What slide grease for fast moving tuning slides?

[Wilco]

I am using hetman, works great, except for the green slime/ goo build up it leaves in the rest of the instrument.

What do you use?

[gocsick]

Lanolin or Schilke slide grease thinned with valve oil works well.

Many will tell you about the virtue of plain mineral oil.

5W30 Synthetic motor oil also works a treat.

[prodigal]

All of the above. Lanolin now because I have lots of the stuff.

5w20 is a good consistency as well.

ATF works well, also.

[BuddyRogersMusic]

Bloke has (re)posted this, as have others, but the inner and outer slide tubes must be clean and aligned to operated smoothly. A slide oil of appropriate viscosity will provide the action you're seeking. I've been using La Tromba T1+(thickest) valve oil on my first slide and using either Yamaha or Hetman slide oil for the third and fourth. Grease will potentially slow things down too much but it can be thinned with a drop or two of valve oil. Just don't get too much on it or the slurry will find its way to your valves and slow them down as well.

[the elephant]

I have always worked on the slide's alignment and the fitment of the tube pairs when dry FIRST, then I use plain, old 3-in-ONE oil. I use lamp oil on my valves. I use Super Lube on my slides.

[prodigal]

3-in-1 is useful oil for many an application.

As bad as Teflon (PTFE) is, it is a great dry lubricant over time.

RemOil is a quick spray for linkages when I don't feel like using the LaBelle oiler.

Which reminds me, it's time for a summer linkage oiling. 19 linkages to oil, various viscosity per instrument.

[bloke]

$3/pint mineral oil, Equate brand, Walmart.

(This will also mix readily with lamp oil just in case lamp oil is slightly too thin for someone's tastes.)

I try to limit the amount of mineral oil I use on slides, so I don't get very much of it migrating into my valves.
(Migration and mixing with valve oil on the valves will happen with any grease or oil used on slides.)

Until a couple of years ago, I used the three-in-one oil that Wade uses on slides, but when I discovered mineral oil, I quit using it, I no longer have to put up with the odor (although, I'm pretty tolerant to petroleum odors. Truth be told, three-in-one odor reminds me of Christmas, electric trains, and - of course - my childhood.) That said, Walmart Equate mineral oil is considerably less expensive.

For mostly stationary slides, I might still use mineral oil, but I possibly might decide to use STP Oil Treatment. Notice the recurring theme of CHEAP AND EFFECTIVE (and yeah: pretty much across the board - odorless).

[Wilco]

Thanks all!

[Mary Ann]

I'll add my question here. I am considering (!) getting my 1st slide to the point where it operates the way other tuba players use it, because the Eb above the staff is flat open. If I play it 1st valve with that slide pushed in, it is closer. But it does not move like most players would have their first slide, and I do not know what sequence of events to do.

This from someone whose background is that you just adjust your hand in the bell for all this stuff.

[bloke]

Just as with any other in musical instrument repairs or alterations, you can't be taking it to a hack.

You might need to go hundreds of miles if everyone close to you is only "a pretty good repair guy".

I'm not making judgments, I'm just not educated as to who's available near you.

The tubes all need to be parallel and coplanar and the inside slide geometry (which might involve unsoldering the inside slide and goofing around with the width of the slide bow subtly) needs to be completely aligned with the outside slide assembly.

Once all that stuff is absolutely there, then it's time to fit the inside tubes to the outside tubes, as if they are pairs of pistons, rather than pairs of slide tubes.

Since the cross brace on the outside slide tubes is one piece, this all requires moving more things than one might imagine.

Dialing in a tuba (from "good" intonation characteristics to "being able to be adjusted on the fly to where nothing requires any favoring") can be a fairly expensive proposition.

"Fat Bastard" promised tremendous potential, but all the things that I did to it - in order to completely dial it in...
... I would have charged someone else quite a bit of money to do all the things I've done to that instrument.

Aligning and fitting a #1 slide properly is the first thing on a list of things that most people have done.

Are quite a few remarkably fine trombonists around this area (for whatever reason, as there's not much work...) and really fine trombonists seem to really appreciate tuba players who can "put their pitches between the ditches". I really strive to be the one about whom (when trombone players see me walking through the door for the first rehearsal) they say to each other, "Oh good. There's bloke. This is going to be easy."

[dp]

Plain Vaseline. Since 1970. I've never had it migrate throughout the horn, I keep my horns clean.

[bloke]

Plain Vaseline. Since 1970. I've never had it migrate throughout the horn, I keep my horns clean.

It's a clean machine.

...but not with Vaseline. That's just plain nasty.

[dp]

Plain Vaseline. Since 1970. I've never had it migrate throughout the horn, I keep my horns clean.

It's a clean machine.

...but not with Vaseline. That's just plain nasty.

pfft
Blokenets overweaning opinionism strikes again. You prolly prefer that water-based crap. Like the Men Wearing Dresses™ crowd. THAT's nasty

[bloke]

pfft