That black stuff is leftover buffing and/or lapping compound that never got properly cleaned out of the horn at the factory. That is to say, unless you've had some work done in the meantime that involved lapping, or some shop that cleaned your horn may have buffed (ruined) the valves and left buffing compound in the horn, or buffed (ruined) the slides. Black stuff on the tuning slides is pretty much always a bad sign. Greenish or brownish is usually fairly benign. Getting all that black grit out of the horn isn't so easy. It's in the valves, it's in the inaccessible corners of the valve casings, it's in the bearings, it's around the corner in the knuckles, it's in the valve caps, it's inside the stop arms... Unless you get it out of all those places, it just spreads out again as soon as you oil the horn. It's in a lot of places that you can't reach with your snake. You can do it at home if you know how to take your valves out and get them back together properly. Get a bottle of ultra-pure lamp oil to use as a solvent, get a box of Q tips, and some white rags or white Bounty paper towels. Take everything apart, snake everything you can reach using plenty of the lamp oil, then follow up snaking again with plenty of dish soap. Then start going after all the nooks and crannys. You can dip a Q tip in the oil and use it to probe around corners. If it comes out with black on it, keep cleaning. Remember the valve caps and stop arms. Get it out of everywhere. You'll see on the white towels if you still have stuff in there. Should take you an afternoon to do, and if you're thorough, you'll be good to go. Good luck!
- Steve Mumford Joe wrote: Hi listers, I have a 2006 eastlake conn 8DS. Since day one, every time I pull a = slide out of my horn, theres always some kind of black residue on the slides. = I've given my horn multiple baths and have snaked it frequently, and i always snake out the slide tubes and clean the slides befor applying new = grease. Why is this happening? I use Shilke tuning slide grease with lanolin, = and i use hetman 13.5 and 12 for the rotors. Is it because of the grease? Thanks, Joe Scriva _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
