Cleaning the changer

[Ken Byng]

Ken, when I lubricate my Mullen, I use a Teflon based spray can, the only difference is that I spray some into the lid of the can and suck it up into an old Hyponeedic Dermal
sorry I meant a hypodermic needle, and it serves the same purpose as the Tri Flow thingy

I mentioned this as these needle point applicators are not so easily purchased in Britain

I hope you have recovered from your trip in Ivor's Lexus and that Wifey has managed to wash your jeans.

All the best to you and yours for Christmas and the new year Ken

Asleep at the Steel

Thanks Willie

I hope you & family have a good Christmas also, and that you get all you wish for.

Your method of lubrication is pretty clever, and is ideal provided you can lay your hands on a hypo syringe. I got hold of Tri Flow and injector on eBay, but it wasn't cheap. Works really well though, and doesn't gunk up like oil does.

Re Ivor - well that was an experience. He drove me down this little country lane, floored the accelerator and when the speedo got to 120 turned his head to me and said "Look, we're doing 120!". My fingernails had dug holes in his leather seat, and my blue jeans had a very brown 'go faster' stripe down the middle.

[Malcolm]

Fife, enough said, one huge Carstairs.

[Jif]

@Malcolm - Most of us in Fife do have double decker cars, that's why we need the car stairs (sorry best I could do with that one )

Well, I finally got a day off from kitchen building work at the weekend and did the changer flush. Actually I flushed out all the mechanical movement points, i.e. the bushes, the rod connectors on the cross shafts etc etc. Then I used the teflon grease to relubricate the whole guitar.

I took pics as I went and I'll open up a new topic once I get a chance to do some editing etc.

I also used strips of 1200 grit paper with chrome polish to smooth off the changer fingers, take off any burrs etc.

Following that I cleaned and polished the guitar and put on a new set of Live Stainless Steel strings, finally got it tuned up about 10pm last night. It took me 8 hours on Sunday to do the flush and lubricate, 3 hours Monday night for the clean and polish and 3 hours last night to put new strings on and get it into basic tune.

Before I started I remembered back to the days when you used to de-coke a car engine, I did this a few times and a mechanic friend of mine advised me to leave a small ring of coke, (charcoal guys!), around the circumference of the piston where it met the cylinder, otherwise it could lead to piston slap due to normal wear and tear. I had visions of flushing out the changer and discovering that the muck & grease were holding some of it together

I'm happy to report that nothing of the sort happened, I did have to shift my RKR a bit as the screws holding it in had come loose and it was sitting at an angle. When I removed it I discovered that this had been done before, so I picked a spot between the 2 existing positions and fixed it in there, re-adjusted the rodding to suit.

I have to say that this has made a huge difference to the action on the guitar and the tone I am now getting. OK it is new strings, but I remember when I put new strings on last year it didn't sound this good, and there were a few buzzes which are no longer there. I was giving it a go and my wife came into the room and said - "That sounds amazing, much better than before", as she said, if she noticed it must be good. It's difficult to describe but the tone just sounds much more even and mellow over the whole guitar. The strings I used last change were Live Strings Nickel and these are Stainless, so it's hard to do a direct comparison but I don't think it is just down to the type of strings.

So I'm really pleased that I took the time to do this, I can't wait to get home tonight and fire it up. It was a lot of work but I guess that I won't have to do this again for quite a few years, just a re-lube every year perhaps?

Something I noticed when I was tightening up the machine head screws was that if you tighten them right up it locks the machine head, does anyone know if this is function of these machine heads,i.e. can the screws be used to lock the machine head without damaging them?

Here's the finished article,

[Malcolm]

Geoff, did u use the Teflon grease on the changer? Most, if not all builders, advise against grease in changer as it can act like magnet for dirt and grime, which could then become abrasive ,causing wear,( as as does WD40) .The recommended lubricant for changers is light machine oil, think sewing machine or gun oil, three in one would do if others not available, and don't over do it just a spot or two, you can buy syringe type oiler which gets you into all the awkward spots you need to get to.
Have not tried Live Strings yet, normally go with Jagwire, but you will find tone brighter with Stainless no matter what make.
Think tightening of machine head screw is tightening the amount of play inside, overtightening won't be overly good, think cogs in gear box, need to be tight but if overly tight make it difficult to operate.
Glad to see you are one of us superior Steelies with a red guitar, puts us a class above the rest.

[Willie Gamble]

WHAT IS IT THEY SAY, ONCE YOU GO BLACK, YOU WILL NEVER GO BACK

ASLEEP AT THE STEEL

[Jif]

Hi Malcom,

Yes I used it for all the lubrication points as illustrated on Greg Cutshaws page,

http://www.gregcutshaw.com/Lubricate/Lubricate.html

My understanding is that the teflon actually rejects dust and dirt due to a static electricity effect. I actually used the teflon last year on the rollers and when I cleaned them this time they were almost perfectly clean already, so perhaps the teflon stuff has different properties to "normal" grease. I think the theory is that a very fine film of teflon is left covering the surface but it is essentially dry to the touch. (Incidentally the amount of muck that came out the changer was considerable, I'll post a pic when I open a new topic.)

I was using singer sewing machine oil previously for this, but the teflon seems to work so far

Yeah, after I thought about it, the machine heads keep good tune anyway, so....

Once the weather gets better I'll definitely come along to one of the Scottish Steelies sessions and you can try it out.

Yeah, Willie, but didn't you know,

Red is the new Black

[Ken Byng]

......Glad to see you are one of us superior Steelies with a red guitar, puts us a class above the rest.

Malcolm
If you want your guitar to be black, a spray of lighter fluid over the body and a lit match will give it a nice black sooty film. Young Willie is absolutely right about black guitars.

[Malcolm]

We never asked you for your sexual preferences Mr Gamble, but what you do in your own time is up to you.

[Malcolm]

More chance of your apple box wood guitars would burn long before my HI TECH carbon Mr BING.

[Malcolm]

Geoff, had a look at that article, I assumed it was just like a normal grease, but this in fact is oil with Teflon particles, looks good.