Dent Ball Crook Rod

 

Dent Ball Crook Rod

This is a great tool for reaching dents in tuning slide crooks. It is made from 2 ball bearings and 1 foot long steel rod. 

The rod is faced and filed down on both ends to a taper. Then, a nub is created for the ball bearing. Each of the bearings have a 1/8th inch hole drilled into the centers to match the nub. 

After these steps are complete, one side of the rod is silver soldered to a ball bearing. 

 

 The rod is pickled in phosphoric acid and then scrubbed clean with scotch brite. 

Next, the other end of the rod is bent. This is done by heating the rod and bending it over a mandrel with a mallet. 

This is before and after the bent side is silver soldered. 

 After pickling and scrubbing.

The bent side is sanded down so it can fit into a trumpet's 3rd slide crook. 

These are the final results after buffing. 

Finally, this shows how the rod fits inside a 3rd valve slide on trumpet. The sanded face of the ball allows for clearance to the crook.