On 8 Jan 2011, Victor Eskenazi wrote: > my pipes have sat for too long
> 1 - the weather here is very damp Where is "here" (roughly)? >turns out the joints are stuck. > any suggestions on how to unstick them - without waiting for the right brief immersion in hot water or gently heating with a hot air gun on a lowish setting (depends on model), followed by a gentle twisting action. I'm assuming this is primarily the drone slides though the air gun would work on chanter stock joints too. Mind the chanter foot if it's plastic - the gun could melt it if used incautiously. And mind your fingers on any ferrule in the area you are heating. > 2 - any suggestions on cleaning the green off the brass? Methylated spirit (the purple stuff in the UK -industrial alcohol elsewhere?), applied with a cloth, followed by brass polish. And don't use olive oil or keep your set shut in a box in the future - it aggravates the verdigris problem at the least. The jury is out on whether it actually causes it. Good luck Julia To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
