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Sticky pads

Groovekiller

Distinguished Member
Distinguished Member
Here in Florida, sticky pads are a huge problem. I've tried everything I know about, and everything works for a while, but soon the stickiness returns. Probably the best solution I have found is super fine powdered graphite from J. L. Smith. The powdered graphite available for repairing locks is not nearly as good - too coarse. Also, for those who care (I don't), it turns the pads black.
Forget what anyone says, Roo pads stick too.
I think the solution is something better than graphite (what?) or something cheap and easy.
I heard that a common solution in Latin America is common blackboard chalk on a dollar bill, and then slipped under the pad. Anybody tried this?
 
Have you tried the teflon powder also available from JL Smith. I cut a strip of 1200 wet or dry sandpaper slightly wider than the dimension of the tonehole, rough up the paper side with a few swipes of 80 grit, and rub the teflon powder generously onto the roughed up paper side. Then I pull the paper between the pad and tonehole with the powdered side up using light pressure to close the pad. I only do this after first cleaning the pad and tonehole with naptha. This process puts a light coat of teflon on the pad surface and also cleans and polishes the top of the tonehole.
 
Are you consuming anything while playing? In my experience that is where the problems seem to start.
 
Are you consuming anything while playing? In my experience that is where the problems seem to start.

As much as it hurts, but this is what crossed my mind as well. Limit yourself to non-sugared and non-artificially-sweetened drinks. Plain Old Water wins hands down.
 
I haven't had this problem in a while, but my old Balanced Action tenor had sticky G# and C# pads, even after a pad replacement and tone hole cleaning. The techs here will probably think this is heresy, but I had good luck with WD40. Spray a little on a strip of clean paper, let it soak in to the paper for a bit, then insert, close the key and slide out, much like the dollar bill trick. If you get too much WD40 on the pad, use a dry piece of paper the same way to remove the excess. It would work for a couple weeks at a time.
 
I prefer the classic approach. If a pad sticks, run a dollar bill across it. If that doesn't work try a $20 bill.
 
And, it should be mentioned that the active agent when using US currency as a pad "unsticker" is the clay that coats the extremely expensive "paper" from which they are made.

The clay "sizing" is used to give the ultra-smooth surface of the "paper" (which is really more like a form of unwoven cloth) the better to enable the high pressure printing process used to produce the currency. In that, it's a low tech version of the Teflon that you can purchase in a tube to blow onto a reluctant pad surface.
 
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