TromboneChat

Hi all, I have a Bach 50B with Thayer conversion that I'll probably be leaving in its case for extended periods (probably months). I did this years ago and when I would take it back out after it had been untouched for a couple of months, the valves were quite "scratchy" for a few practise sessions. I don't recall what I was doing to store and return to service at the time; it was likely to give it a decent once-over cleaning wise, oil everything and then put it away. When it came time to play, I think I'd just add a little oil and start playing without dissasembling/servicing anything. This is kind of how I'd like to be able to do things.

Kind of a different beast but a similar issue; I have an Olds P22 where the valve is quite slow out of storage until I've added a couple of drops of oil and used it a bit.

Does anyone have a process they like to follow for putting a horn to the side for a time where it would still be useable on short notice?

Thanks!

What type of rotor oil do you use? On valve instruments many people recommend cleaning and drying the instrument well and using a synthetic oil and leaving parts loose if possible (for instance removing caps, slides, or leadpipe).

The scratchiness may be inevitable. I would add a lot of oil when taking it out of storage and just giving it time to loosen up.

I like to wipe everything off and leave it completely dry when in extended storage. If you leave it oiled, the oil will dry up and turn into glue and your valve will be frozen. I'm sure I will get lots of disagreement from this statement, but I have had some experience with this sort of thing.

Agree with Brad. Much better to at least dry everything off (if not remove valves, slides etc) than to oil.

Make sure the whole instrument is completely dry before storage. A "stuck" or slow valve can be woken up easily enough when the time comes, but pink rot dots in your slide crook or elsewhere will be there to stay.

For years (because I was taught this at my first repair shop job), I preached that pistons should be stored absolutely dry and other types of valves (rotary, axial, Hagmann, etc….) should be stored with oil on them, but the viscosity of the oil had to be thicker than the standard valve/rotary/key oils. I think the philosophy behind this was that the typical brass musician was not willing/able to take the entire valve apart in order to lubricate it. The oils did dry/thicken over time, so it never really worked.

For long term, I now store all types of valves completely dry, just like the previous contributors have recommended. I have had much better fortune with this in the last couple of years. I think that musicians can be crafty enough to figure out how to get the lubricants in the nooks and crannies, without the need to pull the valves apart. As long as they remember that the spindles and bearings need a thicker lubricant, and the larger surfaces inside the casings use a thinner lubricant.

glad I asked - I was about to oil everything and put it away indefinitely

Thanks for the great replies!