Cracked cymbal

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timboZ

timboZ

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A friend just gave me a Avedis A 14' thin crash. It has a 1 inch crack in it.
Will I be better off turing it into a 12 inch crash/splash or just take a chunck out around the crack?
 
timboZ said:
A friend just gave me a Avedis A 14' thin crash. It has a 1 inch crack in it.
Will I be better off turing it into a 12 inch crash/splash or just take a chunck out around the crack?
Click to expand...

Drill a hole (1/8 ") on both ends of the crack that will stop it from spreading
 
I would leave it as is until it breaks by itself. My drummer just gave me a 16" thin crash with a 1" crack. I alleady had a 16" thin crash but with the crack it has a different flavor.
 
If I were you:

A) Frisbie time
B) Smash it up. Drill holes into the pieces... and you geta wind chime.
C) Put it over another cymbal (preferably a china) to get a short, trashy accent.

Or you could just drill out the crack.
 
ive got a paise 16" full crash that had a crack in it... now it's unrecognizable. but it sounds cool.
i have a ziljian avedis 14" and it sounds pretty awesome, so i'd do whatever i can to keep it sounding the same.
 
My crash has a crack in it and it broke off itself but it still sounds good.
 
Well i would drill out the ends, then put small rivets in those holes and also go very slow with a dremel tool and remove the edges of the crack so that they do not vibrate against each other and produce more cracks. Use a 1/8 drill bit and use 1/8 rivets that small enough in lenght the snug up tight on both sides to effectively hold the crack from vibrating at the ends to much.

You want to go slow with the dremel tool so that you do not heat up the cymbal to much and cause the bronze alloy to loose it's heat treatment or worseyet if that b20 bronze gets to hot and cools down quickly it will spider web crack, b20 bronze has to be pre and post heat treated if you intend on raisinf it's tremperature above like 400 degrees or so. So go slow and keep your cool,lol.
 
Can you not braise a crack in a cymbal, or does that kill the tone?

Edit: Oops, "braze," not "braise." :o
 
Zaphod B said:
Can you not braise a crack in a cymbal, or does that kill the tone?

Edit: Oops, "braize," not "braise." :o
Click to expand...

I was thinking about that as well.
Then cool it down in sand.
 
I'm not sure what filler alloy you would need to braze brass.

As you said, Timbo, a controlled cool-down in sand, and removing excess material.....

The only problem would be if there is any significant gap in the crack (huh, huh! :D )
 
Brazing will soon recrack the solder used in brazing, even high silver solder, is not designed to with stand flexing, torsion, or shear type forces. Brazing is just filling the capilaries of the metals to be joined and the filler metal cooling inside those capilaries and then solidifying itself and holding the joint together, great for pipe and such but not for sheet metal, which is what cymbals really are, cast or not they are sheet because of their thickness, over 3/8 inch and metal is considered plate.

Also you can only weld on the cymbal if it is B8 bronze, unless you intend on pre and post heating the b20 bronze to prevent post weld stress cracks from forming, I have not tried the new B12 bronze from Zildjian, so that may be readily welded also, I don't know but i have tried it on B20 and that does not work, unless you happen to have a heat treat oven and then table to keep the metal hot while working on it and then back to the oven for a controlled cool down.

But there are MANY good cymbals made of B8 alloy and I used to TIG weld them with great success, i even sold a few on ebay a few years back, but once you buy the cracked cymbal then weld it and then to make any profit is hard because people don't trust the repaired cymbal.

So I got out of it, BUT I have saved myself money in the past by repairing some cymbals to get me through a show or something.
 
You can always cut the crack out, so you'll end up with a rectangular piece missing from your cymbal. Probably the easiest way to do it, and it's done all the time.
 
So, FT, you don't recommend brazing as a solution? The joint would not be strong enough in the long run?
 
Zaphod B said:
So, FT, you don't recommend brazing as a solution? The joint would not be strong enough in the long run?
Click to expand...

You could try the brazing on a B8 alloy cymbal and it may last 30 minutes or so, unless of course it is a thick ass ride cymbal that is not used to crash on.

I would use grade 3 or 5 silver solder, but if you have a stick welder you could use some 9n10 rod I think it is, used for copper nickel and brass and such.

Use a 1/16 rod and practice on some thin sheet of bronze or something, make sure you are welding it flat and try to keep the heat low as possible to prevent burn through, better yet use a aluminum backing plate to help prevent burn through and to help keep the edges aligned, BUT if you are not an expirenced welder then welding on thin stuff like cymbals will just piss you off, I welded for years for a naval contractor and got to weld on some neat metals and learned alot, then I retired at 25 and became a rock star,lol.
 
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