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I'm not sure this is the right forum (maybe Repairs/Modifications?) but anyway, I have 2 sousaphone bits that are stuck together and wondering if anyone can suggest gentle methods for separating them? I now know why I should have taken them apart and cleaned them before storage;please let my error be a cautionary tale for everyone else.
I wish there were flats on the circumstance (not circumstance) at the end of the bit to use a wrench, but I suppose the extra material and labor in manufacturing would drive up the cost for something you shouldn't need if you took proper care of them in the first place.
Thank you

After ruining one with the approach that you were thinking of, a local repair expert suggested that it would have been better to smack them with a rawhide mallet or similar.

I didn't need a wrench because I had "water pump" pliers, but applied that way, the bits joint seems to have more torsional strength than the bits themselves.

Penetrating oil & heat. Tap gently with a rawhide hammer. Repeat. It might take days or weeks, but you'll eventually prevail.

Cup them in the palm of your hand, and tap hard (don't miss, so as to avoid carelessly hitting your hand) around the connection area with a hard plastic mallet. (tip: Anchor your elbow against your rib cage, and your hammer strikes will be accurate.) If y'ain't got a hard plastic mallet, go to HF ($5).

This will require one to ten "licks" - depending on how stuck and how FUBAR they were prior to seizing.
If they are perfect-new, remove the lacquer from the male insertion portions, once they are freed.

bloke wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 9:59 am Cup them in the palm of your hand, and tap hard (don't miss, so as to avoid carelessly hitting your hand) around the connection area with a hard plastic mallet. (tip: Anchor your elbow against your rib cage, and your hammer strikes will be accurate.) If y'ain't got a hard plastic mallet, go to HF ($5).

This will require one to ten "licks" - depending on how stuck and how FUBAR they were prior to seizing.
If they are perfect-new, remove the lacquer from the male insertion portions, once they are freed.

This ^ Been there. Done that. Numerous times. Any other approach is sure to ruin or at least damage the bits. The only possible addition to the above is to run the 2nd bit (the one the other bit is stuck into) under some warm water as warm as you can stand to try to get it to expand ever so slightly. But don't do it too long, as brass is an excellent conductor of heat, and you will just warm up the male portion of the first stuck bit and lose the advantage.

Just last week a community band colleague had her euph 2nd valve cap stick trying to loosen it to oil the valve. After two or three others tried in vain to unscrew it, I did exactly this and it came loose with no further ado. I recommended adding the slightest little film, and I mean hardly enough to know you applied it, of slide lubricant to the cap threads so it didn't happen again. But don't do this on souzy bits, because they will come apart at the most inopportune time. Just keep the bits clean and round, and only use two fingers to mount and adjust them for playing: no further pressure needed, and any more pressure will simply cause them to stick together again.

YorkNumber3 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 2:12 pm Unless it gets weird/takes too long, this is akin to a stuck mouthpiece to me.

maybe...but twisting (or hammering) on a mouthpiece - which is stuck into a mouthpipe - can result in a trashed mouthpipe...or (at the least) a dented-inward receiver brace).

...and where to buy a new Schertzer C tuba mouthpipe (etc.) bent-too-fit...??

I'm pretty comfortable whoopin' up in a pair of stuck tuning bits.

yes, but duh

Mouthpiece puller?

Chicken McNuggets are fused. Just for clarification. Your bits are stuck.

"fused"and "Schlitzz" contain some of the same consonant sounds, but only one of the same letters. I believe this must be a sousaphone conspiracy.