Re: Lanolin (Anhydrous) Mixture


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Posted by Lee Stofer on August 12, 2002 at 19:18:19:

In Reply to: Lanolin (Anhydrous) Mixture posted by Larry Zaidan on August 12, 2002 at 07:40:10:

Larry,
I stay away from the stuff, and encourage others to do the same. The term "anhydrous" provides the first clue as to why you wouldn't want to use it on a brass instrument. It involves water, which is not necessarily good for brass. Furthermore, it not only will absorb water, but will ingest all the other stuff from your condensed breath and hold it against your slides inside your horn. Vaseline and petroleum greases don't do much better. In the shop, I use Superlube (really, I didn't make that up) which is a synthetic, non-toxic bearing grease containing Teflon. When applied to clean, dry slides in good condition, they will work like new, and for quite a long time.
I received two tubas back from a company that shall remain nameless, freshly silver-plated. After one of these tubas had sat in my shop for some time, I went to service it and found all the slides to be badly stuck. When I finally managed to mechanically pull them, all slides were clean, the only problem was that the company had put lanolin on the slides, which had dried out and become glue.
Joe Hetman has a line of synthetic lubricants, with twenty different viscosities for any wind instrument application. I use them in my shop now, and find that they are clean, dependable, affordable, and don't break down. There are even a couple of different viscosities specifically for 1st/3rd slides, or any others that you need to be really fast.
My $0.02,
Lee Stofer



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