Euphonium 1st Valve Weight

[davewerden]

The following chart shows the weight of the moving portion of the first valve. This includes the piston, valve stem, and finger button. When you first remove a piston, the top cap will come along. To do this measurement you need to remove the finger button, slide off the top cap, and replace the finger button. All else being equal, a lighter piston will move faster. This is only one of the "fast valve" factors, so don't obsess over the numbers below.

As before, when I have multiple reports of one specific piston I will average the weights reported. This chart reports the values from the following thread:
http://www.dwerden.com/forum/showthr...ht-Comparisons

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Brand	"Model/etc."	Grams
Adams	E3	96
Adams	Top Sprung	88
Adams	Sonic (non comp)	68
Besson	Imperial (1980s)	70
Besson	Prestige	84
Boosey and Hawkes	Sovereign	71
Boosey and Hawkes	Class A NS 1924	70
Conn	24i	56
Geneva	Cardinal	102
Jupiter	JEP 1020 (non comp)	74.6
King	2280 (non-comp)	92
Sterling	Bauerfeind Valve	94.5
Wessex	Festivo	90
Wessex	Sinfonico	103
Willson	2900 (2012)	86
Willson	2960 TA (Late 2000's)	91

[davewerden]

Just added a Jupiter to the list (thanks, Alexander!)

[ghmerrill]

As you say, it's only one of the factors in contributing to "piston speed." I think there are at least the following as well:

1. Piston diameter (more area, more drag, Other Things Being Equal)
2. Piston length (more length, more drag -- OTBE)
3. Bore diameter (larger bore, less drag? -- OTBE)
4. Overall weight of the piston+stem+pads/shims+??? assembly
5. Spring strength (OTBE)
6. Guide size/weight/material (OTBE)
7. Lubrication (OTBE)
8. ???? other things I may not have thought of

And EACH of these is "other things being equal" -- which they certainly aren't. So this is at least a 7x7 matrix of things that affect piston speed. Yikes. I'd be reluctant to focus on any one of them as an optimization target since the aggregate of the others might overwhelm it.