Valve Oil Recipes?

[Donn]

Lamp oil is kerosene that has been refined an additional step. Paraffin is WAX or MINERAL OIL. In ENGLAND kerosene is called "paraffin" and paraffin is called "paraffin wax". I am speaking about the mineral oil used as an additive in valve oils to prevent evaporation, whereas, kerosene (British "paraffin") is what causes the evaporation in the first place by being so thin. Kerosene is not called "paraffin" in the US. We use that word to describe the wax (solid) or the liquid (mineral oil).

This is confusing - I say "potato", how about you?

I am not a chemist, but from a brief research into the matter, paraffin as a technical term encompasses a fairly broad range of hydrocarbons, all sharing some sort of formulaic trait but in a large range of sizes. According to the wikipedia article, methane belongs to the paraffin family, on the very light end of the scale, and then there are the waxes on the heavy end, with of course lots of possibilities in between that will be liquid at room temperature.

The "Lamplight Ultra-Pure Paraffin Lamp Oil" I bought yesterday is composed of C5-20 paraffins, or C14-16 paraffins depending on the MSDS revision you get.

Mineral oil: "Mineral oils are of variable composition depending on the boiling point of the fractions used. For food purposes usually liquid petrolatum or liquid paraffin are employed which consist essentially of n-alkanes and some cyclic paraffins." My guess is that whatever a cyclic paraffin is, it might solidify at a relatively high temperature compared to the paraffin used in lamp oil, but at any rate it looks like mineral oil is distinctly different from `paraffin lamp oil' e.g. Ultrapure.

Adding to the confusion, there's a valve oil product "Ultrapure Professional Valve Oil", composed of "proprietary light synthetic oil" ... so, I think that's none of the above.

Now, vegetable oils - why, that's just not a very good idea. They polymerize on exposure to oxygen, like linseed oil et al. Hot lye might be pretty effective once that happens, or maybe TSP.

[Michael Bush]

They polymerize on exposure to oxygen,

Neither am I am chemist, nor as good at chemistry as you seem to be! Does this mean it turns to plastic?

[Donn]

They polymerize on exposure to oxygen,

Neither am I am chemist, nor as good at chemistry as you seem to be! Does this mean it turns to plastic?

That's right. You can say resin if you want to sound all scientific.

[David Schwartz]

One part 5-weight machine oil is thinned with five parts kerosene or trumpet light piston oil.

Is anyone confident this is actually better than just buying a bottle of Hetman rotor oil? Okay, it's cheaper by the ounce. But to lube rotary valves once a week the Hetman's is not a bank-breaking investment.

If it's really better for the valves or the music, I'll do it. But I'm not convinced. Am I wrong?

I think you're right.

In my post, I should have added that I have not tried this myself. Until some respected technician chimes in here with encouragement, i may not try it.

A friend of mine actually bought a 5 gallon pail of the 5 weight light machine oil, and he uses it with no ill effects, and he gave me and some friends bottles of it. But he only has a couple of years' experience with it, and that's not much.

If I do try it, I think I'd want to thin it with one of the Hetman light oils, the Piston or Light Piston oil.

Does anyone here know the SAE viscosity of the Hetman products?

What about pharmaceutical grade mineral oil, what is it? Would it make a good brass instrument lubricant?

David

[Donn]

What about pharmaceutical grade mineral oil, what is it? Would it make a good brass instrument lubricant?

See above, for what little I could dig up about mineral oil. I don't think it would be good, too heavy.

I had forgotten about it, but I did see a baritone once with wads of white, waxy gunk in the valve ports. I don't have any information about what the previous owner might have been doing to cause that, but it must have had something to do with the valve lube. I've heard that synthetic and petroleum valve oils sometimes mix poorly and make a mess, wonder if it could have been that?

[Rev Rob]

I use synthetic valve oil (Yamaha) on my piston valves. I was told to thoroughly clean them with alcohol before applying the synthetic oil. The folks at Baltimore Brass Co. mentioned the same thing; if you don't you get a sludgy film that is very difficult to remove.