Brass Instrument Lubricating Oil

[Al]

I plan on doing a virgin oil analysis on Ultrapure Oil. I am trying to resolve an issue with one of my cornet valves. (I have had it to the best technician in the ares-that's another story.) I am mainly interested in any additives. My guess is that there are none. It is probably a PAO approx 2 cp. viscosity. I have had some discussion on my trumpet forum. And I decided to back up my statement that in that the 3 factor bearing equation all that matters is speed, load, and viscosity. Of course additives are used in most oils to over come heat, change in viscosity, things like anti wear bc we don't have full film lub at ambient conditions. Any thoughts?

 

[Linctex]

I used to play mouthpiece/brass instruments, and can't say valve problems occurred unless there was physical damage or machining errors. What is the problem? Does it happen with other oils as well?

 

[Al]

Recently I had/have some problems with a valve on my Getzen Capri coming up a bit slow after maybe 20 min playing. I read information here concerning different oils. I took the horn to my trusted guy with the idea of putting in stronger springs. They are unavailable for this horn so he (putting it nicely.)."stretched" them. He indicated that there were no problems with the valves. He felt a miniscule amount of grease could have entered via the #1 slide or perhaps there was a bit of lint. He returned it and indicated he used BlueJuice. I felt that the Blue juice was bottom of the barrel stuff. I played the horn a half hour with no problems. I do have Blue Juice and I used it again. This time a bit of slowness in #1 valve. However I can live with it. Just a bit more frequent lubing. The last page of the thread is here:Iam the last post: http://www.trumpetmaster.com/threads/valve-oil-of-choice-for-valve-wear.84560/page-3

 

[Linctex]

Chemically clean the valves and the bores to get rid of any sticky residue first.... then re-oil and try again.

 

[Al]

Originally Posted By: Linctex

Chemically clean the valves and the bores to get rid of any sticky residue first.... then re-oil and try again.

Horn has barely been played bore is a mirror and valves mint. My brass guy went over the valves. If it would have been an issue he would have done it. But thank you

 

[weasley]

Originally Posted By: Al

I am mainly interested in any additives. My guess is that there are none. It is probably a PAO approx 2 cp. viscosity.

The SDS for Ultra-Pure Professional Valve Oil show it is "Alkenes, c14-20. alpha- 68855-60-7 >80%". 1-tetradecene (C14H28) has a viscosity around 2.6 cSt (20°C). Viscosities for longer molecules aren't as easy to find, but for the smaller molecules is. Doing a bit of extrapolation from the C10 - C14 range, I'd say C20 was in the region of 6 cSt or so. Therefore a mixture would sit somewhere in the middle. Not a PAO, just an AO.

 

[Al]

Thanks for the info!!