TubaForum.net

A friend of mine - a much higher-profile repair-guy - has said this to me:

Do you know what I do for a living? I clean spit out of tubas.

There's PLENTY of work: ALWAYS (without spending most of one's time cleaning spit out of tubas).


A considerable percentage of the time - when people travel (probably mistakenly of the belief that - simply because bloke is a tuba player - bloke will repair their tuba better than their local guy) - and they specific things for me to do - what they need done - MORE than any of the things that they brought in their instruments to have done - is to have nasty slime and hard scale (lime, etc.) removed from the interiors of their instruments.

This stuff reduces the capillary and valveset bore size, causes valves to stick (with people then spending serious money on all sorts of - "marvelous/mysterious" oils), prompts people to always depress valves or valve levers when removing slides (as the vacuum effect sucks hidden crud from knuckles and porting onto the valve casing surfaces - resulting in even worse valve-sticking), and other related issues.

Oil does NOT keep a tuba or euphonium absolutely clean, but GENEROUS DAILY oiling greatly discourages that mess from clinging to instruments' interiors.

Additionally, cheap (and I mean REALLY cheap) oil is a way to financially enable oneself to keep up with this regimen. I have not cleaned any of my instruments in several years (other than - possibly - a "cheater/b.s." cleaning - whereby I jetted hot water through - perhaps - one of those instruments' valves (main slide removed) and wiggled the valves a bunch.

Also - if you can find someone with the willingness and ability to *"blueprint" your slides (assuming having this done is financially viable, which - and I understand - it isn't always), you can use the same oil on your slides that you use on your valves - which will prevent very thick oil or grease from migrating from your slides to your valves, gumming up your valve oil, and then (as I see often posted) probably (??) incorrectly believing that "when I use blah-blah oil, it gums up my valves".

Taking a tuba all the way apart (particularly rotary) submerging it in a tank, pulling it back out (big long black rubber gloves) emptying all that chemical back into a tank, rinsing out the remaining chemical, and following up with (all over the tuba) some hand-cleaning ...This is a thankless (may I use the adjective, "gross"?) job. It would be more pleasant to encounter MORE instruments that don't really need this job, simply do repair/maintenance/customization work that is desired by instrument owners, and then - this... - repair MORE instruments, make just as much money, and (again) spend LESS time doing "gross" stuff. ...plus: All of those cleaner instruments will be performing better for their owners - without paying a bunch of dough to have them cleaned.

also (and important) "giving my instrument a good bath" (in a bathtub - along with some sort of detergent) isn't actually very productive at all.

finally: "Rotary tubas' valves really don't need to be oiled all that much." ...sure...yeah...right...you bet...um-hum...

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*perfectly align all of the slides...with (though all of them being aligned) perfectly a few of them fitting just as well as pistons fit into casings, but perhaps only those select few whereby this would be beneficial

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When culverts get clogged out in the country, this is what people do:

(It should work on tubas, yes?)

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I don't trust people with weird long names.

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Bloke, would you please go over again oiling a rotory valve horn? I’m sure you’ve detailed it in the past. Oil all external friction points, oil down each valve slide while working the valve,oil on the back of rotor caps while pulling the slide to create vacuum , oil down the lead pipe? New rotor horn here and wanting to do it right. It’s really easy to ignore on a rotor horn because they just tend to “work” even without oiling. Being reminded of the benefits of rotors with valves less fussy and all spit coming out with one water key. Oh the time and hassle spent pulling slides on piston horns to dump water.

I could be WRONG with some of my thinking - AS I OFTEN AM, but (once the upper stem is oiled - just underneath the stop arm) I (generously) dump (cheap) oil into the "rack" of rotary valves from the removed main tuning slide down through the rotors. I then put the main slide back ONTO the instrument, and rock the instrument back-and-forth - "sloshing" the thin/cheap oil through those rotors, coating their articulating/air-sealing surfaces. Once I've rocked-and-sloshed several times, I remove the main slide - once again - and let the excess go. As I've become a better judge at "appropriate quantity of cheap oil to dump", LESS and LESS oil (after this operation) now drips out of the instrument afterwards (with a higher-and-higher percentage remaining in the instrument and coating the rotor air-sealing surfaces.

WERE I a person who - in particular - tends to deposit a good bit of scale in my instruments, I would go even further and see about turning the instrument over (the "goofy" way: valves up), rocking it back-and-forth, and encouraging more of that oil to find its way into the valve circuits' tubing.

I don't feed from the mouthpipe end (as that's the dirtiest end of the pre-bugle instrument) but I DO "snake" out the mouthpipe tube from time-to-time, AND (I believe) a good bit of oil finds its way into that mouthpipe tube via my "routine".

Curiously, I find that the LOWER bearings of my rotors (those short ones which are underneath the rotor caps) ALWAYS REMAIN "wet" with oil - given this procedure (without me finding much of a need to oil those), and - in particular - (if I hit those (not particularly often) with something like 30W motor oil, that oil tends to remain there for quite a good bit of time.

Everything I believe and do (above) may well be WRONG, but - well - those are what I do, and - if I left things unanswered - ask me more specific questions and I'll try to answer them. Again...I believe that people who self-identify as "leaving a good bit of scale in their instruments" may well decide to go further, and/or to add a small amount of 30W (etc.) to their cheap (me: bought-by-the-gallon) oil, in order to give it a bit more "staying power"...but (as I'm - luckily - not one of those) I enjoy using really thin oil, so as to hopefully avoid slowing down valve action. (More than a few times, I've stressed how I just don't like being "aware" of anything-in-particular - mechanically - when playing my instruments.)

I'm going to have to take mine in I guess. 2nd valve will not speed up no matter what I put into it in any quantity, and I am faster than it is at this point in time (miracles do occur.) I don't know what things happened with it during its four years away from me, but I think cleaning was not one of them. Oh well. I had it ultrasounded when I first got it, had zero problems while I had it, and I guess another ultrasound to get "whatever" out of there will do me for life.

With my horn, I haven't had to do anything other than oil it in the last 20 years, so -- tuba should be the same situation once I have a good starting place. I may just pay someone to polish it too, because that is still bothering me and I have not the energy to do it myself. I also agree with the advice I've seen from one pro horn player, which is -- don't play the thing with a dirty mouth. My trumpet player friend is always playing after he eats, and YUCK. Also doesn't empty the water, also YUCK. I borrowed his $50 yama euph (which is immensely easier to play than my compensator) and it must have had a tablespoon of spit in it. YUCK. (He since advised to empty it, but still doesn't do so until I am going to use it, which means that all sits in there for a week. YUCK.)

bloke wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 10:58 am I could be WRONG with some of my thinking - AS I OFTEN AM, but (once the upper stem is oiled - just underneath the stop arm) I (generously) dump (cheap) oil into the "rack" of rotary valves from the removed main tuning slide down through the rotors. I then put the main slide back ONTO the instrument, and rock the instrument back-and-forth - "sloshing" the thin/cheap oil through those rotors, coating their articulating/air-sealing surfaces. Once I've rocked-and-sloshed several times, I remove the main slide - once again - and let the excess go. As I've become a better judge at "appropriate quantity of cheap oil to dump", LESS and LESS oil (after this operation) now drips out of the instrument afterwards (with a higher-and-higher percentage remaining in the instrument and coating the rotor air-sealing surfaces.

This sounds good to me! Two questions: how often do you do this, and what kind of "cheap" oil do you use?

bebeababa wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2024 1:29 pm

bloke wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 10:58 am I could be WRONG with some of my thinking - AS I OFTEN AM, but (once the upper stem is oiled - just underneath the stop arm) I (generously) dump (cheap) oil into the "rack" of rotary valves from the removed main tuning slide down through the rotors. I then put the main slide back ONTO the instrument, and rock the instrument back-and-forth - "sloshing" the thin/cheap oil through those rotors, coating their articulating/air-sealing surfaces. Once I've rocked-and-sloshed several times, I remove the main slide - once again - and let the excess go. As I've become a better judge at "appropriate quantity of cheap oil to dump", LESS and LESS oil (after this operation) now drips out of the instrument afterwards (with a higher-and-higher percentage remaining in the instrument and coating the rotor air-sealing surfaces.

This sounds good to me! Two questions: how often do you do this, and what kind of "cheap" oil do you use?

- every single time I am about to play any instrument of mine in particular
- the cheapest that I can fine of this substance - by the gallon.
.....I've never purchased this particular brand before (based on a quick search) it's currently the cheapest, so it's (reportedly: imported from Korea) the one I would choose - @ 20¢ per ounce: (vs. "valve oil" priced at $3.00 - $4.50 per ounce) - with cash layout of 1000% - 1200% less, thus allowing for a much more liberal use of the product, and with no concern over "how often to apply" nor "how long it might 'last' ".
https://www.amazon.com/GasOne-Liquid-Pa ... ef=sr_1_16

Many people buy from Amazon (a typically avoid), but I have a gen-x/millennial offspring with a "Prime" account, so I might have them buy it and have it shipped to me (no charge beyond their "prime" fee, correct?)

It needs to be bought FRESH - and not from some brick-and-mortar store candle-aisle shelf (where it has been sitting for two years), so that - just like FRESH so-called "valve oil" and FRESH gasoline - it won't stink.

Again, I ONLY shop price on this stuff. People who believe different brands of this stuff are better/worse, and probably going to be the same ones who believe that one brand of 89 octane/10% corn liquor gasoline is better than another.

YES, you'll probably want to purchase a little funnel (Harbor Freight, etc.), and YES, you'll need to reuse some old valve oil bottles OR find a place to buy a few bargain-priced refillable 1 or 2 oz. dispenser bottles.

Some people add a drop or more of 30W motor oil - to make this stuff more viscous. I add nothing. That having been said, others (and never myself) complain online about their rotors/pistons "gumming up".