Leaving your tuba in a hot car

[bloke]

I believe that Miss Eden was pregnant during the first or second year of that series, and they had to work around that somehow in filming.

[donn]

The evaporation is exactly why I don't use lamp oil on my valves. PITA to have to oil them every freaking time you play instead of once a week or two.

You could mix in some motor oil. You should be able to use oil of any weight that suits you, without any trouble from gunk deposits.

I have never noticed any problem with it, but there have been these reports of gunking up. "Lamp oil" isn't really a thing, it's an application - oil that will burn in a lamp is lamp oil - and given the differences in people's observations about how it smells, there clearly have been different products under that name with different fractions of hydrocarbons, and if I remember the observations it didn't help to narrow it down to brand. If problems have been seen with lamp oil, it seems to me an open question that can't really be put to rest by any number of experiences without problems. What would really do it, is an "in vitro" example - maybe combine various oils in small sample jars, with some water and whatever else it takes to simulate valves, and let them sit until some of the dreaded gunk appears.

But ... unable to find the same lamp oil here, I've been reduced to using normal commercial valve oil (Hetman), and to my great surprise it really works pretty well - possibly even better than lamp oil. The valves definitely go up and down.

[Mary Ann]

In the past I used blue juice and had the evaporation problem, clanky rotors too.

In past years I've settled on Alisyn and it works perfectly in both rotors and pistons, for me.

Slide grease is another whole oft-beaten-until-way-after-the-horse-is-dead topic. I don't like the Selmer red stuff because it migrates down into the valves. I don't like automotive products because no telling what the contaminants are. I have both lanolin (nipple cream) and Hetman and seem to go back and forth.

Also, don't leave your tuba on a hot tin roof.

[bloke]

Everyone has priorities, and - to me - squeezing a little valve oil down the main tuning slide and sloshing it back and forth between the valves as I move them up and down is a lot less of a nuisance than a so-called "warm-up routine", which can use up fifteen minutes or more of practice time - which is pretty hard to carve out, these days - including finding the energy to sit down and practice, which requires just about as much of me as it does too remove horrible dents from some of these government-bought instruments.

On rotary instruments, every few weeks I might put a drop or two of 30W oil on the bearing ends of rotors, but I don't mix any of that stuff with my lamp oil - though I have no doubt that over time it migrates a little bit.

When retailers are trying to charge me $3 and $4 an ounce for their magic concoctions and even distributors are trying to charge me $2 wholesale for an ounce of some petroleum product or synthetic product, I'm just not going to buy any of that stuff for my own use. That's getting pretty close to the cost of quite a few things that are intended to be kept forever.

One thing that I haven't ever done to any of my instruments - except one I recenrly bought (which needed it due to the lack of this same type of really generous oiling by the previous owner) - is an acid cleaning job. None of the rest of them have needed it, because I've kept their insides really oily. I simply couldn't have [felt like I could have] afforded to do that at $2 to $4 an ounce.

Relying on oils that cling and stay around for convenience:
For me, a great deal of the benefit is to get most of the interior of the valve section oily, and not just the valves. Just oiling the valves isn't going to do that. Further, running a bunch of oil all around inside the valve machines is also going to help keep my instruments somewhat clear of foreign material, and not just protect them from lime deposits. The reality that nothing is going to stick inside there very well means that I can jet hot water through my valve sections every once in awhile - with a hot water rated hose and nozzle - and knock most all of the stuff out of them without having to take them all apart.

To those who always are reminding the rest of us that petroleum is toxic, I might ask them how much of their synthetic oil they squeeze onto their mashed potatoes every night, and I might also remind them that lead, tin, copper, nickel, zinc, and epoxy and nitrocellulose coatings are also toxic materials, as well as all of the petroleum based products used to manufacture their cases and bags, interior wall paints, and countless other things. I would also wager that all of us are going to die someday.

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[bloke]

The old but seldom-used term, "dripping with estrogen", comes to mind.

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[bloke]

A particular picture of Elizabeth Taylor comes to mind. She was completely clothed and all covered up, but she was so incredibly feminine and absolutely at her prime that the picture almost seemed to be pornographic.

[peterbas]

.

[arpthark]

I can't believe this entire thread has gone on this long and nobody has said "just crack a window"!

[Mark]

I can't believe this entire thread has gone on this long and nobody has said "just crack a window"!

Makes it even easier to break into the car.

[arpthark]

I can't believe this entire thread has gone on this long and nobody has said "just crack a window"!

Makes it even easier to break into the car.

That's why you booby trap the tuba before you leave.

[jtm]

I can't believe this entire thread has gone on this long and nobody has said "just crack a window"!

That does help the trunk much.

[bloke]

The evaporation is exactly why I don't use lamp oil on my valves. PITA to have to oil them every freaking time you play instead of once a week or two.

But ... unable to find the same lamp oil here, I've been reduced to using normal commercial valve oil (Hetman), and to my great surprise it really works pretty well - possibly even better than lamp oil. The valves definitely go up and down.

White or mineral oil that is food grade or pharmaceutical, veterinary quality is all the same but you can be sure that it is very pure.
You can get it in different viscosities and it is very cheap in larger quantities.

https://www.amazon.de/dickfl%C3%BCssig- ... WI1Z&psc=1

https://www.amazon.de/Paraffinum-Liquid ... 327&sr=1-7

https://www.amazon.de/FCO-Paraffinum-Su ... 327&sr=1-8

I no longer see the particular brand that I had been purchasing (and still have plenty laid back for the future), but this price is only a little bit higher than the price I paid before hyperinflation (prior to the coup) as this price is about $29 a gallon (as compared to the pricing of so many consumer items, which have doubled), and I recall paying about $25 a gallon in the past - prior to 2021.



It puzzles me that something like this would have anything lower than a perfect five-star rating. What's to not like or what's to not be satisfied about? ...It's friggin' lamp oil.
Oh well, people are pretty funny, aren't they?
I guess I'm lucky that no one's else house is any closer to mine than about 1200 ft away.

[Doc]

But ... unable to find the same lamp oil here, I've been reduced to using normal commercial valve oil (Hetman), and to my great surprise it really works pretty well - possibly even better than lamp oil. The valves definitely go up and down.

White or mineral oil that is food grade or pharmaceutical, veterinary quality is all the same but you can be sure that it is very pure.
You can get it in different viscosities and it is very cheap in larger quantities.

https://www.amazon.de/dickfl%C3%BCssig- ... WI1Z&psc=1

https://www.amazon.de/Paraffinum-Liquid ... 327&sr=1-7

https://www.amazon.de/FCO-Paraffinum-Su ... 327&sr=1-8

I no longer see the particular brand that I had been purchasing (and still have plenty laid back for the future), but this price is only a little bit higher than the price I paid before hyperinflation (prior to the coup) as this price is about $29 a gallon (as compared to the pricing of so many consumer items, which have doubled), and I recall paying about $25 a gallon in the past - prior to 2021.



It puzzles me that something like this would have anything lower than a perfect five-star rating. What's to not like or what's to not be satisfied about? ...It's friggin' lamp oil.
Oh well, people are pretty funny, aren't they?
I guess I'm lucky that no one's else house is any closer to mine than about 1200 ft away.

This is the brand that I have purchased the last couple of times. No complaints.