Unsoldering a Bell Bead

[tombone21]

Has anyone tried taking the solder out of a soldered bell to make an unsoldered bell? What kind of work would that entail? And would it have any other affects besides the lighter bell bead? Curious to know if any techs here could weigh in, or if anyone has had this done to their bell.

[BGuttman]

It's going to be very difficult to unsolder a bell bead. The solder is wicked in and almost unreachable.

If you really want an unsoldered bell bead you need to start with one.

[Matt K]

There is actually another thread about this exact subject here where hornbuilder weighed in. I don’t remember the details but it was a very informative read.

I’m actually lookin to do the opposite and I’m just down the road iirc so maybe we could trade bells.

[ithinknot]

That's a big nope. Think 'removing mayo from sandwich', accompanied by furious buzzing noises from all the loose solder fragments you can't get out.

[Matt K]

I believe I mentioned this in the other thread but I'm waiting for something to finish at work so I'll put it here too. I actually wanted the opposite to be done to a Yamaha bell. Yamaha are, of course, unsoldered for the most part. I have a 356 bell that I wanted to liven up a little so I thought I'd have this done. It definitely made a difference, but it was admittedly subtle. I wouldn't spend money doing it again. I'd just find a bell that matched the specs I want off the bat and swap it out and try to sell the original bell. I suspect that soldering the bell (or not) is best done at the point of manufacture, and would make more of a difference at that step. That's total conjecture and any of the myriad people who make bells would be certainly more authoritative in that regard but that's my 2c.

[tombone21]

There is actually another thread about this exact subject here where hornbuilder weighed in. I don’t remember the details but it was a very informative read.

I’m actually lookin to do the opposite and I’m just down the road iirc so maybe we could trade bells.

Sending out the hornbuilder-signal! I did a moderate search but to no avail. Basically, would it be possible to manufacture acid bleed, and bleed alllll the solder out of a bead? And if you could, would you then be able to take the lacquer off, clean off all the acid that fell out of the bead, and be on your merry way? I should also add that I'm not looking to do this to my bell, but I saw a bell that is claiming to have this procedure already done to it by a previous owner, so chances are I'll never know the full story.

[Matt K]

What make/model is it? Hard to tell on my phone but it looks like it was a really clean job doing it if that was indeed done to it.

[Matt K]

https://trombonechat.com/viewtopic.php?t=16660

By the way I stand corrected, Matt didn’t weigh in on that thread. I think I’ve seen him comment on a thread with similar questions though.

[hornbuilder]

It is virtually.impossible to completely un-solder a bell. You can remove "some", but nowhere near all, solder from the rim of a bell.