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I was considering pouring some white wine vinegar down my leadpipe, to let the valves of a rotary horn soak for a while, as an easy way to eliminate any calcium deposits that might exist.

My concern is whether there could be any unintended negative chemical effects.

Anybody know, for sure?

Your horn will smell a little like salad for a day or so. Vinegar is a very mild acid and it will take a while to dissolve any heavy deposits. You can probably use what the inside of the 2nd slide looks like to monitor how it's going. Just rinse it out well.

I was recently having an issue with rotor action on my Wisemann 900 if the linkage screw by the thumb lever was tightened completely. If I left the screw backed out 1/4 turn all was cool except the screw would keep backing itself out with use. I disconnected the linkage and noted that the rotor action itself had built up friction over time. Removed the rotor and noted deposits on and around the bearing surfaces. Soaked in white vinegar per Funderburk's videos for 6-8 hours which removed deposits easily. Washed it all off and reoiled the bearing surfaces and replaced rotor and reattached the linkage. Smooth action restored with the upper linkage screw at full tightness. Not sure about down the leadpipe, but used as above, hail the power of vinegar! Oh, and a rotor removal and replacement tool from custom music was nice too

Why white wine vinegar instead of regular white vinegar? It seems like white wine vinegar may have some traces of sugar in it, which I wouldn't be excited about. Otherwise, wine vinegar isn't as cheap as white vinegar.

BTW, white vinegar is a great cleaner for just about everything. I always have a gallon jug of it around the house.

CLR, in the manner recommended for a coffee pot, followed by a long rinse with a hose. Did I say rinse? Oh, yeah: rinse. Rinse. By the way - rinse.

Someone else mentioned CLR to me, but I figured that vinegar, being a food-like substance, was probably less deadly!

Z-Tuba Dude wrote:Someone else mentioned CLR to me, but I figured that vinegar, being a food-like substance, was probably less deadly!

CLR contains sulfamic acid. That won't hurt brass either. But... you don't want to stay submerged for hours like you can with vinegar.

I used both CLR and white vinegar to remove deposits from a tuba I refurbished myself (see my Lyon and Healy link in my signature) with no ill effects. Just be sure to rinse! CLR can get a little smelly, so using it in a ventilated area is recommended.

Here is the next question I should ask:
Is CLR a superior enough product, that I should "dump" the vinegar?

bloke wrote: sticky Wisemann 900 rotor: lacquer finish, correct?

Yep, lacquer. This particular 900 had a smooth rotor from the start. Understand from Tom there may have been some minor lacquer overspray into the rotor housing in some which although easily corrected could be confounding.

I just wanted to report that I did soak the rotary valves with white vinegar, and it seems to have eliminated the problem (the true test will be tonight, at rehearsal!).

The process was pretty easy, with a rotary horn. I just laid the horn on it's side, with the leadpipe side up, and poured the vinegar down the leadpipe, using sousaphone bits & a mouthpiece, as a makeshift funnel. The vinegar stayed in the valve section, from half way up the leadpipe, to the mid point of the main tuning slide.

Any ideas how to do the same thing for a piston horn? Clearly, de-calcifying the pistons will be easy, but how to soak the valve casings, without dipping the whole horn in vinegar, is the challenge.

Z-Tuba Dude wrote:.... Any ideas how to do the same thing for a piston horn? Clearly, de-calcifying the pistons will be easy, but how to soak the valve casings, without dipping the whole horn in vinegar, is the challenge.

Leave all the tuning slides in but pull them out to the last 1/2" or so... plug the large side of the main tuning slide and fill the valve section up with whatever wash solution you choose to use.

Another little trick I use is hook an aquarium pump to the receiver with vinyl tuning, submerge the pump in the cleaning solution, pull the main slide and position the horn so it will drain back into where the pump is. You can tie down one valve at a time to circulate the solution through the tuning circuits. Just let it run until the job is done.