At 03:26 PM 1/3/97 EST, Paul Gelsleichter wrote:
>-Has anyone ever repaired cracked hollow tube chimes? Can the cracked be
welded
>or brazed with any success  with out destroying the sound of the chime?
 
Most chimes, including Maas, are brass tubing and can be brazed or even
soldered.  You need to first grind a vee at the crack, solder the vee, then
grind off the excess.  The heat from soldering will destroy the "gold"
finish on the chime tube.  If anyone has a solution to restoring that Maas
finish, *I'd* be interested.
 
I haven't heard of the next possible solution being done, but since the
object is to repair the tube so that it doesn't "buzz" I would think that
the crack could be repaired with epoxy.  You will still have to grind a vee
or perhaps even slot the crack, so that there will be something for the
epoxy to adhere to.
 
I have also heard the suggestion that you "stop" the crack from traveling
up the tube by boring a small hole at the very end of the crack.
 
>-How do you restring Maas Chimes. They use what looks like a plastic or
bakelite
>plug at the top. To restring it appears that it will have to be removed as
the
>cord is knotted both top and bottom.   How do you do it without damage to the
>plug or chime or is there another way?
 
This seems to be a mystery to many people.  I have a set which was ruined
by a technician who couldn't figure it out and tried removing the plugs.
 
The chime is of course hollow, and there is no plug at the bottom end.  The
plug has a hole bored through it and the cord is a loop knotted around a
stub of machine screw to keep it from pulling through the hole.  You drop
the old loops through the holes, make new stubs if any are lost, cut and
tie new loops.  Duplicate the original length by making a wood block the
right size to tie the loops around so they will all be the same.
 
Then run a piece of wire through the hole in the plug and down the length
of the tube.  Hook on the new loop (from the bottom) and pull it back up
the chime and through the hole.
 
I guess the solution is just too simple!
 
 
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Allen Miller - [log in to unmask]
     Glastonbury, CT USA
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