Another valve oil substitute

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toobagrowl
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Re: Another valve oil substitute

Post by toobagrowl »

Staravoski wrote:In my short time playing a valved brass instrument I've bought four or five bottles of "valve oil", each a different brand but all seeming to work equally well. One of them smelled of wintergreen. They've all been water-white. My impression is that they're all pure or close-to-pure light liquid paraffin. This is a very inexpensive inert petroleum product like mineral oil or baby oil but with lower viscosity, mainly used for making medicines or cosmetics. It doesn't oxidize or turn to a sticky gum as vegetable oils tend to do.
Has anyone here used baby oil or mineral oil?
I have used Blue Juice, Al Cass, pure lamp oil, etc. They are all too thin/watery. Blue Juice and lamp oil both stink too.
I am using Hetman's "Classic" and it works better than the above mentioned oils for the old worn pistons on my Eb tubas. But there is a greenish film that builds up in the valve ports and sometimes gets between the pistons and casings and causes the valves to be sticky....especially the first valve. :x So I have to wipe the film crud off every now and then. Wondering if baby oil would work on old pistons :?: :idea:
Søren
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Re: Another valve oil substitute

Post by Søren »

I do not think that using detergents should harm your horn. I would though be careful of the pH and the amount of salt in the detergent solution. Either might accelerate corrosion in the horn. Come to think of it, using a non-ionic detergent might be preferable to the SDS or SLS found in normal cleaning products.
Michael Bush
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Re: Another valve oil substitute

Post by Michael Bush »

tooba wrote: Has anyone here used baby oil or mineral oil?
I have used Blue Juice, Al Cass, pure lamp oil, etc. They are all too thin/watery. Blue Juice and lamp oil both stink too.
I am using Hetman's "Classic" and it works better than the above mentioned oils for the old worn pistons on my Eb tubas. But there is a greenish film that builds up in the valve ports and sometimes gets between the pistons and casings and causes the valves to be sticky....especially the first valve. :x So I have to wipe the film crud off every now and then. Wondering if baby oil would work on old pistons :?: :idea:
When I had old pistons, I used a mixture of lamp oil and food-grade mineral oil. Worked great.
toobagrowl
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Re: Another valve oil substitute

Post by toobagrowl »

Thanks :) I'm gonna try cleaning the pistons first and then applying a couple drops of baby oil (baby oil = lightly scented mineral oil) on each piston and see how that works. If that doesn't work, I'll try the lamp oil + baby oil formula. :tuba:
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Art Hovey
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Re: Another valve oil substitute

Post by Art Hovey »

After experimenting with soaps and detergents and anti-freeze for a while I have moved on to pure glycerin diluted with water. It's odorless, non-toxic, available in drug stores, and works as well as anything.

For a tuba with old and well-worn pistons, "break-free gun oil" works well. It does not dry out when the instrument sits in a case for long periods. I think it was Al Baer who recommended it here, diluted with ultra-pure lamp oil. I found it on display in a local gun shop. It's also very good on tuning slides.
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Art Hovey
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Re: Another valve oil substitute

Post by Art Hovey »

There is a solvent called "Goo-Gone" that I found at Homey Depot which softens the "Lime" pretty well without damaging lacquer or plastic parts.
toobagrowl
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Re: Another valve oil substitute

Post by toobagrowl »

I've been using pure lamp oil on my piston tubas for a while with varying degrees of success depending on piston condition of each tuba. I recently mixed a few drops of 3-in-1 oil with the pure lamp oil and it seems to work better for the more worn pistons.
And just today I tried the Art Hovey method of Dawn liquid detergent (blue) on my "main" Eb tuba. One drop on each piston. So far, so good :tuba: I will 'gauge' it over time to see how it works out. At least it "cleans" the pistons as I play, and it smells good!
It's fun experimenting with different 'formulas'.

Bump :!:
toobagrowl
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Re: Another valve oil substitute

Post by toobagrowl »

^Don't you just grab whatever left-over valve oil that is in some school horn case? I seem to remember you stating that several times. Yeah......that doesn't always work for all piston tubas :| :wink: :tuba:
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