Tuning slide grease

smurphius · Post by **smurphius** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 9:42 pm

HETMAN

Daniel8802 · Post by **Daniel8802** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 10:58 pm

Do you mean trombone, or just tuning slides? If you mean tuning slides, I used to use cold cream, but now that my YEP 842S slides are bigger, I used vasilene since it seemed to last longer. They work fine for me!

iiipopes · Post by **iiipopes** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:33 pm

I've used nothing but pure vaseline for over 35 years. Some others prefer lanolin or a lanolin blend, or one of the newer high tech greases.

My current application of vaseline has lasted me since the end of summer, playing weekly. Without exception, every time I have had the horn in the shop, and the tech used something else, usually saying he did me a favor by cleaning them and greasing them "correctly" but fortunately, "for no charge," within two days they were sticking and I have to take them out, clean them thorougly again, including the tubes as well as the slides, reapply my Vaseline or generic equivalent, and work the slides some so they will keep going another two to three months before I have to do it again.

Dan Schultz · Post by **Dan Schultz** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:15 am

iiipopes wrote:I've used nothing but pure vaseline for over 35 years.

I suppose Vaseline is Ok in applications such as yours where the horn is kept agile with frequent playing and slide pulling. However, I've seen many, many cases where folks have used Vaseline on their slides and then neglected to move them for months... resulting in very stuck slides. I can always spot slides that have had Vaseline used on them. The inner tubes will be very dark and discolored.

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:25 am

Guppy lube.

Art Hovey · Post by **Art Hovey** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:28 am

Break-free gun oil.

tubatooter1940 · Post by **tubatooter1940** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:02 am

What about spray-on white grease?

ASTuba · Post by **ASTuba** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:11 am

All of these are ok, but for me, if you're going to do a lot of slide pulling, the best choice is...

Hetman Slide Oil. It only works though if the slides are in good working order, like Wade described so well.

iiipopes · Post by **iiipopes** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:38 am

TubaTinker wrote:
iiipopes wrote:I've used nothing but pure vaseline for over 35 years.
I suppose Vaseline is Ok in applications such as yours where the horn is kept agile with frequent playing and slide pulling. However, I've seen many, many cases where folks have used Vaseline on their slides and then neglected to move them for months... resulting in very stuck slides. I can always spot slides that have had Vaseline used on them. The inner tubes will be very dark and discolored.

Yes, and I also understand from some previous threads that vaseline does not do well in temperature extremes, either, especially really hot weather. So if I were to be playing outdoors on a regular basis, I'd look into something for that scenario. But indoors on a regular basis is what I do, with only the occasional outdoor gig (Memorial Day at the federal cemetery, Independence Day, a day at the local county fair, and maybe one or two others, and most of those have moderate to warm weather) so it's what works best for me.

Dan Schultz · Post by **Dan Schultz** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 2:21 pm

iiipopes wrote:
TubaTinker wrote:
iiipopes wrote:I've used nothing but pure vaseline for over 35 years.
I suppose Vaseline is Ok in applications such as yours where the horn is kept agile with frequent playing and slide pulling. However, I've seen many, many cases where folks have used Vaseline on their slides and then neglected to move them for months... resulting in very stuck slides. I can always spot slides that have had Vaseline used on them. The inner tubes will be very dark and discolored.
Yes, and I also understand from some previous threads that vaseline does not do well in temperature extremes, either, especially really hot weather. So if I were to be playing outdoors on a regular basis, I'd look into something for that scenario. But indoors on a regular basis is what I do, with only the occasional outdoor gig (Memorial Day at the federal cemetery, Independence Day, a day at the local county fair, and maybe one or two others, and most of those have moderate to warm weather) so it's what works best for me.

The trick here is that you play your horn A LOT. If you applied Vaseline to the slides and didn't touch them again for a year (as some folks do)... you might well find that your slides are stuck because the petroleum base will dry out over time. Vaseline works well for you but I would not recommend it to anyone else.

XtremeEuph · Post by **XtremeEuph** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 1:14 am

Right now I am using Selmer tuning slide grease. It works Extremely well...........................very easy application with a squeeze bottle............and you only need a little bead all the way around the tip of the slide (therefore lasting a long time)!!! The best ive found yet. There is only one down side: It makes a big mess on my horn if it happens to touch anywhere other than the slide. Takes a long time to rub off of the silver plating.

Wyvern · Post by **Wyvern** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 2:46 am

I use "Lubrass Professional slide grease" which came with a B&S tuba. It looks like Vaseline, but I guess is not. It does the job well.

Dan Schultz · Post by **Dan Schultz** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 10:14 am

This is what I use for general-purpose slide lubricant...

Here's the Super Lube website:
http://www.super-lube.com

I've been using this stuff for several years as a general-purpose slide lubricant on school horns and have never had a horn come back with a stuck slide. This is a heavy duty synthetic white grease and wouldn't be suitable if you want slides loose enough for slide-pulling. I think it's also available a some of the automotive parts chain stores. Temperature doesn't seen to have much affect on the viscosity.

glangfur · Post by **glangfur** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:01 pm

At the Shires trombone factory, we use and recommend Hetman oils and slide gel. On my tuba, I use the Slide Gel on all my tuning slides, and on the slides I pull to adjust pitch I cut it with a few drops of the Piston Valve Oil. This seems to work very reliably.

tubaguy9 · Post by **tubaguy9** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 6:37 pm

I, as a complete tuba nerd, use a redundant 3

, I repeat, 3

types of slide lube. I will explain what for:

1.ONLY FOR THE MAIN TUNING SLIDE I use the Pro-Oil's Ultra-Heavy slide grease. And it stays. Pretty much like slide glue. But, I want my main tuning slide to stay put.

2. For ones I can't reach to pull, or I guess I should say for valves 2-4, I use the Selmer's Tuning Slide and Cork Grease. Comes in a white squeeze thing, and looks sort of like this:

The stuff is thinner than the Pro-Oil's Ultra-Heavy, but heavier than my first valve lube.
Finally...
3. I just use this on my first valve since that's where I do the pulling. I use the good stuff and use the Slide-O-Mix. But I also double on trombone, and it will help it work well. It either comes as a three-step process, and looks like this:

and follow the directions, or for a faster method, you can use this:

So, overall, this is probably $20 worth of lube...but that's including the slide-o-mix, which is about $15., so overall, except for that lube, it's not too bad.

iiipopes · Post by **iiipopes** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:02 pm

TubaTinker wrote:This is what I use for general-purpose slide lubricant...

Here's the Super Lube website:
http://www.super-lube.com

I've been using this stuff for several years as a general-purpose slide lubricant on school horns and have never had a horn come back with a stuck slide. This is a heavy duty synthetic white grease and wouldn't be suitable if you want slides loose enough for slide-pulling. I think it's also available a some of the automotive parts chain stores. Temperature doesn't seen to have much affect on the viscosity.

Oh, how I wish we had that stuff on the school souzys I marched with!