large quantity of blue juice

[coolguy684]

I wanted to give something back to my band director, who's done so much for me in my 4 years in high school. If it weren't for his band, I never wouldve gotten into the whole euphonium gig. 4 years ago, I was playing on a no-name stencil trombone, and now, Im on a Meinl-Weston 451. what a change!



Anyways, I wanted to know where I could buy an entire case of blue juice valve oil, like...$50 worth. i see i can buy it at amazon, but i was hoping such a large quantity might have a further discount. my band director will never have to buy valve oil again until he retires! lol

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Juice-BJ2.../dp/B0002FOGFI



ps...one worry, does valve oil expire? will it go bad if not used in lets say....4 years?

[davewerden]

I don't personally know of any way. The only suggestion I have is to look on the right side of that page, where it says, "More Buying Choices." There are some music stores there. You could try to contact them directly and make a deal. You can also contact them through Amazon's interface, but they might be bound by certain conditions on whether they can wheel & deal with you, so I would go the direct route. A Google search would probably get you contact info on some or all.

[carbogast]

You can buy blue juice in 8 oz containers and save a bit of money. A google search turned up some prices less than $13.00. I bought a couple of 8 oz bottles on sale a couple of years ago and am still working through it. I transfer some from the large bottle to a 2 oz bottle for daily use.

- Carroll

[djwpe]

Dillon's has the large bottles for $11.95 http://www.dillonmusic.com/p-153-blue-juice-valve-oil.aspx

[davewerden]

I don't want to be a wet blanket, but...

If I were a band director, I'm not sure how happy I'd be at the thought of trying to refill the small bottles all the time. I wonder how easy it is to get the cap off the small bottle. And I really wonder how well the small bottle will continue to work after the cap has been pried off and snapped back on a few times - i.e will it stay on when the bottom is squeezed and will it not leak all over the case.

I have refilled bottles a few times in the past, and it's not exactly brain surgery. But for a busy band director, ...

[davewerden]

Have you thought about other methods of saying "thanks"? Taking him out for a meal and just talking. Offering coaching for some of the younger students. Or coming in now and then to clean up the horns, oil them, put slide grease on, etc.

Do you have a sense of how tight his budget is vs. how over-taxed his time is? If he is in serious budget trouble, then supplying "stuff" might be good. But there are a lot of disposables, like reeds, that you could supply. If his time is over-taxed more then his budget, then look at the previous paragraph as food for thought and use your own creativity.

It's a great goal, for sure, not matter how you decide to do it!

[Dieter]

As for the technical part of your question: I do believe that the oil will degrade and lubrication characteristics will get poor when stored for an extended period of time. This degradation is driven by changes in the oil's molecular structure over time and the fact that some oils are hygroscopic (the oil attracts water).

It is also possible that this oil is classified as 'edible oil' (non-toxic), which means that some precautions and control measures need to be in place for storage and quality assurance over a longer period of time.

But I am sure that your band director does not need bucket loads of oil to get your message across...