Posted by Mike Ross on September 10, 1999 at 17:13:04:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Chemical flush posted by Joe S. on September 09, 1999 at 21:25:18:
Dive! Dive!
Actually, I don't "think" my brother (the E-Flat nut) has found this hiding place yet.
By the way, I recently had a tuba professionally (sp?) chemical cleaned at about the same time that I used CLR (the drug and hardware store stuff) on an old cornet and a trumpet I came across.
The CLR seemed to do the trick - I was surprised how much different the inner tuning slides looked and how much black goop came out in the solution. There also didn't appear to be any laquer damage from the CLR. I did cut the CLR about 4:1 with warm water (4 parts water) and I was careful to keep the upper portion of the valve assemblies out of the acid solution (CLR is a mixture of Glycolic Acid and Acetic acid according to the label. I assume that glycolic acid is something related to ethylene glycol - antifreeze) and I made sure that the acid didn't contact any corks or felts unless I intended to replace them anyway.
At the end of the day, the CLR did an OK job, but the professional workmanship and completeness (replacing all felts and corks, replacing the valve springs, and just doing a more thorough cleaning job - I think he scrubbed...) was easily worth the money to me, particularly on my primary instument which is getting pretty old to begin with. The trumpets a more in the classification of "neat toys" at this point.
I offer no warranties as to anybody else's results. YMMV
Mike