how would you fix this??

Date 01-24-2008 15:58

Hello new tito, have had a bit of experience in this vein. My son was a fairly heavy duty drummer for a number of years and also had friends doing the same. Dad, being a welder, was fair game for anything that broke and the boys and gals felt could be fixed. A couple of things, the problem with welding or soldering a cymbal is one mainly of losing the tone of the instrument, when you go to welding on it or applying heat to it it can lose it's tone. generally it will go flat. Another issue is, unless you are able to get complete fusion on the crack it will just end up coming back in my experience. I have used silicon bronze and the tig process to make repairs such as you are inquiring about, yet as I also mentioned the tonal quality generally suffered a bit. To the repair, if you decide to attempt it, clean the crack thoroughly, use a good heat sink and possibly V the crack with a dremel tool to insure that you can get complete fusion. In some cases you may need to weld the one side and then use the dremel to grind from the other side until you have removed material down to the backside of the weld material that you applied from the other side and then fill out this V. Can't make any guarantees on this, sometimes you'll experience success and other times well...... My $.02. Best regards, aevald

By new tito (***)

Date 01-24-2008 16:47

Damn Allen, you never seize (sp?) to amaze me. Thanks for the input. I just realized I mis-spelled cymbal too!!! lol

Is there a way to minimize the heat with another process? How about brazing?

By aevald

Date 01-25-2008 06:08

Hello again new tito, brazing in this particular case might likely end up inputting more heat than considering a GTAW process or the silver soldering method. Silver solder is more than adequate in the strength department, the biggest issue might be getting the solder to completely penetrate the crack and fuse it fully. If you look at the repair using silver solder, you will likely need to open the crack up in some manner so that the solder will penetrate the crack completely. First and foremost, if this is a quality cymbal or has sentimental value of some sort, see if you can find another one laying around somewhere and try practicing on it first with various methods before you risk irreversible damage to the one you really want to fix. Also consider doing a bit of research on the cymbal manufacturing process. I seem to remember seeing a special one time that was done on Zildjian cymbals where they chronicled the manufacturing process, this might provide you with some considerations and suggestions for proceeding with this repair. Best regards, Allan

By new tito (***)

Date 01-25-2008 13:34

Thanks so much for the help.

By bayvalleyiron Date 01-27-2008 00:37

I'm reminded of the "Monster Garage" episode where Jesse fixed a copper gas tank tig welding with a rod made from a nibbler cutting from the same tank. I don't suppose you'd like to ram a nibbler down the crack on your cymbol would ya. I'm guessing using the same exact metal might be the best way to keep the same sound.

By TimGary (****)

Date 01-28-2008 16:40

As an ex-drummer who has done this before...
You can repair it and the cymbal will still make noise when you hit it, but it will never be anywhere near the same.
Just drill a 3/16" dia hole at the end of the crack and insert a rivit. This will get you by until you can replace it.
Brazing would fill the crack, but it still deadens the cymbal.

Tim

By new tito (***)

Date 01-28-2008 17:00

thanks for the tips guys.

...don't know why iposted this in Cert an Qaul section. lol