Slide Lubricants

[Beyond16]

@Beyond16

A few questions if you'll indulge me

So looking at your pic you prefer 5000 CST?
What is your ratio for mixture?
With what recipe you've settled on, what consistency results? Herman's tuning slide grease vs the ultra slide grease (super thick white stuff)?

Thanks

The 5000 CST is from my trumpet days. It's probably too thick for tuba unless you want super tight slides. I used it for a while, but my arms got sore from emptying the water. Even for trumpet, it's only suitable for the main tuning slide, and not the ones you move while playing. For the tuba tuning slides, the CST 1000 is a better choice. At my skill level, I don't move any slide while playing, so the CST 1000 is good for all the slides.

[Worth]

For simplicity I've settled on using Aquaphor for my tuning slides. It's readily available in any local store, functions well, can also be used on lips after playing or in wintertime, and has no discernable odor.
Active ingredient: Petrolatum (41%)
Inactive ingredients: Mineral Oil, Ceresin, Lanolin Alcohol, Panthenol, Glycerin, Bisabolol

[tofu]

.

[Yorkboy]

Resurrecting this thread because I’ve been looking around for the old Schilke “guppy lube” formula…..it seems to be somewhat elusive, because I haven’t found it yet.

To those who have never done it, I can’t begin to tell you how time consuming it is to get two tubes (4, actually) perfectly co-planar. And, even after you do get them parallel (which is the “easy” part), once you solder the braces in place (including the ones that hold the valveset to the horn) the cooling of the solder will contract and pull everything out of alignment anyway….so, in fact, you need to estimate how much the cooling solder will affect the alignment (sometimes as much as .020, which to me is unacceptable) and accommodate accordingly, which is basically trial and error.

I can see why a manufacturer won’t go through this painstaking process - to align 3 sets of slides could easily take an experienced craftsman a whole day to accomplish, maybe more.

PS - if anyone here has the guppy lube formula, please post it here once and for all (if not please PM it to me).

[C J]

I asked duckduck ai for the formula:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=what%20are%20 ... -1&ia=chat

it came up with this:
Ingredients of Schilke "Guppy Lube"

Guppy Lube is a popular lubricant primarily used for the tuning slides of brass instruments. Its formulation includes two main ingredients:

Anhydrous Lanolin: This is a waxy substance derived from sheep's wool, known for its lubricating and moisturizing properties.
Mineral Oil: This is used to thin the lanolin, making it easier to apply and ensuring that it provides consistent lubrication without being too thick.

Recipe for Preparation

If you're interested in preparing your own Guppy Lube, here’s a basic method:

Materials Needed:
227 grams (8 oz) of anhydrous lanolin
75 grams (2.5 oz) of mineral oil
Instructions:
Melt the Lanolin: Remove the cap and seal from the jar of lanolin. Place it in a microwave for about 2 minutes until it becomes liquid.
Mix: Add the mineral oil to the liquefied lanolin and stir thoroughly.
Set: Allow the mixture to sit overnight or refrigerate it to solidify.

This mixture creates a lubricating grease that is effective for maintaining smooth operation of brass instrument slides.

This information should give you a good idea of what Guppy Lube is made of and how to make it if you prefer a DIY approach!



But be careful: On my Mira the slides are so well oiled (and aligned ) that the slightest touch changes them. I Use La tromba and happy with it.

[bloke]

No matter what is put on slides, it's eventually going to find its way to and into piston or rotary valve casings.

This is an old thread.

I still use lamp oil on all rotors and pistons, but on all non-air sealing surfaces (air sealing surfaces that move are where I use lamp oil, because those surfaces need very thin oil) and small bearing surfaces I now use mineral oil, including the slides that I need to move.

For slides that don't need to move I use lamp oil, but I do oil them two or three times a week to make sure they don't seize.

When mineral oil migrates slightly into valve casings, it "plays nice" with lamp oil. Walmart sells their Equate brand of mineral oil for under $3 for 16 oz. ... So it's still well under 20 cents an ounce.

I guess I could afford to pay four or five dollars an ounce for lubricants I put in my instrument, but I prefer to not, and I prefer to re-lubricate quite often - such as every time I play, which I can afford to do at the prices that I pay for what I use.

[catgrowlB]

Lucas marine grease, or most any Lucas grease works well on slides. That stuff lasts forever, and it's affordable. Yeah...

[Yahnay-san]

I like lanolin for slides that are a bit too eager to move, lanolin lets them move with a yank yet not slooowly drop from gravity. Yes, I tried slightly misaligning the tubes. Downside to lanolin is it needs to be re-applied frequently, so it’s good that a lifetime supply is cheap from Amazon as noted. The red Conn stuff is my favorite for tighter slides and it seems to last much longer.

As a trombone player, I bought a big jar of anhydrous lanolin in 1967 for my tuning slides. Still using the same jar on my tuba today.

[bloke]

Pairs of slide tubes - theoretically - should individually fit just about as closely as two pistons, and be perfectly aligned of course both in parallel and coplanar... but probably only one or two in a thousand instruments are like this - if that many. If at least the slides that we move on the fly are like this, we'll have better instruments, but - bluntly speaking - most of our standards aren't that high. We just don't tend to be as particular as most other professional instrumentalists with our equipment.

[pjv]

Sadly this is all too true. The usual solution to a slide that isn’t straight is all too often to buff it up until it slides better. Nothing like paying a repairman to make your instrument leak!

I purchased a Martin Medium sous some years back. The very surprising thing about this ’50’s horn was that the valves were beautifully redone and the slides were amazingly aligned. If I pulled on a slide it got sucked back all the way in. This obviously reflects not only how great the compression is but also how perfectly the slides line up. I don’t need to do much slide pulling on this horn but it makes playing so much more beautiful when slide pulling is so effortless. I do this often with just two fingers.
Uh, yeah, I had the valves vented.