Do Your Slides Not Move Smoothly?

[davewerden]

Now and then a little polishing is useful on the legs of tuning slides. It makes a remarkable difference in how smoothly they move! You CAN get by with just slide grease, but the action will feel so much better if you keep the slide's surfaces nice and shiny.

[UglyGrayDuck]

I know you've also recommended flitz for occasional polishing of pistons, but you've said something along the lines of "be careful around the ports," and I'm curious what the danger is there? Accidentally opening the ports a little too wide?

[davewerden]

I know you've also recommended flitz for occasional polishing of pistons, but you've said something along the lines of "be careful around the ports," and I'm curious what the danger is there? Accidentally opening the ports a little too wide?

Just caution on my part, not based on any bad experience. The edge is a joint of stainless steel, brass, and solder. And any polishing you do is apt to affect edges more than flat surfaces. That's all that is behind my caution.

[euphdude]

Thanks so much to Dave for providing this suggestion. The 3rd valve slide action on my Dillon 967 was just a bit stiffer than I preferred. I used Flitz as per Dave’s suggestion, and the action is now much better. This wasn’t something that was bad enough to take to a repair person, but the stiff action compared to the rest of the slides was annoying, and now all is well - thanks again Dave!