Polishing The Inside Of The Tubes On My Vibes
 

I'm restoring a 1937 Leedy vibraphone. I need to polish the inside and outside of the resonator tubes., not for looks but to remove the tarnish and gunk so they might resonate more freely. They are made of thin aluminum. I can't use any kind of motor driven device, as the excessive heat will knock them out of tune.

Mother's Aluminum wheel polish works great. Dipping in Tarn-x or something like it won't work for me. I've researched it, and Mother's and old fashioned elbow grease is it.

The tubes have a plug at the bottom and don't go all the way through. A couple of them have bases of mud dauber nests stuck at the bottom.

I polished the shortest tube to test the polish. You can see the difference in one of the pics. There are some measurements in some of the pics, as well.

Anybody got a great idea how to polish the inside of a tube? The short tubes aren't the problem, it's the deep ones. I can use gadgets, but not at an rpm or rate that will generate excessive heat.

I hope the collective CP Genious will come up with something brilliant without having to think to the complete limit or straining something.

TIA

Your pal,
Dinny

More pics.

How about a long handled toilet brush?

http://i67.tinypic.com/fc1n4w.jpg

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/...let-brush.html

http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Medical-.../dp/B005AURM1U

Antifreeze and fire. Possibly duct tape.

This looks promising.

Dinny

Wrong thread. Here's the one you want.

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showt...ght=NFL+Rigged

Dinny

Cool shit Dinny. :thumb: But mud daubers nest? ROFL Was someone storing it in their garage?
As an alternative to the toilet brush you could get a gun cleaning kit. Get one with enough extensions to get to the bottom of your longest tube and make sure it has the eyelet attachment to threat a .50 cal patch through.

Yeah, a shed for sure. I think it also spent a lot of time in a coal furnace environment.

Not being a gun guy, this never occurred to me. I like it. Do I just search for gun cleaning kit? Or are there other key words I'm looking for?

Thanks, Chief.

Dinny

Your local Walmart should have them in the sporting section for around $20.

You're quite welcome, love seeing someone restore an old instrument like this. :thumb: