The only difficulty with this is that I won't have a running tap or infinite s upply of water. Whatever liquids I have will be whatever I can carry in a bucket from the bathroom to the classroom.
I used to do light oil rinses on my horn, but I got marginal results at best. Most of the time the oil did not mix well with the valve oil that I use, and many times the oil gummed up, or attracted even more dirt than I wanted. Also, sometimes the oil mixed lightly with the 'condensation', and made the water even more impossible to get out. Even for those that cannot take the valve apart though, a soap and water rinse every month should theoretically yield good results. The only problem, obviously, is that water can sometimes accumulate inside the valve casing between the bearing plate and the valve itself. And, sometimes the only way to remove it is to remove it by hand or remove all the slides and let everything air dry on its own. But even letting it air dry for a day should get rid of the hidden water there. I've heard many times that oil rinses are good, or that even dropping oil into the leadpipe every now and then yields good results. However, personally, I've never had positive results with it. Why oil the rest of the horn when you only need to oil the valves? :) Also, if you've got an oil/grease buildup that's causing a problem, sometimes you need to break down the oil (i.e. soap and water) in order to get any results. And yes, soap breaks the surface tension of water, which allows for it to more easily wash away oil and grease. Once the water dries, you've got a clean slate. Good luck trying to match oils which rinse each other out. There are a thousand types of valve/rotary oils out there, and most of them are different chemical compounds. Lamp oil will sometimes gum up with some oils, like it did with me. One other consideration with this is that lamp oil is not manufactured to be used as a lubricant. No matter how 'pure' the label says the stuff is, you're still buying oil that is cheap enough to be sold for a few dollars for 24 ounces of the stuff. Even Blue Juice (which I recommend against) is sold for about 10 dollars for a 16 ounce bottle, and the highest quality oils are even more expensive. Lamp oil is manufactured to burn. Valve oil is designed as a lubricant. That's why a good small bottle of Hetman Synthetic or Rika oil will cost as much as it does. You get what you pay for. Anyone else had marginal results with oil rinsing by the way? Back to the labelling of the parts, most valves are generally labelled 1, 2, 3, 0, etc. as well as most bearing plates on most horns. If they're not labelled, it's usually a good idea to label them with a small mark somewhere on the bottom of the valve away from any bearing plate. I always take all the valves out at once rather than one at a time. All the valves get taken out, and I know exactly where each valve should go. Besides, why do eight cycles with the ultrasonic cleaner (two for each valve?) when it's far simpler to do just two? I've done this many many times. Since I've only got one hour to do a cleaning, it's much quicker to take all the valves out and put them back in. -William In a message dated 9/8/2004 4:35:27 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Perhaps before you go thru the valve disassembly & cleaning process, you could demonstrate how to do a basic 'valve rinse' using lightweight valve oil or UltraPure unscented Lamp Oil as a way to flush-out sluggish valves. - It sure is alot safer for a non-technician horn player to do a valve rinse than trying a full cleaning - especially if the only problem is sluggish valve action due to old oil/grease build-up. - For the full cleaning, I suggest to only work on 1 valve at a time, that way parts don't get swapped, and there are intact valves to show how they are supposed to be re-assembled... Jay Kosta Endwell NY amateur player, non-technician _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] unsubscribe or set options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
