Re: Cleaning stainless steel valves?


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Posted by js on March 29, 2002 at 10:24:45:

In Reply to: Cleaning stainless steel valves? posted by Bill on March 29, 2002 at 07:15:03:

You can lap (refit) the valve into the the casing by removing all of the corks and felts (so they don't get water-soaked.

To lap the valve, buy a bar of LAVA soap. Make a bunch of suds in your hand. Put these (pumice-loaded) suds all of the piston surface, insert the piston into its casing (might be difficult), screw down the cap (scratchy sounding, because of the pumice in the soap, but no harm) and work the valve up and down for at least a minute - pushing the valve sideways in all different directions as you work it up and down.

Here's the unpleasant part: Once done, you have to get EVERY BIT of LAVA soap suds out of the instrument before you oil and reassemble it. If the valve works much better but still barely sticks, you can repeat the process. This is a safe method, and only takes a tiny bit of material away - mostly exactly where it needs to be removed.


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