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Hey,
So I played and Easter gig with a guy who used to work for Lawson Horns and he said that they use automatic transmission fluid on their valves to make them smooth.

For piston valves you would have to cut it with Al Cass (I'm guessing).

Has anyone used this?

B

It works great for tuning slides. I would think it would be a little heavy for pistons.

Had an old 100 year old piston York a few years back with very worn valves and did exactly that with good success. What I also did was rub the solution onto the pistons with my fingers to apply what might be more or less referred to as a "grease slick." This worked better than just pouring it on. It filled the gap and the compression or seal was much better. Though I have to admit the valves were not the fastest, but 16ths at 120 went fine. Same can be done with motor oil, though pink tranny fluid is prettier in the bottle.

The thing I don't like about this: valve oil gets on me, and I don't know what's in that stuff.

It bothers me a little with motor oil. I expect if there are any surprisingly harmful additives they're a very small fraction (and I dilute the motor oil a lot), but for me, an improvement on motor oil would be something with fewer mystery ingredients and better odds of being healthful in frequent skin contact. The exact lubricating properties are nearly irrelevant - it isn't hard to find a lubricant that will serve plenty well for tuba pistons, the main thing is that you don't want something that congeals or polymerizes.

I thought it was cough syrup so I drank some.

Three Valves wrote:I thought it was cough syrup so I drank some.

Your cough go away?

It not only cured my cough, it grew hair on my head and put lead in my pencil!!



I now use it as a drizzle on my cheesecake.

I know of one valve oil maker that actually uses tranny fluid in one of its varieties....

bloke wrote:

Sanders Valve Oil.jpg

Could be this fluid....

Sewing machine oil works and will "keep you in stitches." wondering over the chemistry. SO ... SO ... SORRRRRY for that one.

If you just must experiment with lubrication, go for it. I got tired of all that stuff, and decided to settle on something that is safe and works very well, and is very stable (lasts a long time and is therefore inexpensive). This something is called Hetman lubricants. For over 30 years now, I've felt that I cannot afford to have anything go wrong with my instrument in a rehearsal or performance.

In college, I once had a 5th rotor seize just before a performance of La Traviata, and there was not time to get out of the pit to fix it. My fiancee was a cellist, also in the pit, and I dumped some of her perfume in the 5th rotor, which did make it work again and very well, but also just about killed the entire brass section every time I played. It was almost toxic that night. My colleagues now appreciate it that my horn and I do not smell like the underside of a car, or anything else, so you will not find ultrapure lamp oil, motor oil, automatic transmission fluid, 3 in 1 oil, or denatured kerosene in my horn.

Ultra pure lamp oil with a few drops of pharmaceutical glycerin will give a nice slippery movement.

Odorless, too.