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The plastic coating on my Yamaha (euph) valve springs has started to come off, the noise/vibrations from the springs has become annoyingly noticable.

I believe it was Chuck(G) that once mentioned trying some small tubing around the last turn of the spring...

Heat shrink tubing (irradiated polyolefin) is cheap and common in the electronics industry. It is made by:
Alpha http://www.alphawire.com/pages/pdf/115.pdf
and
3M http://multimedia.mmm.com/mws/mediawebs ... 8DsC4JtM3-

The spring wire on my euph measures 0.038" so I got some 3/64" heat shrink (the smallest they make). If your spring wire diameter is greater than 0.046 you would use the 1/16" heat shrink. I cut a 1" length and used a heat gun to shrink it into place. The extra diameter didn't cause any problems fitting onto the bottom valve cap or into the bottom of the valve, it fit very nice. I finished up the other 7 spring ends.

The spring noise is now better than new! Cheap, easy, and should last forever!

Regards,
Bob

Wow, that sounds like a great idea, I'll have to try that!

Two questions though: Where did you get the tubing?
and
Do you think a hair drier would get sufficient heat to shrink it, or it a heat gun absolutely required?

Ryan_Beucke wrote:Wow, that sounds like a great idea, I'll have to try that!

Two questions though: Where did you get the tubing?
and
Do you think a hair drier would get sufficient heat to shrink it, or it a heat gun absolutely required?

A hair dryer won't do the job, but a cigarette lighter will, if you use a light touch. Apply heat untll the tubing begins to shrink, then remove the heat.

You can get the stuff from most electronics supply houses, incluing JDR, Jameco, Mouser, Newark or Allied. I'm not sure, but you might even find the stuff at Radio Shack.

It comes in both irradiated PVC and polyolefin. I like PVC myself, because it's thicker, but it's mostly a matter of taste.

Chuck(G) wrote:A hair dryer won't do the job, but a cigarette lighter will, if you use a light touch. ... I like PVC myself, because it's thicker...

Yes, what Chuck(G) said. It needs to reach about 120degC or 250degF. Use the heat rising from the flame, not the flame.

I was worried the extra thickness would prevent the spring from fitting to the valve and bottom cap so I went with the Polyolefin.

You can also probably find the stuff at your local hobby shop--it's popular with the RC model crowd. Du-Bro sells it in 1/16" (unshrunk) size, which ought to be okay for this particular application. Cheap, too--about $1.50 for a package of it.

Cool, thanks a lot guys

bloke wrote:If my instruments start making buzzing and clicking noises, I usually just play louder to drown them out.

When that happens to me, I look over my shoulder at the percussion section and frown.