St. Petersburg rotors

[bloke]

Are the new ones still made with a valve cap on the bottom and a valve ring on the top, to where they can be disassembled from either the top or the bottom?

If so, the combination of the very large bore size and the small-diameter old world B&S-type body diameter – defining light action - seems to me that these characteristics define these rotors as ideal for frankentubaing 3/4” bore piston tubas with 5th valves, or no...??

bloke “...yeah...I did a whole bunch of work on a beat-up St. Petersburg, today, and it got me to thinking (which is a rare event in itself).”

[LargeTuba]

Bump?

Does anyone know?

[the elephant]

I have several St. Pete valves, and none have top rings — they are bottom loaders, only. I have used two of these .827" units as 5th valves for my .750" projects. I had one on my Holton 345 for seven or eight years.

Mine all seem to have been stamped/forged from a single brass disc as the casing top and the casing body are one part, unlike others that use a tube with a plug brazed into one end. I really like these valves, and will be dismayed if they have stopped making them.

Do you have pics of these top loaders? If they are as good as what I have I need to pick up a few for future projects.

[LargeTuba]

It would be nice to get my hands on a couple top-loaders so I don't have to make the whole valve removable.

[bort2.0]

@Dan Schultz posted on his Website that he has 8 of these tubas serviced and for sale. Seems like he may know a thing or two (or 32) about St. Pete valves.

[Dan Schultz]

Joe... St. Pete rotors are tapered like most other rotors. I've never fully understood why some of the rotors have the extra ring on the front side but since the rotors are tapered... they cannot be removed from the front side.

(at least I don't THINK St. Pete makes any straight-cut rotors).

[Dan Schultz]

@Dan Schultz posted on his Website that he has 8 of these tubas serviced and for sale. Seems like he may know a thing or two (or 32) about St. Pete valves.

Yup. And some of them have the extra ring on the front side of the rotor. I think that ring was done strictly for manufacturing purposes. The rotor is tapered and still won't come out that direction.

[the elephant]

Would someone please post photos of these valves with a "ring" on them? I cannot imagine what you are talking about based on the descriptions in this thread. Photos of one of these assembled and disassembled (if there are "extra" parts) would be great.

Are these the valves that are currently in use? The valve I showed above was purchased around 2014. It is a stamped, one-piece casing/top plate that is machined, and then the bearing is brazed into the hole in the face of the casing.

If hosting is an issue, email them to me and I will post them here so that everyone can see what you guys are talking about.

[bloke]

"some of the old St. Petersburg tubas" aside...

MS will make valves like this.

If no choice (other than one of those detachable set-ups) I would choose this.

Meinlschmidt stoparm-side-escaping rotary valve casing.png (102.63 KiB) Viewed 435 times

[the elephant]

How much? They are extremely difficult to order anything from, even when you have an account with them. It's like they don't want our filthy money if we do not have "GmbH" after our name on the account.

[bloke]

I was a stranger to them - the first time that I bought from them.
They don't accept credit cards (at least, they did not in the past...)
When in Memphis, I just go to the airport with cash, buy some euros (yes: paper currency) and friggin' mail it to them (after finding out what sort of confiscatory scheme was involved with my bank wiring the dough to them).

(I'm thinking that I bought from them before they ever had a website - the crazy rotor on the 6450ish 2165 came from them.)

I also communicate with them in Deutsch, which - I suspect - speeds up responses, but I always include:

Wenn Teile meiner Übersetzung schlecht sind, ist die gesamte Kommunikation (unten) auch in Englisch enthalten.

as well as drawings-and-arrows.

summary: Maybe (??) make it really easy for them, and strive to keep the rhetoric (as we - you and I - tend to be "wordy") to a minimum.