Piston valve lubricants

[tubaplyer]

I don't necessarily want to beat a dead horse or resurrect a past thread, but with newer valves being fit fairly tightly, what works? I have used al cass, blue juice, and hetmans light piston. If you wouldn't mind please weigh in and give your 2¢

[TubaOrpheus]

I use Fat Cat on all of my piston horns and it's never let me down.

You can get a free sample from them too: http://www.fatcatoil.com/freesample.html

[iiipopes]

I have used Roche-Thomas on all the piston valve instruments I have played since the late '70's. I purchase the larger bottle and keep the one-ounce applicator bottles in each instrument case refilled from the larger bottle. If I play an instrument with worn valves, I don't purchase a "classic" or "thick" valve oil; instead I take an old-fashioned dripper and put one drop of pharmaceutical grade mineral oil in the one-ounce bottle, shake to disperse, and use that to seal the valves. Occasionally, in the past, depending on just how worn the valves were of the instrument I was playing, I might add two or three drops. The key is to stop adding mineral oil before the piston slows down; but if you do get one drop too much, you can always top off the bottle with the regular valve oil to bring the viscosity back up.

[Worth]

Al Cass on my piston tuba and euphs -- liberally applied. I've tried many others and always come home to Al. FWIW Yamaha synthetic light gives my pistons a scratchy vs smooth feel.

[bort]

When I had a modern-era piston instrument, I used Hetman #2. The first time I applied it, it didn't play well with whatever was in the casing beforehand. Then I cleaned the tuba well, used a casing brush to really get them clean, oiled the heck out of it and put it back together. After that, I never had a single problem, ever. I'm also a little obsessive about brushing my teeth before I play, so once it was clean, it stayed clean for a good long time.

[nycbone]

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[Wyvern]

Yamaha synthetic thin oil works well

[Donn]

+

Don't need very much motor oil, I have more than enough just from what clings to the sides of the bottles when changing the car's oil. Add more or less to suit viscosity requirements.

[tofu]

+

Don't need very much motor oil, I have more than enough just from what clings to the sides of the bottles when changing the car's oil. Add more or less to suit viscosity requirements.

I do the same as I can customize the oil for each of my horns which range between 100 and a couple years old the valves on some are very tight and not so tight on others. I use Mob 1 5W-20 synthetic motor oil. Don't be afraid to experiment and you really only need a couple drops per regular sized valve oil bottles. You can easily pull the tips off those bottles to refill them.
Lamp oil is super cheap so you can regularly liberally oil your valves - which I do daily for piston valves and once a month for rotary valves.