[Trombone-l] using valve oil as a slide lubricant

[Simon G. P. Bailey]

> Do you use valve oil (Al Cass or other) on your slide?
>
> I have always been a proponent of either slide cream or slide-o- 
> mix, but
> never valve oil.  Yes, it can work, but my understanding is that it  
> was
> never meant to be used on a trombone slide.  I use valve oil to  
> lubricate
> valves and I use it on my tuba tuning slides (especially the first  
> one, as
> that is frequently moved to adjust pitch).  I think band directors and
> students get confused when they see "valve, key and slide oil" on the
> bottle, so they just put it on their trombone slide.  When I see/ 
> hear of
> students putting valve oil on their slide, I immediately tell them  
> to use
> Trombotine or Slide-o-Mix instead, as they will give better results  
> in terms
> of slide action (and they won't smell either).

this may be totally unrelated and non-symptomatic, but on one really  
sticky slide i've got i use trombotine and added a dash of valve oil.  
all of a sudden the slide was great. it wore off fairly soon though,  
and i didn't want to waste too much oil on it, but it did work for a  
bit.

rambling,
sb