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Does anyone have any advice for storing a tuba for about four months?
I have to put a tuba away and won't be able to get to it while I'm traveling, but the problem is that it doesn't have a case or gig bag. Should I pull the pistons and slides and bag them up? Or is it better to leave the instrument intact and well oiled/lubed? Anything I should avoid or look out for so I don't come home to a completely frozen instrument?
Thanks!

Unscrewing all valve caps and removing all slides sounds like a good plan. You should probably plan on cleaning the slides when you put then away and before you put the horn back together.

I stored a valve trombone all lubed up. The slides stuck, and the repair guy told me, "next time, put it away dry". Evidently the Selmer slide grease really gave him fits.

Aha! Slide grease again. I've had trouble with one or three different ones setting up over a few month period. . . must have some'at to do with temperatures and humidity. . . or perhaps just being worked periodically or not. Are there any new ones out there?

Put Marvel Mystery Oil on the valves and moving parts. Vaseline on the slides.

swillafew wrote: "next time, put it away dry".

My repair guy gave me the same advice. I cleaned the slides and valves with a cloth lightly dampened with kerosene and put them back in the horn when dry, with valve caps top and bottom loosened off. Don't push the slides all the way in, leave them out about 1/4 inch. Store in the aforesaid cool, dry place.

From previous threads on this and related topics:

NEVER store a tuba with animal based lubricants (grease, lanolin, fish-oil, whale oil etc) - These tend to either rot and stink, or set solid like old-fashioned horn-&-hoof glue.

Also NEVER use vegetable lubricants - these gum up and eventually set like paint (the best paint used to be based on Linseed oil).

The good news is that if you always stay with mineral lubricants, you may not need any special preparation if you are only laying it up for a few months: once or twice I've been called out of town and not made it home for a while (10 months on one contract, six months on another) and my tuba (which only ever gets mineral lubricants) survived with no special preparation, just sitting on its usual shelf in a cool dry basement. All I had to do when I got home was work the slides a bit to free them up, and it needed the usual dose of valve oil before playing.

If you have an opportunity to prepare the tuba before leaving home, then "put it away dry" sounds like good advice.

LJV wrote:Cover everything with a light coating of rancid bear grease.

And cure it in an oven/grill at 350 for approx. 20 minutes.

DP wrote:Dump 1/2 pint of kerosene down the carb while it's running full-bore, then shut it off.
Add Sta-bil to the tank the tank. Disconnect the battery negative lead.

Wouldn't it be better to Sta-bil prior to running to saturate the fuel line?
My brother parked his cbr600 with no treatment, and events kept him away much longer than anticipated. I remember wishing that he'd told me his sad tale BEFORE he gave his bike away to someone else

Cool - thanks for the tips.
Tuba is dry, loose, and sitting upright in a perfectly-sized rubber trash can, which looks kind of sad.

The bear's grease isn't rancid yet and I don't have time to wait for it... the carcass is just going to have to sit there in the backyard and decompose on its own. Oven wasn't big enough to fit the horn anyway.

If she is plated, loosely wrap in vapor phase paper or put some anti-tarnish cloth in with it.

VPP will keep any moisture from causing mayhem.

Saves a lot of polishing later, too!

DG

Vaseline, Dylan? I thought that Vaseline was really, really bad to put on slides.