Hi folks - sorry to have to bring this up, but I can’t find it in the archives. I’ve a cold so have been playing only my plastic flute for days.. no I haven’t washed it yet..
I noticed the crown a bit loose this morning so I took it off to see if it needed re-wrapping or something, and found there were drops of water under there btween the crown and the cork. .. how’d that get there? Is that normal, or is that a sign of leaky stopper? Its not a cork stopper, its a hefty block of delrin. Ah well. I never noticed it before.. maybe its always been like that..
I would guess that the delrin stopper is leaking. you can try the “suck test”, cover the slide end of the head and suck in air through the emb hole. If it is leaking, the suction will not hold.
Thank you Jon. I did what you said just now and the suction is holding - think I held it for a good 15 seconds. hmm.. I’m glad its not appearing to have a leak but can’t imagine how any water got in there..
- to both of you. Canute himself must have washed it for me. Other than my tunes, I do have a mind like a sieve, but I’m sure I hadn’t washed it in months.. uh.. I’m really glad this was a false alarm and there’s no leak! Is there any other way I can put my foot into this thread?
The water will have got there because although the stopper isn’t leaking much it is leaking very slightly. I’ve just done the leak test Jem described on my flute and the suction was still holding strong after 90 seconds.
Cheers
Graeme
Oh wait. I didn’t mean the suction let go after 15 secs. I just thought that was long enough to pass a test. But - now I did recheck it and its good for at least a minute and a half. Thanks Graeme. So its still not leaking.
Come to think of it someone spilled some killian’s red on the table that night… … nah couldn’t be that, could it? In droplets? (I have a cold can’t smell anything, so I didn’t test the odor of the droplets.. lol..) ..
Since Graeme didn’t link it, here’s the post I think he was referring to - though I’m sure Lesl knew how to do it anyway- - this is more for possible other readers of the thread who may wonder…
BTW, if there is no leak past the stopper in your flute, Lesl, I have no more idea than you of how moisture could have found its way into the end cavity - you’re probably right in thinking it got there by capillary action past the crown from external moisture it may have come into contact with. Consider also that if you put down a warm flute, it will cool and the presumably warm air in an enclosed space like the crown-stopper cavity will then contract, sucking in anything outside - so if you put it in a puddle…
The only other explanation seems to be that it got in the other way. You mentioned the crown being loose, so one way or another, moisture must have found it’s way into the cavity past the loose crown.
When I need to think out the answer to something complex, I usually have myself a (but just one) dram of
whisky
Both my Delrins have been doing the same thing all winter. I’ve just figured it’s condensation from the flute being warmed by my breath (even the crown area gets some residual warmth because the stopper will get warmer, too) while the flute’s being played in a coolish (62-65 F) room.
But whisky would solve it I’m sure – alcohol being a drying agent and all.
Belive me, it does work. It’s just that the complexity of the answers I come up with might make it difficult for other people (particularly calvados drinkers) to keep up, leading them to believe that I haven’t acctually come up with anything clever.
A sure sign that a person has reached a higher level of understanding lifes mysteries is that he favours
whisky
My M&E does the same thing…I try to remember to remove the crown every few weeks to let it dry out. The first time I noticed it, I did the suck test like mad assuming there had to be a leak…but that sucker was air tight. It may just be condensation as Cathy mentioned.
My flute has cork, and my personal theory was the cork does absorb some moisture, that moisture is slowly wicked through the cork, and since the crown side is airtight it has nowhere to go but sit in there.
Obviously, this is a common artifact of polymer flutes, and nothing to worry about since they are polymer.
- to both of you. Canute himself must have washed it for me. Other than my tunes, I do have a mind like a sieve, but I’m sure I hadn’t washed it in months.. uh.. I’m really glad this was a false alarm and there’s no leak! Is there any other way I can put my foot into this thread? 
.. its a 65F room. Hot flute cool air.. And here I’d been hoping the flute itself was drinking Killians..