What is your slide cleaning routine?

[chouston3]

Do you stop with just soap and water or do you go further?

[Elow]

A little bit of simple green in your bath with some warm water, get yourself a good snake to get in the crook.

[AndrewMeronek]

Bathtub. Dishwashing soap. Snake.

Honestly, my biggest criticism with my own cleaning is the snaking itself. Between the bristle brush/snake and a standard "cheesecloth and rod" setup, I am not confident at all that I'm actually doing a good job of cleaning the surfaces that I can't see.

[hornbuilder]

There are compounds that build up inside brass instruments that are not removed by detergent. Detergent removes grease and organic matter. It will not have any effect on limescale or oxidation.

[chouston3]

I am thinking about using some brass polish on my outer slide tubes. What should I use on the inside and outside of my inner tubes?

[harrisonreed]

The inners should be chrome plated and shouldn't have too much crud built up. Just soap and a plastic brush snake. If there are scale deposits, use something gentle meant for that to remove it from the stockings. Be really careful, though, about how you clean the inside of the inner tube - it's really easy to mess up the leadpipe if you can't remove it.

[Posaunus]

There are compounds that build up inside brass instruments that are not removed by detergent.
Detergent removes grease and organic matter. It will not have any effect [on] limescale or oxidation.

... as has been repeatedly pointed out here. That's why chemical (acid) cleaning and (perhaps even aggressive) polishing are often important steps to restore poorly maintained slides. If you want your slide to last:
• Clean it regularly (that means more often than monthly);
• Remove the moisture from the inside of the outer slide with an absorbent cloth or towel sheath;
• Store your trombone "dead dry" between uses.

[whitbey]

I like to use vinegar and Dawn soap. I have a snake for the crook and bronze brushes on gun rods.
The thing extra is I have two old MP’s with garden hoses soldered on. This lets me flush out the slide and horn real easy and very completely. Many times I just flush out the slide with just water.
Even my horn from the 1970’s is shiny on the inside.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/15AN3J0 ... p=sharing

[ghmerrill]

My feeling about metal brushes (brass or bronze) for cleaning my brass instruments is that I avoid them. Perhaps that's excessive, but it's difficult not to think that there is some degree of "scratching" taking place. So I'm just cautious about that. I do use a snake with plastic brushes, but I'm not entirely sure what that accomplishes -- particularly if you otherwise clean your slide at reasonably frequent intervals. I guess I use them primarily to feel good about cleaning the crook, but I think that running some sort of fairly tight-fitting swab through it (on a cord that you could pull in either direction) would be more effective. I just haven't made that cord yet.

I get using vinegar (as an acid solvent), but you need to wonder about (and be careful of) its effectiveness. It's fine on plated inners, for example, though I don't think it accomplishes anything as a simple "wash" that the detergent doesn't already accomplish. On the outer slide, you have to be careful with vinegar because acetic acid is quite strong. If you just use it as a wash, there isn't a problem. But if, for example, you were to leave it set overnight (for example), then you can be courting real problems with its effect on the brass (you can ask me how I know, but I won't go into it in this posting). I do use 90% isopropyl alcohol liberally for a couple of different reasons, and sometimes I use a bit of the orange citric degreaser -- again, just as a quick wash because it has the same (though more pronounced) issues as vinegar.

I have found (from examining the slides after cleaning) that something like fairly tight patches on gun cleaning rods or gauze on the trombone cleaning rod really does remove stuff that otherwise is inclined to stick to the surface.

I also wonder that no one has mentioned removing the leadpipe (when this is possible). I don't do this every time, but I do remove it periodically. Of course, on some slides, it's not removable.

The flushing tool mentioned is, I think, useful and better than just pouring water through the slide. I've been meaning to make something like it -- but again, haven't got to it yet. It's reminiscent of a contraption I made (and use) for cleaning my tubas and euphoniums. If you want to go in the direction of fanatic cleaning, this is it:

Professor Merrill's Most Delightful Tuba-Cleaning Device
https://www.dwerden.com/forum/showthrea ... post137621

Definitely excessive for trombone cleaning.

[AndrewMeronek]

I also wonder that no one has mentioned removing the leadpipe (when this is possible).

All my horns have a removable leadpipe and I always do when I clean it out. It's not just about cleaning the leadpipe itself, but removing it makes the ID of the slide tubes more consistent, so when I'm swabbing them out I feel I can be a bit more aggressive with the cheesecloth bundle size.

[CharlieB]

For routine cleaning.....
For the crook, a rag snake on a weighted string.
Same for the inner slide.
For the outer slide, a dry strip of towel barber-poled on a wood dowel. Burnish vigorously.
I use a snake brush and Dawn detergent periodically, but I dread those days because it leaves the slides scratchy until new lubricant can work its way back into the pores of the outers.

[AtomicClock]

People often talk of brass polish on the inside of the outer tubes. Is that recommended for nickel silver (Bach lightweight) slides, too?

[BGuttman]

People often talk of brass polish on the inside of the outer tubes. Is that recommended for nickel silver (Bach lightweight) slides, too?

Nickel silver is also a copper alloy (it has no silver in it!). Brass polish is OK there as well. Just use one with very fine grit that rinses well.

[Mamaposaune]

For the horns I'm currently playing, I will rinse the slide section with warm water, working the slide like a slush-pump, then drain and dry by wiping down the inner and swabbing the outer with a flannel cloth on a cleaning rod.
I do this several times per week before re-lubing.
When switching horns, before storing I will thoroughly clean the slide section with detergent and water, snaking out the inner slide and slide crook with a cleaning snake (keeping the slide section together - I don't like the brush against the outer slide) then drying the slide sections separately as above. I let it hang up for a day or two before putting in the case.
I've done this for many years, and have no issues with my slides. They have never had a chemical cleaning.
Before storing, I also clean the tuning slides with water, detergent, and a snake, swab out the tuning slide legs with a cloth on a rod drenched in isopropyl alcohol, then allow to air-dry for several hours. The valve gets fresh oil and the tuning slides are lubed (Hetmans) before getting stored.
I have never had a stuck tuning slide or sluggish valve this way.

[ssking2b]

I rag my outer slide out after each playing session. I may do that to three times in a day. Also, after each playing session, I pull a brass saver brush down through my lead pipe and down through the bottom slide to make sure my inner slides don’t have crud left in them. once a week, I flush my outer side with warm water and rag it out. Once a month, I flush my outer side with warm water and dawn dishwashing soap, then pull the brass saver brush through the crook at the bottom, then rag it til dry. On that once a month session I also put a little Dawn on the inner tubes and rub/rinse them till the tubes are squeaky clean.

I am a cleaning fanatic. I have similar cleaning rituals for all my horns. I never put them away at the end of the day dirty. All tuning slides are greased as needed and shut before they go in the case.

It seems like a lot, but my equipment doesn’t let me down.

[AtomicClock]

All tuning slides are greased as needed and shut before they go in the case.

I know someone else who shuts all tuning slides before casing the horn, purportedly to keep case felt from getting in the slides. What it really does is keep him from being "already in tune" when we set up again next week. Sigh.

[Mr412]

I tried a little variation (I think). I burnished the inside of the outers with the Dillon cloth/rod first. Then I burnished it again with a clean Dillon cloth/rod that I had squirted valve oil on the night before to let it soak in. I'm guessing maybe the oil penetrated the warm pores of the metal and acts as a pre-lube treatment. It didn't hurt and I think the slides are even slicker than previously. I still use a sparing amount of Yamaha slide lube. Cream always rises to the top, so I open the slide into position to get lubed and then shake the bottle vigorously while upside down with my finger over the end and in immediate (if not sooner) position to apply a thin line of lube around the bottom of the tubes.

[ssking2b]

I close the slides so they don’t oxidize when not in use AND because I don’t like case fuzz getting on the slides. Leaving the slides out is zero guarantee the horn will be in tune the next time you pull it out.

[AtomicClock]

Leaving the slides out is zero guarantee the horn will be in tune the next time you pull it out.

No, but it usually means that you're pretty close. Close enough to tune on the fly, rather than requesting the (orchestral) oboe give a tuning Bb, which upsets the conductor. If you play outside, things are different. But I rarely play in a non climate-controlled setting. So temperature doesn't vary by much.

[ssking2b]

My Jazz tenor I play without ever moving the tuning slide. I’m playing in extended positions, so the tuning slide is always shut. Oh my Bass Trombone, euphonium, and Tuba I always move the slides out to approximately where I usually keep them before note one comes out of the horn, and then go ahead and tune with the ensemble playing around me as I play. I don’t seem to have any problem with this

[LetItSlide]

Calcium/Lime/Rust Remover (aka CLR) is the best product I've tried for cleaning the inside of outer slide tubes.

It has been my number one most efficient remedy for a scratchy slide. I think this is because CLR is pretty effective on scale buildup, and the scratchiness I experience is probably due to that. Often, the scratchiness exhibits itself only through sound, while the slide feels quite smooth. More scale buildup would affect the feel, too, of course.

I dip a cheesecloth-wrapped rod into the CLR bottle, maybe two inches deep. Then I swab for a while, no need to overdo it. Then I rinse with water and swab with fresh, dry cheesecloth, and keep swabbing, refreshing the cheesecloth a few times, until the cheesecloth comes out white. The result is always a quiet slide, at least on my horns.

More routinely, I swab with clean cheesecloth, as many other players do. If I'm playing a horn a lot and keeping up with routine swabbing, there's seldom any need for the CLR.