Cymbal Repairs / Mods

In the week since I have repaired my cymbal (pictured below) I have made a few interesting observations. Cymbals are machined through a process of rolling, spinning and hammering, which work-hardens the bronze making it strong and durable (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK8XHULfllo). Also, Copper alloys behave in the opposite way to iron alloys, in that when they are heated to red hot and then cooled quickly, it softens the metal (as apposed to the hardening that occurs in iron alloys such as steel). After I finished braising my cymbal, it cooled very quickly because it is such a thin sheet of metal. This has effectively annealed the area that I braised, meaning it is now much softer than the surrounding bronze. As the wave form travels through the cymbal after i strike it, it causes this soft area to bend upwards over the course of a practice/gig, and I can hear the sound of the cymbal deteriorate over this time. Also, after last weekends gig in Auckland, I noticed another crack appearing within the softened area of the cymbal, which will now need repairing also. Oh well, I got an extra gig out of my $550 NZD cymbal!
 
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Funny enough, I use a guy here in the U.K. to fix cymbals. 2 years ago I picked up a Kcrash ride with a hairline crack for 30 quid and sent it to him to be slotted and had three rivets added. It's become a mainstay sound for me. Unfortunately I found another crack last month, but have sent it to be fixed and it can back yesterday. Lovely bit of work.

While I was paying postage I had an old cracked China fixed and riveted too. It sounds immense, now.

Long story short I love the stuff this guy can do, repairing old cymbals and making a unique sound. I'm hooked, it's like tattoos for cymbals.

Can't link me video files on Instagram, but if you wanna look, I'm @thecaptaingretsch
 

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I turned my edge cracked 18" Sabian AA medium crash into a 16" Sabian Rocktagon. Printed the 8 sided vertical lines, marked the horizontal lines above the crack, took to the band saw and got it shaped.
A 3M abrasion wheel to debur it & I'm good to go!
 
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Have any of you ever flipped a cymbal so the bell is punched in and the edges are up? I watched Chris Coleman do this to one of his 10" cymbals at a clinic in Ohio and I tried it with a 12" splash. It sounded great to my suprise!

I could see this working very well for cheaper splashes. Great for making an extra effects china in a set up.

I have a cheap 10" that I'll do this with just to see how it goes.
 
I'm thinking about hammering out some minor bends in the center hole of a few cymbals my friend has. Amazingly, there's one that's beat to hell and the bell is basically gone, yet its not cracked and its not actually keyholed. it's more like if you stretched a bagel dough from the center. There's another which is far less along and just barely bending in around the rim of the center role. Would hammering either of these out undo some of the damage? Is it worth it or should it be left alone? Is a hammered center hole more likely to crack due to reduced malleability? Would a brass hammer be appropriate for this kind of repair work or should you work with a hammer that has as hard a face as possible?
 
I'm thinking about hammering out some minor bends in the center hole of a few cymbals my friend has. Amazingly, there's one that's beat to hell and the bell is basically gone, yet its not cracked and its not actually keyholed. it's more like if you stretched a bagel dough from the center. There's another which is far less along and just barely bending in around the rim of the center role. Would hammering either of these out undo some of the damage? Is it worth it or should it be left alone? Is a hammered center hole more likely to crack due to reduced malleability? Would a brass hammer be appropriate for this kind of repair work or should you work with a hammer that has as hard a face as possible?

I would not recommend hammering it, as counter-hammering on a center hole may make it more likely to crack, and if the center hole cracks, the cymbal is as good as dead.
 
A while back I picked up a Meinl Gen X Filter China for cheap with some cracks starting at some of the holes. The seller said "cracks are minor and don't affect the sound, but I was definitely hearing the choked metal on metal sizzle that you usually get from a broken cymbal. Figured the easy fix was to use a step drill and enlarge the holes to take out the cracks. Fortunately, the broken ones were on evenly spaced holes, so keeping everything symetrical was no issue. Ten minutes at the drill press and a few more with a de-burring tool & it now sounds clean and sizzle free and has a slightly more trashier sound.Meinl-GenX-repair-1.jpg

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I found a 1/2" crack on my 18" crash right on the edge. Instead of repairing it, I did some graphic design & cut it into a 16" Rocktagon.
Perfection.
 
A while back I picked up a Meinl Gen X Filter China for cheap with some cracks starting at some of the holes. The seller said "cracks are minor and don't affect the sound, but I was definitely hearing the choked metal on metal sizzle that you usually get from a broken cymbal. Figured the easy fix was to use a step drill and enlarge the holes to take out the cracks. Fortunately, the broken ones were on evenly spaced holes, so keeping everything symetrical was no issue. Ten minutes at the drill press and a few more with a de-burring tool & it now sounds clean and sizzle free and has a slightly more trashier sound.View attachment 87969

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Almost looks like crossover between the 12/14 Trash hat bottom and the regular 14" china haha
 
Some time ago I spent the whopping sum of €48, shipping included, to buy a 16" paiste sig dark energy mkI crash that had been cracked and subsequently reduced in diameter "professionally"; the cymbal arrives and I note that, regrettably, it has another crack forming from the outer edge, I let the seller know and they profusely apologize, sending me back the money I paid (but not the shipping charges).

Fast forward to a few weeks ago I decide that it's a waste to have the cymbal sit there unused and broken, so I go about reducing it to 14" to use it as a top hat over a paiste innovations top hat and make a signature dark innovations extra light hat set.

Here's a video detailing the process with lots of pictures and an audio demo at the end:
 
Such an interesting thread. Being a metal worker and fabricator by trade, I had never given much thought to what everyone else goes through with a cracked cymbal because I've been repairing them for years by brazing. As noted in a previous post, when brazing it must be allowed to cool slowly or the end result will be next to worthless. I have an old oven I bought off CL that I use to keep the cymbal at about 100 deg F and then braze and return to the oven to allow it to slowly return to room temp. It made sense for me as I can use the oven for many other tasks (powdercoating for one) but I wouldn't recommend it unless you break a lot of cymbals. (if you do, maybe check the technique?)
 
I just made my old 13" Sabian AA hats into "fast hats" with the 8 holes drilled near the edge. No real sound change, but it does make them "fast" by letting the air out.

I found a pair of red Avanti 14" B20 hi-hats and made a 13" rocktagon effects cymbal from it. Fast & trashy. Not sure what I'll do with the other one, but for now, I have options.
 
I just sent two cymbals off to Jake in Florida who does repairs. I am waiting to hear what they are like when I get them back but he is very affordable and has checked with me on the repairs with every adjustment.
 
I just got my cymbals back from Jake's Cymbal Repair in Florida. He did a great job and was $40 per cymbal. I have two China Highboys I can use again. I found him (of all places) on Facebook.
 
Re: Is there any way you can mend a cracked cymbal!!!!

Dependent upon the type of crack it is, you might be able to get a replacement from the company, especially a larger company like Paiste. But they will only send you a replacement if the crack is a result of a manufacturing flaw. Generally, this is when a crack occurs on a lathing line or one of the hammer grooves. And in this case it usually takes very little toll on the sound of the cymbal. This happened with my friend's UFIP (I believe it was UFIP anyways) splash and the thing still rang out beautifully after getting a crack around the lathing line.

One thing I would not recommend trying to do, which about 75% of the drummers I know try first is to solder a cracked cymbal. First of all, the result will look messy and second of all, it will not do a single thing for the sound really (unless there was a buzz or vibration resulting from the crack), but this will not give the cymbal the sustain, volume, and depth it once had. When alloys and metals are cut and sculpted into a defined shape like a cymbal, one of the key factors in producing the sound is based around the concept of stress. It is kind of like a ticking time bomb because sometimes the right hit in the right place will cause all this stress to be released on one concentrated area across the cymbal's surface. The bright side is that the cymbal is 100% less likely to crack again once it is cracked. Thus, if you like the sound of the cymbal post-cracking, chances are you won't have to worry about being delicate with that cymbal and compromising the sound.

Also if the cymbal sounds nothing like it did initially and you hate the sound of it you have two other options. You can sell it. Surprisingly, there are a lot of guys out there in search of cracked cymbals for obscure projects. Like cutting them into weird shapes and using them to piggyback with other cymbals. I've seen some cracked cymbals go for as much as $50! The second option is probably a bit more useful. You can cut down the cymbal into a smaller splash or just use the bell and make your own ice bell (pending that the crack is not on the bell). This way no cracked cymbal goes to waste! If you have hook-ups with someone that works at a machine shop talk you could ask them to do it on their lunch break or if you can find the machinery to do it you can do it yourself. A guy my Dad worked with once made three ice bells out of three cracked cymbals I bought for $5. The result was awesome, The cut was perfectly circular and he even cleaned up the edge where the cut occurred. The cymbal looked like a brand new ice bell and it sounded awesome. This was a temporary fix for me until I saved up about $80 to buy a real Sabian Stage Ice Bell. The best part about this too is how I came up with the money. I ended up selling the three homemade ice bells (two smaller ones for $25 and the bigger one for $30). Thus, in the end I basically got an $80 bell for $5 (initial cost for the cracked cymbals).

Hence you can always profit of what you may think is old junk. All you need is the right skills and tools and sometimes the right perspective.

Best of luck with the cracked cymbal! You have lots of options and directions with it.

-Brent
Hey there you know your stuff from the tension and release potential energy in metal forms to good old horse tradin. Hats off!
 
Hey, I've got a cymbal like the one pasted below. It is cracked all the way from the outside tip of one of the long cutouts to the edge of the cymbal. It now buzzes when hit and is not really usable. Any hope for some kind of repair? Sorry I didn't look through all 17 pages of this thread.

I got this guy as a "free" add on with a set, but I've gotten used to having it and see that it would be $350 or so to replace or get something comparable.

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