Preliminary project questions

[arynearson]

Hi all,

I recently purchased an old metal bass clarinet on ebay. It is brass with only about 10% of the lacquer left on the body. As it is right now, I have it disassembled and soaking in my bathtub full of dish soap to loosen all the dirt and grime from it, both inside the bore and out. I will be ready to start prepping it for replating. My ultimate plan for it is this: Plug-n-plate: Silver plate the body, and gold plate the keys. It does need some repair work that I will have done before I can plate it. The bottom of the bell section is dented in (very common with bass clarinets) and the neck had been bent, so it is pretty mangled and will possibly need to be completely replaced. There also appear to be some slight leaks where the soldered on tone holes attach to the body.

Here are my questions:

Would Plum-Loy work to firm up the seal between the main body of the instrument and the tone holes? I have successfully sealed tone holes using plain solder, it's ugly, but it works. I would think something that can be brushed on then heated would work much better for this application. Or would a lead-free solder be more approiate?

How much plating solution would I need for this project? The main body is a tube about 4 feet long by a little over an inch in diameter.

How should I go about prepping the surface? Right now the plan is to get it all cleaned up, and just buff it like crazy untill all the lacquer is gone, then just before I'm ready to plate, wipe it down with acetone to make sure it's absolutely clean. Should I use some sort of lacquer remover just to be on the safe side? What about a brass polish to keep the surface protected from between now and the time I'm ready to get it plated?

... I think that's all I have for now. Can't wait to get this beast beautifully restored and playing again.

Here's the seller's pictures... kind of dark, but it should give you a good idea of the scope of my project.

Thanks for the help, I"m sure I'll be on here a lot as my project progresses.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=170045885952

[lcaswell]

The repair work with the solder is going to make this a challenging project. Best to use a lead free, high silver content solder. You may need to copper plate over this first, then silver plate.

Also, Plug N Plate will be a very tedious job on this rather large item. Your best bet is to use our Silversmith rub on silverplating system. It's must easier to apply on these larger, relatively flat pieces - and it really does work. The more you rub it on, the thicker and more durable the plating becomes.

I'd use paint stripper on it first to get all the lacquer off, then polish it, then degrease with our SP Degreaser, then get to plating. DO NOT use a brass polish on it - some of these, like Brasso, have a protectant chemical in them that can cause real problems when you get to the plating step.

You can use a Plug N Plate Gold kit for the keys.