I just cleaned my horn again, largely to get rid of the crud that builds up at the bottom of the pistons and to a lesser extent to clean the little coating that develops inside the tubes. Wouldn't it be nice if we could reduce that valve buildup?
Then I saw a post on Facebook about oiling valves. Many folks talked about how long they can go between oiling with [brand] oil. One technician responded that it is a fallacy to talk about when valves NEED oil - they should be oiled daily, regardless of whether they are slow or sticking. Oil can help protect that metals.
I have previously tried 2 methods: 1) oiling when something got slow or started to stick, and 2) oiling before I practice each day.
Now I am introducing the "Dave Werden Patented (
) Oiling Method Number 3." This is an experiment. In version 2 above, I'd oil the valves and then proceed to blow air and various other...stuff... into the horn and onto the valves. Then when I got done I put the horn away (after draining water from all the tubes). Any crud that had gotten on the pistons would sit there in the metal petri dish and "evolve" until I practiced next time.
I'm going back to Hetmann #1 now, which is pretty good at staying around and not evaporating quickly. But I'm reversing the oiling procedure a bit. Each day when my practice
concludes, I take out the pistons, wipe them off, wipe out the bottom space where the spring rests under the piston, and then re-oil. Then I put the horn away. The next day I begin practicing with smooth valves, which is nice. But more importantly, I have cleaned off the bio-ingredients from the pistons and added the protection of the oil. [I'm also adding a once-a-week procedure where I swab out the casings and clean the bottom cap before re-oiling.]
Does that make sense? Anyway, I'm going to keep up the process and see if the horn stays clean longer. Does anyone else want to try the experiment? If so, please report your findings here (as I will later).