Explosive Al Cass

Chuckledoo · Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 7:10 pm Post subject: Explosive Al Cass

So I've thought something might be up with my bottle of Al Cass "Fast" valve oil for a while, and that was definitely confirmed the other day. Taking it out to oil the valves a bit, the bottle was HUGE. Definitely had expanded somehow and it now looks like it might be about it explode... maybe. Well, not really, but it's not shrinking, in any case. And it seemed weird to me because it couldn't have been the heat or anything since I'm really picky about leaving my horn in certain temperatures (i.e., I'd never leave it in the car on a hot day). Has this valve oil thing ever happened to anyone else? Oh, and has anyone tried that scented Super C valve oil stuff? I was considering giving it a try.

-Chuck

James B. Quick · Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 9:18 pm Post subject:

I bought a lot of three or four bottles off of eBay a while ago, and I finally got to one of the bottles recently, and it has a very strong solvent smell to it. It's so bad I can't use it. I may try to see it it's flammable... jbqd

tom turner · Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 10:25 pm Post subject:

Pure lamp oil makes great valve oil . . . and its much cheaper.

Tom

stevecass · Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 7:42 am Post subject:

The best way to buy anything like this is at the store. Years ago, to be environmentally friendly, someone thought of the idea of placing 1-5 gallon containers in the stores so one could simply re-fill their bottle of oil. However,this never happened because what would happen if when the container was empty and they had to wait for the time to re-stock and the high expense, that the store could fill up the container with water? Or whatever and sell it as Al Cass. Just because the container that filled the bottle says AL Cass, doesn't mean it is.

Did you see the guy on ebay selling HUGE SODA bottles with Al Cass? The petroleum contents would eventually MELT the bottle that it was in. You can only use a bottle made of PVC.

So.....even though the bottle says Al Cass, and if you got it off ebay. It's possibly that the contents may in fact NOT be what you thought. It's very easy if one wanted to take emty bottles, and fill them with whatever they can that "looks" the same. And a clear fluid is not difficult to find.

I have literally swam in the stuff for most of my life and I have NEVER seen this. I have seen plastic in heat(pvc) and the bottle should SHRINK, not expand.

I've seen/heard a lot and this is a first.

And now that I think of it, I take back the ebay possibility, because it can happen anywhere. Even a store that had emty bottles around or a kid working there wanted some free valve oil so they switched the contents. I don't know, but again, i've never seen a bottle increase in size. Very wierd. Thanks for sharing!!!!!!

jazz_trpt · Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 12:20 pm Post subject:

I've had an Al Cass oil bottle expand due to heat before when I've left one in a hot car.

stevecass · Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 12:33 pm Post subject:

Well, I've seen many bottles exposed to heat and what has happened, is the sides cave(curve) in. The top and bottoms are a little thicker. I just couldn't imagine one getting to the point where it looks like it will explose!!!!

I don't know, maybe their doing something different these days.

Chuckledoo · Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 12:56 pm Post subject:

NTlead · Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 2:28 pm Post subject:

stevecass · Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 3:25 pm Post subject:

Yup, I filled bottles at Al Cass from 1975 to 1997, was the sole bottle filler for about 10 years in that time frame and I can pretty safely state I personally filled at least 5-6 MILLION bottles not to mention plugged and twisted the caps too! & washed em FIRST and packed em after, but yes, ,.....lifted with my bare hands, countless 30 gallon drums. So yes, swam in oil is a somewhat accurate statement.

Here is a little trivia, the tool used to hammer/push the "plug" element into the bottle is a mouthpiece! If the bottles were a little wet with oil, or my hands were wet enough, I could just push them without the piece. (it was a mouthpiece with a piece of cardboard at the end of the shank with tape holding the two together.

when my hands got sore, my father would say it's good excersize for my fingers.

You always had to know how much oil was in the filler, because if you were off, then when you re-filled the main barrel, it was like a geiser in the 2 car garage where all this took place.

A little more trivia,At the time, about 1985 I shipped the record amount out of a US post office, which was 100 gross to Japan, totalling 14,440 bottles. (1 order)

stevecass · Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 3:40 pm Post subject:

Nigeria owns the claim to placing the largest single order 80,000 bottles, but after we finished 100 gross to ship to them, the check bounced. (this was about the mid 80s as well).

If anyone has seen an "ultra-fine" Al Cass bottle, these were made up especially for the Nigerian order, because they planned to use the oil for various uses including guns. So basically, when the check bounced, we had years worth of samples to give away.

trumpetmike · Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 10:52 pm Post subject:

Nice trivia Steve - any more Al Cass titbits?

If they ever have a TH/Cass based quiz, those are some statistics worth remembering

lh · Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 12:50 am Post subject:

Mike,

I can't find Lagos on the underground map...

Is it below the Hatton Cross diagonal?
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uli · Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 1:45 am Post subject:

According to my experiences in Nigeria I wouldn't trust anything from that country. Lagos must be the worst place in the world for any business. Avoid and stay alive.

Uli
_________________

stevecass · Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 5:00 am Post subject:

Check this out, this is the largest order out to Japan, photo courtesy my aunt helen. This is 1985ish, I'm the one with my head tilted back. We are all 16 years old in this photo. I consider this THE GREATEST BOTTLE PRODUCING TEAM EVER IN THE HISTORY OF VALVE OIL.

From the left, Mike Dean, who is now an archetect/surveyor, Mike accompanied me a short time after this photo when we got our driver's licenses, we went to Fenway Park and walked right through the player's entrance with a gross of oil, which I went right out onto the field and Wade Boggs used my A2000 mit soaked in oil, he loved it! ( and the relation to the oil is.....because the valve oil works GREAT on leather baseball gloves!!!!) and so, he said put his name on it, so we did, left it on the dugout bench and proceeded to the stands where we didn't have tickets and they threw us out! But Wade was a gold glover a year later!!!!!!!!! and anyone who knows baseball, can back this up because before we went there, he was the worst fielder in baseball!, (I got rid of the NIGERIAN order giving out the oil for baseball glove use, at the local baseball fields.

And John Hearns in the middle, a great guitar player, very similar to Hendrix and my daughter's godfather.

This is probably the only picture i have that proves that I worked at the company! And that I hired my friends from school.

We could whip out 5,000 bottles in a day with quality control. (after school!) From about 3pm to about 9-11. We had a TV, VCR, RADIO,....a 4 track with some instruments around because you had to take a break here and there. But we got the work done. Anyone who has been to the garage knows, this is where most of it all happened. Once you opened those doors, you were in another world. Valve oil/mouthpiece land. The left of the garage, was the oil set-up and the right side(where the boxes are in front of, the doors were sealed because that's the side where the lathe's were on.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h210/festoonz/largestorderjapan.jpg