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5/26/07: Slide Maintenance Continued from the Previous Page. Besides keeping our slides moving easily, greasing our slides can help increase the life span of our horn. When the grease is gone, and we move the slides, we are scraping metal against metal which will wear down the slides over time. Keeping them well greased will reduce the friction and keep the slides from scraping each other. One final benefit of keeping our slides greased is that it helps maintain compression inside our horn. If any air can leak out of the slides, then that is air that is not moving through your horn and creating tone. Plus, if certain slides leak more than others, then certain valve combinations will lose more air pressure than others which can cause issues with tone production, volume control, and intonation. Keeping a good layer of grease on your slides at all times will ensure that no air can leak through the slides. How often you grease your horn will depend on how often you move your slides, what kind of grease you use, and what kind of temperature in which you keep your horn (warmer temperatures will dry up the grease sooner than cooler ones). If you use the Lansinoh Lanolin that I recommend, you will probably find you need to add a thin layer of grease every one or two weeks. And, while this may be more often than is convenient, it is much better than having to deal with gummy valves that can be caused by using the wrong kind of grease. If you grease your slides as described above and oil your valves as described in last week’s article, your horn should be in good working order for a long time! Looking for a past article? Check the Archives for all previous Blog in F entries. |
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