TubeNet

Tips on cleaning Rotary valves on my Cerveny CBB 686-4 Series 4-Valve 4/4 BBb Tuba My 2nd valve locks up once in while.

Thanks!!!!---Tom Barlow

It's a little bit more involved than cleaning a piston valve, but not by much. YouTube has plenty of videos explaining how to do it. You'll need a soft hammer, preferably rawhide. I would also suggest using regular blue Dawn dish soap. It is gentle and a great degreaser.

I have often used CLR for cleaning valves - rotary and piston, including casings - with very good results. It can be diluted with water and gets quick results. Keep an eye on things and rinse well with water in the end. It works well as a mild bright dip for old badly tarnished parts. I have also used it for removing tarnish from silver plated instruments. I have never struck problems and it is much faster than vinegar. YMMV.

If you Google “Jeff Funderburk tuba maintenance” you’ll find all the info you’ll need to maintain rotary valves. There are 14 videos he posted to YouTube and the information is solid. These were referenced in a thread a few years ago as well:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=44320" target="_blank

Thanks,
Drew

I would suspect that using a reactive container such as an aluminum pan could cause problems with a galvanic reaction being set up. I have cleaned complete instruments in dilute solutions in bath tubs. Result, clean inside and de-tarnished on the outside. I always degreased things first. When you don't have a well equipped workshop it is handy to be able to do a reasonable "chem clean" with a relatively safe and inexpensive pruduct.

Often, when cleaning my rotars, I see lime deposits exactly in the spindle area which I've been oiling all those months before cleaning.
And I am in no way too stingy to oil my axe.
Which leads me to wonder, why do I oil it at all if the oil isn't reaching the place I want the oil to reach?

In the past, I have soaked old rotary valves in white vinegar and had them come out as shiny as new valves. I have, as some above described, degreased an horn and poured white vinegar in it to get rid of corrosion. Both have to be monitored, it is possible to damage a horn this way.

Your instrument will also smell like vinegar for several weeks. Makes you want to eat salad.

if you have hard water make sure you use water that has gone thru the softener...usually the shower, or fill a bucket at the laundry attachment if you have to.
I wonder if drinking hard water makes your spit more likely to form scale...probably.

Will running soap and warm water through the lead pipe and wiggling the valves clean them very well?

In the late 70s Ren. Schilke toured the UK with Yamaha. That's where I first heard about oiling through the receiver. so that you keep an oil layer through the instrument. I also heard Gerhard Meinl talk about doing the same with rotary valve tubas. This is a preventative that can slow the formation of lime. It also helps a little with stopping food from sticking!
I'd suggest take it to a good repair shop and get the lime removed properly. But then prevention being the way forward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD9oZjRchno" target="_blank

Running high-velocity hot water

Brings back a memory. I had the use of a school owned instrument for a summer long playing job when I was 21. The horn smelled really bad and I was playing it all day every day. It was back before I knew squat about cleaning a horn, and the budget was zero. There was a dormitory folklore about how to clean, and the idea was that shampoo was the thing you owned already that could cut grease in an emergency.

I loaded up a bucket with hot water and a good deal of Herbal Essence (very trendy at the time), and poured it into the bell. I turned the horn over and over until that water made it to the receiver. The stuff that came out of the receiver would have made Stephen Spielberg proud. The pressure is quite good doing it that way, and the smell was gone forever. The horn smelled sweet too, Herbal Essence all day long.

Miraphone used to recommend Ivory Snow detergent. It's the stuff they used to use for washing diapers.
Since nobody washes diapers any more, I thought the stuff had been discontinued, but I found some at a store last year.

It works great, but everything needs to soak for about an hour... then those nasty blobs start to appear.

The stuff is really soft, flakey, and smells good. It will not, however help you play soft or not stink when you play... that's what practice is for.