent too much of the wood tearing out from the drill bit, I covered the hole with blue painters tape. This ended up working really well.


On the lathe I chucked the piece of brass larger in diameter that I needed, and I turned it down so that it would fit snugly into the new hole in the clarinet. I then drilled a hole in the center of the brass, the same diameter as the origional hole in the clarinet. 



Then I cut off the new finger hole so that it would stick up a bit on either side of the clarinet wall, test fit it to the clarinet, and used epoxy to glue it in place. 

    


When the epoxy was completley cured, I put tape all around the piece of brass so that I would not damage the body of the clarinet. With the clarinet protected it was time to start filing away, matching the outer curve of the clarinet. 


As I got close to the right height, I switched to sandpaper and made the new finger hole completly smooth with the body of the clarinet. This was the finished look of the outside. For the inside portion sticking out I glued sandpaper to a drumstick and slowly sanded away untill the brass was flush with the inside bore of the clarinet but appartently I didnt take a picture of it.


With both the outside and inside sanded down nice I used a piece of crocus cloth denim to polish both and the clarinet was complete! This was super fun to do and I think it turned out great!




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