I Fix Things

That texture sure did look like something else though, and when I started drilling it out my suspicions were confirmed:

Those sure as shit ain't brass shavings. That is fucking superglue.

At some point in the past someone snapped the threads off the finger button and just... glued it back on. And it held for a while too, until I had to disassemble everything for a full cleaning and tried to unscrew it.

Original rivets ripped out of one end of both backpack straps and one side of the secondary handle. My usual (and preferred) method to repair ripped-out case hardware is to go through from the inside with bolts and large washers to spread out the forces and make the repair stronger than the original. Unfortunately that was not an option here due to case construction. I would have had to almost completely disassemble the interior to access the wood frame, and that was more time and effort than this case was worth.

So, pop-rivets. The biggest ones I could get at the nearest hardware store. Too big for the regular rivet gun, hence the new bigger one.

6.4mm diameter, 19mm overall length.

Handle back on.

Backpack straps anchored in place again.

Case also had some torn seams. Fixed those too.

Behold my new rivet gun.

Grungy trombone rotor time again.

Locking washer was keeping the broken piece mostly but not completely in place, so the valve was still working as it should but felt very off the whole time.

Also the valve casings look like this, which is a related but separate problem:

You know it won't kill you to put more glue in the key cups, right?