Spent two hours last night trying to free the main tuning slide on the middle panthercub’s trumpet.
Couldn’t get it to budge a single millimetre.

Tried the following :

Pulling it gently with a strap to avoid bending / damaging the slide
Pulling it “firmly”
Pulling it “forcefully”
Pulling it “till my face went purple”
Pulling it quickly in all the above combinations
Valve oil
WD-40
GT-85
Hairdryer to heat the offending part
Immersed trumpet in hot , soapy water

And every conceivable combination of the above.

Any other suggestions before I turn a brass instrument into a percussion instrument?

Wrong kind of spit?

In exactly the same position here – I’ve also tried proper penetrating oil and acetone, and pouring boiling water over the outer tube in the hope of differential expansion. Apparently tapping the joint gently with a hammer also helps – have tried that too. Next step is a professional repairer.

That’s on mini-aracer’s cornet which had a working slide when we got it 18 months ago – my trumpet has been stuck fast for years.

Just use brute force. If you put your feet on the edge of the bell and pull up you might have a chance.

You do realise that they are supposed to be greased and regularly maintained? Same with the valves. I was hardly a conscientious player, but even I managed to do that such that I never had a problem in over 10 years of playing.

You do realise that they are supposed to be greased ann regularly maintained?

‘s a school trumpet. Was stuck when he got it.

Grease my horn would have been a better thread title.

If you put your feet on the edge of the bell and pull up you might have a chance

Ooft! sounds painful….

Mine was fine before I put it away and didn’t use it for about 10 years. Mini-aracer appears to fill his cornet with huge amounts of spit, and I wasn’t paying attention. Valves all work fine.

Hairdryer to heat the offending part

heat makes things expand and perhaps jam more firmly. A blast of cold maybe instead and more focused on the component you’re trying to free. You can get cans of freeze-spray from chemists that concentrate their freezy-ness onto a small pad (used for freezing off warts) – so maybe something like that to cool one component and shrink it relative to its surroundings

Try the caustic soda trick? Whilst being incredibly careful of course.

Though if it all expands, the “gap” should expand too. What you really want is to expand one part relative to the other, hence pouring boiling water on the outer tube. I did try also putting the whole thing in the freezer first (which beats cooling spray), but then realised that’s only about 20 degrees compared to the 80 degrees difference the boiling water makes.

Anyway, I’ve just got off the phone to the pro-repairer – he reckons £20 including straightening the bell.

Next time….

[yes I know it’s a different instrument]

Soak it in a bowl of Coca-Cola – possibly

he reckons £20 including straightening the bell.

after he’s followed dragon’s method?

Grease my horn would have been a better thread title.

Or ‘Help with rusty trombone’…

(DON’T look it up if you are easily offended!)

That has to be a euphemism surely!

And isn’t it a trombone if it slides!

Googled rusty trumpet, now probably getting an email from out IT police!!! FFS what happened to NSFW!

PerchyPanther is Finbarr Saunders and I claim my £5..pffffffnnnaaarrrr. 🙂