Valve Oil Preferences?

[jtuba]

I also do not want to have an open quart of motor oil in my shop for many years while I use it a few drops at a time, so I add 3-in-ONE oil to my lamp oil, if it ever needs to be thickened.

I have mineral oil but use it in my slide grease concoction.

Willing to share the slide grease recipe?

[the elephant]

Allied used to sell this mess called "Guppy Lube" but by the time I had come onto the repair scene (1995) i had become unavailable. Allied would sell you the anhydrous lanolin and a "recipe" to make your own.

I had a tub of the nasty stuff and this card, and decades later decided to give it a shot. I do not really like it. You have to make it in tiny batches and then adjust it to the time of year. If you put in enough mineral oil in the winter it becomes too slick in the summer, and vice versa, with it becoeming so stiff in the winter that you almost lose the ability to adjust anything on the horn.

I greatly prefer the old Schilke lanolin-based slide grease, which is a 50/50 mix of anhydrous lanolin and amber petroleum jelly NOTE: NOT clear or white petroleum jelly! Amber is an industrial lube with different properties. And by all means do NOT use Vaseline! Also most lanolins sold today are hydrous, even if the adverst says otherwise. Also, you can almost only buy the real stuff in large quantities for industrial use… think pounds, not ounces!

Anyway,"Guppy Lube" works well enough for many folks and you might like it. If you can find the real ingredients in a tiny amount it would be worth messing about with. I still use it, but only in the shop, so I don't use up the stuff I currently use. (Hey, both are paid for, and if I use up all of everything I will save a whole tree-fiddy, heh, heh…)

Here is the info I have on "Guppy Lube". Note that Magic Mountain is currently going out of business and has sold off nearly all their stock. Probably need to look elsewhere. It is difficult and costly to find the right lanolin today.
________________________

Guppy Lube (Taken from a paper note taped to the jar of lanolin I bought in 1995…)

*A7204 LANOLIN*

The maker of “Guppy Lube” is no longer making this product. We have replaced this with pure lanolin. To reduce 8oz. of lanolin follow this easy procedure:

+ Remove cap and inner seal
+ Place container in microwave for 2 minutes on high (lanolin will liquefy)
+ Add 5 tablespoons (2.5 oz.) of mineral oil and stir
+ Let sit overnight or put in refrigerator to solidify.

If you wish a thicker mixture add less oil. If you wish a thinner mixture (for trumpet 3rd slides) double or triple the amount of oil. You can heat and re-heat lanolin many times.

***************************

Majestic Mountain Sage
Logan UT 84321
(435) 755.0863

ANHYDROUS LANOLIN
For use in soaps, lotions,
and other cosmetics.
Store at room temperature.
Keep out of reach of children.
NET WT 8 OZ

[from side of label]
Lot: 3012203L3-3T30-44

[hrender]

I greatly prefer the old Schilke lanolin-based slide grease, which is a 50/50 mix of anhydrous lanolin and amber petroleum jelly NOTE: NOT clear or white petroleum jelly! Amber is an industrial lube with different properties. And by all means do NOT use Vaseline! Also most lanolins sold today are hydrous, even if the adverst says otherwise. Also, you can almost only buy the real stuff in large quantities for industrial use… think pounds, not ounces!

The industrial stuff can be had in smaller volumes, although it's got a lower $/oz in the larger quantities.

[bloke]

Schille made that stuff in an old percolator with the percolating parts removed and used the pour spout to pour it into those tiny little thingies.

I never bought any and never was motivated to buy any.

For school tubas, I still lubricate slides with STP oil treatment.

If school tubas' slides are barely stuck on the far ends with lime though are still lubricated pretty well...yet aren't limed up enough to justify a chem clean - or there's no money for a chem clean, I bust them loose, run each side in and rotate it a bunch at the very bottom (to knock the lime off), and stick them back in (without adding any additional lubrication).

That's something that falls under the repair quotation description of "pull slides"...ie. "The slided are barely stuck. I can get them loose easily - as apparently you can't, I'll knock the crap off of them that caused them to be stuck, but that's it."

[the elephant]

The industrial stuff can be had in smaller volumes, although it's got a lower $/oz in the larger quantities.

When doubled with the lanolin you have a POUND of grease. Not what I would call a "smaller volume". That would last me for more than a decade!

And you chose well for your example. That is what I use.



This was the last batch of lanolin I bought from Magic Mountain. It says it is anhydrous, but it absolutely is not. Big difference. This stuff is of no use to me, unfortunately, and it was far from free.

[gocsick]

You can heat lanolin to drive of the water. Kind of like making Ghee. I read that years ago on don't soapmaking forum.

[the elephant]

It's ruined for this purpose by that time. It starts out like a thick, very sticky version of honey, is processed into something like a vaseline/applesauce consistency, and cannot be transmuted back intoits original form. It can be "fixed" for their purposes, but not for the purpose of making a grease for metal. Plus you lose quite a bit of the volume when the water is removed, so you have to buy twice as much.

[hrender]

There are various vendors of what they call anhydrous lanolin on fleabay. In general I avoid the woo-woo vendors and stick with those that sound like industrial suppliers, but I’ve no idea if there’s a way to vet the product in advance.

This stuff might be worth a try: https://ebay.us/m/hjf5o8

[catgrowlB]

I use various concoctions of pure lamp oil, 3-in-1, and Marvel Mystery Oil. Works great on pistons and rotors/linkage, depending on mixture.

[acemorgan]

I'm not a cool kid, but I followed bloke's advice a long time ago and bought a big jug of Ultra-Pure lamp oil

Same here. Works great, and I don't have any guilt about using it liberally.

I repurposed an empty Blue Juice bottle, and found that accidentally splashing a little on the outside of the bottle makes the old label come right off.

[tubatodd]

I'm not a cool kid, but I followed bloke's advice a long time ago and bought a big jug of Ultra-Pure lamp oil

Same here. Works great, and I don't have any guilt about using it liberally.

I repurposed an empty Blue Juice bottle, and found that accidentally splashing a little on the outside of the bottle makes the old label come right off.

I've been using lamp oil exclusively for a few weeks and I believe I'm sold. It's inexpensive, it works and the brand I bought seems to have no odor.

I had apparently poured too much down my leadpipe and tipped the horn to play and got some oil back in my mouthpiece. Ick! What did it taste like? Wax. Since it's pure paraffin, that makes sense.

[bloke]

I sorta like "Blue Juice"...

I'VE STATED THIS BEFORE MANY-MANY TIMES:

Its COLOR and ODOR are IDENTICAL to (1960's - 1970's...small/round/wheel-shaped 1-oz bottle) LEBLANC valve oil (Holton from that era: same little bottle, but clear and NOT this odor).

The COLOR and the ODOR Of Blue Juice (duh) bring back memories of being 11 - 13 years old (ie. 7th - 9th grade..."junior high")...simpler times, bad sousaphone playing, horrible-HORRIBLE mouthpieces...a whole bunch of bike-riding and (city, not school) bus riding...

It's my suspicion that the Blue Juice people found out what makes that scent, figured out how to come close to copying the color, and (well...) voila.

Blue Juice lubricating properies: whatever...It's oil, and it's not too thick for valves.

[jtuba]

New product on the market!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DYaLdmYTK/

[1 Ton Tommy]

I once lived in the woods in a bus big enough for me and my sousaphone. I lit the place with a Rayo kerosene lamp. They have a round wick and produce enough light to read by (when I was 25) and will take the chill off a room. It used a lot of kerosene. I bought jet fuel from the local airport which was not odorless when liquid nor when burned. My girlfriend would rib me about being too cheap to buy lamp oil from the hardware store. So, when I knew she was coming I would fill the lamp with high-dollar lamp oil.

Being poor, valve oil at $4 a bottle was a stretch so I tried jet fuel. This does not mix will with water and produced a sort of sludge and an nasty odor. But it was cheap. Eventually I got a job and had a little money. So I cleaned out the horn with dish soap and a garden hose and went back to store-bought valve oil which was odorless.

The job I had gotten was long-haul trucking that sometimes kept me away from home for two or three weeks at a time. Shortly after I cleaned and oiled the horn I left on one of these trips. On return I picked up the horn to play it and could not blow a note. WTF? Then I noticed that the gallon jar that had been full of walnuts was now empty and the sousaphone had a gallon of walnuts in it. So be advised: store bought valve oil will not keep squirrels out of your tuba. Apparently jet fuel will.

[tubatodd]

Being poor, valve oil at $4 a bottle was a stretch so I tried jet fuel.

This just reads as a terrible idea.

[arpthark]

Where does one buy jet fuel?

[tubatodd]

+1 for @bloke advice.

Last week, I went and got a bottle of Equate mineral oil. This morning regreased my slides. The mineral oil does a great job. It's very smooth and just the right consistency. I just need to pour some into a smaller bottle like I did the lamp oil for the valves. Slathering it on with my fingers was a bit messy.

[bloke]

Perhaps I don't need to, but I use a needle dropper for the mineral oil on the slides.

The way I've rigged up my third slide with a return spring (4th partial 2-3 valve combination) the needle oiler comes in particularly handy, as I'm able to back-feed the mineral oil to the #3 slide through the water key that I installed on that circuit.

(Any slide that returns via a spring - rather than manually - pretty much needs to operate perfectly.)

[tubatodd]

Perhaps I don't need to, but I use a needle dropper for the mineral oil on the slides.

The way I've rigged up my third slide with a return spring (4th partial 2-3 valve combination) the needle oiler comes in particularly handy, as I'm able to back-feed the mineral oil to the #3 slide through the water key that I installed on that circuit.

(Any slide that returns via a spring - rather than manually - pretty much needs to operate perfectly.)

Can the mineral oil be used for rotary linkage and bearings? Is it the wrong product for that.

[bloke]

I think I posted that I use mineral offer any moving part that's not a rotor or piston air seal surface...links, hinge tubes, etc.

I use mineral oil on the spindle ends of rotors.
If slides are too close to valves - such as second slides - I'll use lamp oil on those slides.