Heat will probably destroy the button. I'd be real surprised if epoxy held it. Post a picture of the rest of the tuner. Somebody might have one.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Will the bearing blocks fit flush on the plate now?
Was it a peening of the posts (tennons?) that held them on originally?
OK, if it was me I'd just replace the entire set. A standard set of Grover, Gotoh, Rubners, Waverly, just about any manufacturers A style worm over tuners will work. The spacing should be .906 in or 23.01 mm center to center on the posts. Everything A style tuner set on this Strewmac page will fit except the Golden Age Restoration Tuners for A style mandolins. Those have a different post spacing.
https://www.stewmac.com/Hardware_and...ning_Machines/
You could also check eBay for a vintage set of tuners. Those tuners are the WWII vintage sets with no screw just a glob of brass holding the cog to the post.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Looks to me like it was peened, you will like newer tuner soooo much better than these.
THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Perhaps some steps of this could be used to repair the original tuners....
http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luth...f4gearfix.html
Adrian
Hi, I have been accused for uneconomic fixes on all sorts of things, but I enjoy it. Those tiny protuberances are almost certainly just peened in from the backside, which means you have to take the whole tuner plate off, clamp the part in position carefully, using some force to push the part all the way in.(Button to the outboard side!) Then, resting the two bearing blocks on a vise top, or whatever’s sturdy, take a centerpunch, or if lacking, a sharpened big nail, and re-peen the thing. You will have to guess how much is enough. Then check for proper motion of the worm. Doesn’t have to be very strong at all. If you want to go nuts, and have access, you could use a jeweller’s torch and braze the thing without melting the button, but the original plating (nickel probably) may inhibit adhesion.
You might be able to peen it if there's still enough metal there, I'm going to hazard a guess that it probably let go when it was dropped. It still won't be a decent tuner and wont add anything to the value of the mandolin. You would have the satisfaction of knowing you fixed it though.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
And then you could buy these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1930s-1940s...sAAOSwXfNdCpaS
NFI
Last edited by MikeEdgerton; Aug-25-2019 at 11:23am.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
You could try silver solder. It's actually structural unlike regular electrical solder. It takes some decent amount of heat to get it working though. You normally need a blow torch for it. That amount of heat and open flame would probably ruin any nickel/chrome plating or any patina it has now and you'd definitely need to remove it from the instrument. I probably wouldn't use silver solder if I were you but it's an option I guess.
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