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I've gone back to straight lamp oil. I've decided that mixing a little mineral oil in slows down my valves too much. I'm not trying to brag about all the hard fast stuff that I play at home, but I do play a lot of hard fast stuff at home and the mineral oil is messing up my timing. I dumped a bunch of straight lamp oil through my tuba today before practicing to thin all the oil in the valves back out, and suddenly the weird problems I've been having negotiating passages went away. I'm willing to accept the fact that I'm no longer 30 years old, but when I discover that the problem I've been encountering in the last few weeks is not due to aging, it's a little bit of a relief.

How does it work on your knees, shoulders, neck and back?

“Oil can!”

bloke wrote: ↑Tue Sep 10, 2024 10:43 pm . . I'm no longer 30 years old . .

Three Valves wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2024 8:55 am How does it work on your knees, shoulders, neck and back?
“Oil can!”

. . . or 40 or 50 . . . . maybe a squirt between my ears?

Seriously, I've tried straight lamp oil, but it's so thin that the old valve oil bottles that I've tried seem to help it migrate everywhere - the horn case, me, my music . . . in addition to the problem of thick, imprecise dispenser tips, I'm wondering if it's not seeping through the bottle threads due to thermal expansion (perhaps less of the oil, and more of the air in the bottle).
Probably need to reuse a "fast" oil bottle with a finer dispenser tip and pay more heed to tightening the cap; always in a hurry . . .

I bought some glass 2 oz. bottles and glass dropper and bulbs...(like OLD-OLD-OLD "Al Cass" bottles).

They are a no-go: leaky

I'm RE-using (over and over, until they become brittle) branded plastic valve oil 1-2 oz. "squeeze" bottles (Bach, Cass, Yamaha, Blue J, Acme, store-brand, whatever).
The nipples can be pried off with a butter knife, and - generally - they don't leak when reinserted.

I'm NOT paying $5 oz. for (basically) lamp oil (and not even the "wholesale" version of $5) when the real price is a few pennies.

yeah...straight lamp oil (assuming excellent-construction non-worn rotors or pistons) - after all - is the way to go.

bloke "who - after all, having thought otherwise for the last few weeks - can play 32nd-notes runs and grace note 'turns' - even in sharp keys - on FatBastard's rotary valves"

That is chemistry for you: one drop at a time.

peterbas wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2024 12:09 pm That is chemistry for you: one drop at a time.

more simply put:
It is lubrication for my valves, and it was just a little bit too gooey.
The li'l bit gooey stuff may well be "just the thing" for "pretty good condition" valves, but (again: not bragging, but it is what it is) mine are in no-wear-whatsoever condition, as I bought this instrument from someone who bought it new, doesn't seem to have played it much at all, and - for most of it's life, until being adopted by bloke - I believe it mostly just sat...

...poor Tubby...



more:
I'm pretty serious about getting my B-flat reading/playing "prowess" up to where it was in comparison to (roughly) 40 years of C instrument playing
(1974 - 2022, with several years hiatus of ONLY owning an F tuba...possibly the better part of a decade from around '95 - '05...??) yeah...my "default" tuba is actually F, which probably is somewhat uncommon in the USA.
Candidly, I'm still NOT there, but it's coming...and (yes) the 21.2mm bore, rotary, 6/4-size B-flat instrument IS more work to play than a 5/4-size piston C instrument, and - yes - does require more precision/concentration to avoid "flubs".

bloke wrote: ↑Wed Sep 11, 2024 4:00 pm

I bet that mixes into a nice Grasshopper!

I remember a visit a long time ago when you poured some oil down my leadpipe. It had a bad taste for quite a while. Same stuff?

MikeMason wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2024 12:21 pm I remember a visit a long time ago when you poured some oil down my leadpipe. It had a bad taste for quite a while. Same stuff?

No. That was probably some penetrating oil to get something freed. If yours is Yamaha, it may (??) have been that the pistons were really frozen, and I was afraid to tap them out without something to help me, for fear of damaging them. In other words, so I could tap them with less force. I probably should have flushed it with some cheap grade of lacquer thinner - to get rid of the odor - afterward (with apologies)

Lacquer thinners rarely damaged old cured lacquer when in contact for short periods of time... certainly not epoxies.