It seems that lately I have become an instrument repairman!
Anders Erickson (Drumer of Inward Eye) called me and reported that one of his cymbals had a small crack which formed while they were recording. He asked if I could try to remove the area around the crack in hopes of stopping it from spreading, and avoid throwing out an otherwise perfectly good cymbal. I assessed the damage and got to work.
The crack was no bigger than a penny (about 1 cm long) so I wouldnt have to remove much brass. I marked out an area a just little past the crack to make sure I cut beyond any smaller internal invisible cracking. I chose to use a semi circle shape.I like to be extra safe so I decided to go the extra mile by covering the cymbal in tape in hopes to deaden some of the vibrations from the cutting process, which could cause the crack to become larger. I made short work of the semi circle marking with a dremel equipped
with a cut off disk, then I smoothed it out with a grinding stone bit and some
wet dry sandpaper. I managed to scuff a little piece of brass on the right part of the picture which I`m not happy about but what can you do. If the cymbal ever cracks beyond repair I would like to take it off his hands and make a handfull of custom brass guitar picks. Thats a whole new blog though!
The cymbal survived a show tonight in Waterloo, Ontario and I hope it lasts for a while to come At least until Anders get a sweet cymbal endorsement!
For my full cymbal repair album go HERE
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Hey man I've repaired many cymbals the same way...one step I'd suggest is drilling a small 1/8" hole at the end of the crack to keep it from spreading before you cut it out. Even just drilling the hole will stop the spreading most times and you don't always *have* to cut the metal out. A lot of people have a lot of opinions about how to not crack them in the first place...but hell, it happens.
ReplyDeleteWorth knowing when buying cymbals is that Sabian's warranty is a year longer than Zildjians....even though I prefer Zildjians anyway....
Good work buddy!