Christmas

The last day of class was December 20, and Matt and Sarah arrived at the Minneapolis airport withing an hour of each other on the 21st. It was a lot of fun. Here's a taste:

We had a couple of snow storms while they were here, and I talked them into going for a walk during the "most vigorous" one. It was snowing quite a lot, and the wind was gusting up to 40 MPH. Here they are at the beginning of the walk.

You can see their enthusiasm as we got into the trek.

There was enough spirit left at the end for some snow angels.

We intended to go to a movie on the 24th, but the theater was closed for a private party (?!). We went for a drive around Lake Pepin instead. First from the Minnesota side looking across to Wisconsin.

From the Wisconsin side.

The day before Matt and Sarah flew back we went to a family gathering at Jan's sister's home a little more than an hour's drive into Wisconsin. The fun part of winter....

Vicki and Glenn's "back yard"

Jan and her Mom

Trippin' to the music(al instrument makers)

In early November the class took a two day trip to tour some band instrument manufacturers. It was quite interesting; here's a taste.
This shows various stages in the process; brass plate is cut into forms that are then shaped and brazed to form the bell of a trumpet.

Some trumpet and tuba (I think) pistons.

Plates of brass are cut to form the shape of a trumpet.

This lady is brazing piston casings. It takes a lot of experience and skill to do this.

Piston casings are plated, usually with nickel-silver, silver, or gold.
It took only a couple of seconds in the solution to plate the pieces.
Electricity does the work.

Silver plated casings.

The straight trumpet bells that are formed from flat pieces of brass are bent into the shape you see on the left. They are filled with a solution that freezes but remains malleable enough to allow the brass tube to bend without crimpting it. You can see bells in the freezer waiting their turn.

Finished trumpet bells before being shaped.

Here is a video of how a trombone bell is shaped.
And here is one of finishing a trumpet bell on a mandrel.
Finally, here is one of the wire being inserted into a trumpet bell.