For my oiling needs I have 4 small bottles with 'eye drop' applicators - the
bottles contain the following -
1) straight sewing machine oil (a low odor, clear, light machine oil).
2) straight Ultra-Pure Lamp oil (a low odor, clear, kerosene, which also has
reasonable 'oiling characteristics' - search on kerosene and lubricity, if
you want to do web research).
3) straight Al Cass.
4) a blend of Al Cass and sewing machine oil.
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The straight sewing machine oil is for the valve key mechanism, and the
water keys. The 3 other oils are for the bearing ends (under the valve caps,
and in the swing-arm gap) of the rotors. I never really oil the rotor
bodies, but if the rotors become sluggish I rinse them thru the leadpipe
with some Ultra-Pure to flush away whatever gunk (old grease, etc.) that is
causing the problem.
With my horns, I've found that the temperature has a great effect on what
bearing oil works best - straight Ultra-Pure for winter, straight Al Cass
for warm weather, and the blend for really hot weather. Also, for a really
old, worn, euphonium with leaky piston valves, the sewing machine oil does a
good job.
With a properly operating rotary valve, the rotor body should never contact
the walls of the rotor casing - there should always be a (very) small gap,
and the typical amount of water condensation in the valves is enough to
prevent excessive air leakage. Valves become sluggish when oil or grease
leaks onto the rotors and 'gums-up' this small gap - that is when I use the
Ultra-Pure to rinse the rotors.
BTW, for slide grease I'm very happy with Selmer (pink goo) Slide and Cork
grease (I keep the bottle in a ziplock bag for storage).
Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA
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