TubaForum.net

I have been a long time user of lanolin for slide grease. My private teacher in college got me started with it. I saw many advantages to it over Vaseline, which is what I used in high school. The only other thing I ever tried was Bach synthetic slide gel, which I hated. It’s more like glue than grease. Right now I’m using Shilke slide grease, which I believe to be mostly lanolin. It says “with lanolin” on the label, but it looks like pure lanolin to me. And it has that characteristic sheep smell. But it is VERY expensive for what you get, 7 dollars for a quarter of an ounce!

So in my online search for places to order lanolin, my attention was turned to a product called “Lansinoh” nipple cream. This is a product marketed for nursing mothers. It is advertised a single ingredient, that ingredient being “100% HPA lanolin, modified”. The HPA apparently means “highly purified anhydrous”. So this checks a lot of boxes for me. They claim it is so highly purified that it is odorless, which would be a huge deal. And this product is commonly available in stores. One thing that bothers me is the “modified” part. Modified how, exactly? There seems to be no information on that.

I respect the collective wisdom here. Would this product be safe to use as slide grease? Would it be effective? Would there be any down side to using it, other than the snickers I would have to endure when pulling a tube labelled “nipple cream” out of my case?

I have used 4 parts anhydrous lanolin (available in the baby care section of most Walmart, CVS, or Walgreens locations) mixed with 1 part pure petroleum jelly (NOT Vaseline, which has "stuff" in it like scent and such). I measure out four small globs of the ANHYDROUS lanolin (never use the other kind!) into a small slide grease container (like an old Carmex or DCT lip stuff tub or an old Schilke grease tub — thoroughly cleaned of the former product) and then microwave it for about 30 to 40 seconds. I let it cool on the counter for a few minutes and then tightly cap it and toss it in the fridge for three or four hours.

"Guppy Lube" was an *old* product beloved by a lot of trumpeters and sold by Allied for years. It was anhydrous lanolin and mineral oil mixed in a basic brew. It was too thick and stiff in the winter, so you had to add some mineral oil and heat it again to mix that in. In the summer it was too thin, so more lanolin could be added.

What a PITA that was!

The Schilke stuff is AL with something like petroleum jelly added, but I cannot remember what it was or what the mixture is. Rumor has it that they melt the mix it in batches in an old industrial coffee machine. I am sure they have some company making it for them these days.

Lansinoh is super refined and pharmaceutical grade stuff. Note: I use that stuff for lip balm in the harsh winter months, as nothing is better.

However, it’s a bit expensive for what you get. Amazon has this stuff:

https://a.co/d/5ivhViJ

That I use on my slides and it works just fine. You can cut it with slide oil (synthetic, not grease) and it behaves well on slides you want to move with some speed.

Edited to add: you likely won’t need to carry this stuff around with you to performances and practices. Needs just a bit of maintenance weekly or so to keep the slides in good order.

I tend to be the contrarian, but I would advise that whatever type of grease is used on slides that it's kept to an absolute bare minimum, as it can tend to corrupt valve oil, and people tend to blame gummed up valve oil on the oil rather than on the oil mixing with slide grease - which absolutely happens.

Again, as the goofball here I spend inordinate amounts of time fitting and aligning my slides so that they work just fine with the same oil that I use on my valves.

The closer a slide is to a valve, the more I would shy away from using a grease. Obviously, the second slide is the textbook example of that to which I refer.

^not contradictory^

Both of my horns get a modicum of grease on the second valve slide and I never touch that slide other than to dump condensation or re-grease.

On both horns, the first slide gets oil. The 2165 has an alignment issue on the first, so I’m not happy with the movement, but I’m dealing for now. The remainder of the slides (3, 4, and 5) get *just enough* of the lanolin so that they move well. Furthermore, only 4 gets the occasional pull on either horn, and the one that gets pulled is pretty far away from the cluster.

Also, if one applies the lanolin somewhere between 1/2 to 1/4 the way to the end of the inner slide, and then works the slide in and out a bit to spread the stuff around, then it’s usually less grease used and there’s not too much left to get into the valves.

Finally, while dumping slides, be sure to pull bottom slides while the horn is in playing position before setting it down after playing then turn the horn so that the bell is just below parallel and pull the upper slides and dump those. Replace them and then set the horn down. This tends to keep the sloshing around to a minimum.

Apologies to the people needing to do the “King spin”. Although there is a section in the fourth valve of the 2165 that sometimes collects condensation that seems like it might need a spin. However, I’ve figured out a solution where the horn sits flat on the lap and rocks fore and aft that gets the water in the right place without the spin.

Anyone know if lanolin adversely reacts with lamp oil? For a brief while, after having a horn professionally cleaned, I used lanolin while using lamp oil for valve oil and daily squirts down the lead pipe before practice. One day a few months later looking down the lead pipe I noticed build-up, not unlike atherosclerosis. I hooked up the hose to the washing machine hot water line and blew an embarrassing amount of debris out of the horn.

I stopped using the lanolin and haven't had that issue since. For the record I bought what Amazon labeled as anhydrous, it was white-ish yellow in color and came in a zip lock bag