In case you need some suggestions on what thicker oils there are to better suit your worn valves, I would suggest Heman "Classic" piston oil...made for older horns. There are others that are made thicker, such as the red Musichem oil, and synthetics like Alisyn and the appropriately named Space Filler.
Not as good a fix as replating the valves, as suggested above, but quicker and cheaper.
valve oils
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Chuck(G)
- 6 valves
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- Location: Not out of the woods yet.
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If the work done by the German technicians is a "full service" job (that is, you send your instrument to them and they return the instrument with newly-plated, fitted and lapped valves), $200 per valve is not far off from what it would cost here. The good news is that if it's done right, the result can be "better than new".Imperial wrote:thanks for your help!
replating valves seems to be quite expensive in sweden. We usually have to send them to specialists in germany to get it done. The cost for this is 1500 SEK (a little bit over $200) per valve.
Would you think it would be possible to buy new valves that'd would suite my euphonium (a B&H imperial from 1951)?
Would that be cheaper than replating the old ones?
You'd have to purchase (if that was possible) a complete valve cluster (pistons and casings) and have it installed on your instrument. I suspect this would work out to a lot more than $200 per valve if it could be done.
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Joe Baker
- 5 valves
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- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 8:37 am
- Location: Knoxville, TN
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS A QUESTION, NOT A SUGGESTION!!!
A few days ago someone mentioned that they had been putting PTFE in their valve oil, but it had built up and begun to drag. I'm wondering, could that be used to advantage on a horn with worn pistons? Perhaps VERY judicious addition of an additive such as PTFE might be helpful.
Of course nothing is as good as properly repairing the instrument, but there are instruments that will NEVER be properly repaired, because their value after repair would be only a fraction of the cost of doing the repairs. It's for instruments such as these, where the choice is a cheapo fix or mounting on the wall of a trendy casual dining establishment, that I'd consider this sort of repair.
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Joe Baker, who is thinking of a very old York alto horn...
A few days ago someone mentioned that they had been putting PTFE in their valve oil, but it had built up and begun to drag. I'm wondering, could that be used to advantage on a horn with worn pistons? Perhaps VERY judicious addition of an additive such as PTFE might be helpful.
Of course nothing is as good as properly repairing the instrument, but there are instruments that will NEVER be properly repaired, because their value after repair would be only a fraction of the cost of doing the repairs. It's for instruments such as these, where the choice is a cheapo fix or mounting on the wall of a trendy casual dining establishment, that I'd consider this sort of repair.
______________________
Joe Baker, who is thinking of a very old York alto horn...
"Luck" is what happens when preparation meets opportunity -- Seneca