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What do y'all use for cleaning your tubas? Do you prefer the snake that you push through or the swab that you pull through? How do you clean the bigger diameter stuff? Are those snakes and swabs long enough to reach everything you need to reach? Is there an existing kit you might recommend?

So I take it you don't smoke much when you play, then.

I always had the impression that tuba players didn't clean their instruments. Maybe this is where I got that idea.

I'm going to get the Brass Saver kit since that product works so well on trombone.

I don’t get the fetish with lamp oil. Look at the safety data sheet for it. Aspiration hazard. I’ll probably get flak here for going against the grain, but I won’t risk my health. https://www.tikibrand.com/blog/wp-conte ... rev-04.pdf

Oh, so he was serious? I assumed that was sarcasm. Why is it so hard to get a straight answer to a simple question here?

Tubamaphone wrote:I don’t get the fetish with lamp oil. Look at the safety data sheet for it. Aspiration hazard. I’ll probably get flak here for going against the grain, but I won’t risk my health. https://www.tikibrand.com/blog/wp-conte ... rev-04.pdf

Do you risk your life with valve oil??

It causes cancer in California!!

I have a son who works as a biochemist in the petroleum industry. His advice is "Dad, spend a few bucks on legit synthetic valve oil". I have always heeded this advice, and at 77 years my respiratory system works just fine. Why risk it.

The best part about the blokeplace tuba clean method, is putting a bowling ball in the bell and lighting the leadpipe. I launched that sucker right over my house!!

A small bottle of Bach valve oil was in the case of an instrument I purchased used some years ago. I took off the cap to apply some. The odor - if it is not straight kerosene, I don't know what is, as when I was a boy my grandparents used to have real antique kerosene lamps (which they inherited) in case of power outages. The kerosene they used in the lamps smelled exactly the same as does this bottle of Bach valve oil. And yes, I know it was kerosene because once when I was a boy I went with my grandfather to get a gallon of kerosene, back when it was sold along with gasoline at filling stations (and "white gas," etc.).

I prefer White Lightning, but it’s lubricity is suspect...

...for valves.

Tubamaphone wrote:I don’t get the fetish with lamp oil. Look at the safety data sheet for it. Aspiration hazard. I’ll probably get flak here for going against the grain, but I won’t risk my health. https://www.tikibrand.com/blog/wp-conte ... rev-04.pdf

Thanks for the link, it's pretty toxic stuff. Wouldn't risk it.

Do any valve oils publish an SDS?

For those who don't like petroleum products (and who does?), there's always animal fats. I have a source for rendered duck fat, I'd like to try that.

Did I read in that data sheet that one of the symptoms of petroleum poisoning is grumpiness and cantankerous ness. Our condolences, get well soon!

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Stupid question: what is the difference between "thick" valve oils and "thin" valve oils, and where would lamp oil fall in this spectrum? Asking out of ignorance, not trying to flame anyone or start a war....

Also, what cleaning (aside from the annual tub and scrub method) should be performed and how often? The valves on my YM tuba are shot (corroded and literally falling to pieces), but I believe it's more because it sat untended for 10 years than anything else, but if it was put away "dirty".... I don't want any other of my horns to suffer the same fate, even if I play them more regularly now.

When I picture a "maintenance kit", I imagine a cleaning kit for a sax or something with cloth attached to a string and a weight or something on the other end to pull through the body. Unless pulling the valves and running something like this through the tuning slides starting at the valve bodies, how would this kind of a cleaning kit be useful to the regular (weekly/monthly/50-hr isochronal/whatever) cleaning regimen for a tuba?

As a trombone player, I clean the slide on a weekly or monthly basis. The leadpipe and top inner slide accumulate "stuff" and get a little nasty. I'm sure the same thing happens on tuba. The outer slide crook accumulates stuff too, depending on the slide lube ypu use. We typically have a set of items that you might call a kit to help with these cleaning tasks. A straight metal rod, a flexible snake, some gauze or cheese cloth, metal polish, soap, polishing cloths and rags...

My main concern is cleaning the leadpipe on the tuba. I have rotaries, but if I had pistons, I'd want to clean the piston housings. On trombone I take apart my rotaries maybe once a year for cleaning. I anticipate the same kind of schedule for tuba.

While this thread went south, distracted by ways to avoid cleaning, I just ordered the Brass Saver snake, Yamaha synthetic valve oil, and some flexible brushes - stuff that my tbone equipment probably can't handle. I'm getting an older tuba, and want to clean it as soon as I get it home. I don't have a tub, but I have a shower with a hose that works well for tbone and should also work for tuba.

Also did a YouTube search and was comforted to see people cleaning tubas. I picked up some pointers, but it was mostly what you'd expect.

NDCompuGeek wrote:Stupid question: what is the difference between "thick" valve oils and "thin" valve oils, and where would lamp oil fall in this spectrum? Asking out of ignorance, not trying to flame anyone or start a war....

Good questions deserve good answers. Hopefully I'm providing one:
The difference is additives - other petro-chem products that change the oil viscosity. Not too different from how synthetic engine oil is produced with a base oil then tuned with additives to give the right viscosity (0w-20, 10w-50, whatever oil viscosity it says you should use in your car manual or on the fill cap).
The bottle of Al Cass 'Fast' that my wife uses on her trumpet valves is essentially straight 'lamp oil'. It is super thin (fast on her valves) and evaporates quickly because it's not got any significant additives.
I play a rotary tuba. The rotor oil (in the needle bottle) is significantly thicker because it has stuff added to make it so. I've actually started using regular valve oil on my valve spindles and have noticed an improvement in speed and cleanliness, but also need to re-oil more frequently (now each time I take it out of the case). I still use the rotor oil on the linkages and other exposed parts where the regular oil would evaporate too quickly.

Related - When people notice an accumulation of white gunk on their valves, its basically where the additives have separated out and mixed with H20 (from condensation/spit) - that's what forms the white gunk. Using plain lamp oil (also sold as valve oil) helps avoid this and also helps to wash out the accumulation since it's thin enough to get into the spaces where it forms.

NDCompuGeek wrote:Stupid question: what is the difference between "thick" valve oils and "thin" valve oils, and where would lamp oil fall in this spectrum? Asking out of ignorance, not trying to flame anyone or start a war....

The aforementioned article on valve oil has everything you might want to know about valve oil. Except toxicity. Print it out. It should make good toilet reading. Huzzah.

https://www.nemc-partners.com/resources ... you-kno_54" target="_blank

one word of caution using a metal snake is don't use it in your valve casing and be careful around the slides as it can scratch the inside valve casing and create new problems.

euphomate wrote:I have a son who works as a biochemist in the petroleum industry. His advice is "Dad, spend a few bucks on legit synthetic valve oil". I have always heeded this advice, and at 77 years my respiratory system works just fine. Why risk it.

Regular organic oil is made from dead dinosaurs dug out of the ground. It's cleaned up a little bit - the really volatile and really thick parts removed.

Synthetic oil is made from dead dinosaurs dug out of the ground. It's cleaned up a little differently and put back together, with the really volatile and really thick parts gone, and a little better quality control on the middle stuff. But it's basically the same product.

tofu wrote:Whoa!!! Snakes in my tuba??? Bad enough there are snakes on planes and coming out of toilets - but now my tuba??? That makes the residual effects of lamp oil to my health pale in comparison!!!

I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE monkey-fighting SNAKES IN MY Monday-to-Friday TUBA!!!