Giving a tuba a bath with rotary valve

[IsaacTuba]

I don’t exactly trust myself with removing the 5th rotary on my tuba but the other 4 valves are pistons. When giving it a bath, should I leave the rotor in or take it to a shop?

[Wayne Rice]

Ask Bloke. I used to take my rotary valves out all the time. You really just have to be careful with the linkage. You'll need a rawhide hammer and dowel (which came with my Mirafone (with an f) 186). But seriously, talk to Bloke.

As an aside I have an Eastman 632 and love it! (And no, I have not removed the fifth valve.)

[k001k47]

Find a clunker or scrapped horn to practice on. Building confidence in anything really just takes doing.

[Maurice]

There are less than a dozen screws holding the valve assembly on that horn. You can remove the rotor assembly and take it to your local shop to have disassembled, cleaned, reassembled and timed if you like. That horn can be cleaned in your kitchen sink.... Good luck.

[tofu]

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[Lee Stofer]

If you are in Phoenix, I would suggest that you contact Mike Nye, a professional instrument repair technician and shop owner. He can properly care for your horn. If you tell him that you want to get into brass instrument maintenance, he can probably help with that, too.

[MaryAnn]

Well, the mental picture I got from the post's title was using a rotary valve like a washcloth to clean a tuba. I'm really glad that picture was inaccurate.