WD40?

[jlbreyer]

If you want to use lamp oil, get "Ultrapure" lamp oil. About $3 a pint. No smell that I can detect, but my wife swears that my smeller's broken. What I finally did was take an old saline solution nasal spray bottle from CVS, washed it good and put in about an ounce of the ultrapure. I take the valves out of my 10J about every other time I play it, wipe them down and mist them with the sprayer. Works fine for me, but YMMV. Only problem is that it contains parrafin, which solidifies in cold weather. Not very good for outdoor playing in winter.
jlb

[Z-Tuba Dude]

I've heard about the lamp oil routine before, but what I don't understand, is:
Why don't people just use VALVE OIL, to oil their valves? Aren't there enough choices out there???

[Casey Tucker]

first off, you could probably buy a bottle of cheap valve oil for less than a can of WD40. wd40 ranges from 2.69 to 6.69 whereas i can pick a bottle of La Tromba w/the silicone additive for 5 bucks flat. oh, and the La Tromba lasts quite a while. oh, did i also mention it's VALVE OIL and NOT WD40. wd40 is great for getting extremely mistreated valve slides and jammed mouthpieces out of their pipes.
second, if your in a quick spot where you need your valves to work for a parade try spitting on them. is it gross, yes, but does it work, YES. now, this isn't a permanent fix, but it will work for the situation seeing that most parades (from my experiences) have lasted for around 10-15 minutes. even then, this will last for 30-45. just be sure to oil them later.

hope this helps!

[jlbreyer]

I've heard about the lamp oil routine before, but what I don't understand, is:
Why don't people just use VALVE OIL, to oil their valves? Aren't there enough choices out there???

A fair question. In my case, I was curious. I read about using lamp oil, so I bought a pint (smallest I could get) to try it. Prior to that, I was using Al Cass. The lamp oil worked at least as well as Al Cass, and now, here I am, the proud owner of a lifetime supply

Unless I use it in a lamp, I don't think I'll ever run out.

[LoyalTubist]

WD 40 Works good for cleaning the nasty dity oil off your hands from a Ford 6.0 turbo diesel engine.

What's interesting is that the WD-40 Company (which is the company that makes WD-40) bought Lava soap a few years ago. I think there is a correlation there.