My Forbes delrin flute has no cork on the joints; I leave “assembled” on my desk all the time. Now I have a Copley delrin, and there’s cork on the joint. I’m ignorant; is it OK to leave my flute assembled all the time, for easy access? Or should I take it apart regularly so the cork does not become too compressed?
Thanks for any wisdom.
John
Most technicians advise that you break down corked tenons for this reason. I’m not sure if the loose corked tenons I have seen over the years have been from cork compression (leaving the tenons coupled too long) or from abrasion and wear ( using too little cork grease), or overall deterioration of the cork through age, or just poorly fitted cork tenons out of the box. But I have run into tenons that were loose, and had to be renewed. They’re not built ‘for the ages’. 
Bob
Corks are, on the other hand, easy to replace and durable enough, even if you leave the flute assembled.
Sooner or later you will have to replace them. I have never found that leaving corked flutes assembled
for a few days had any affect I could see on durability, personally.
It’s nice to have a flute that you don’t have to worry about leaving it fully assembled, lying on your table ready to play whenever the urge strikes you. I think that flutes with cork tenons would last longer if they were disassembled after playing. Polymer flutes with closely machined tenon joints do not need to be disassembled after playing them, which is a big plus in my opinion.
I wouldn’t worry about the cork much, like Doug said, the tenons are probably closer tolerance. If the cork gets to compressed just toss it in the dish washer, or steam the cork over the tea kettle! 
I don’t believe cork gets compressed if it is regularly greased. I would argue that the cork wears more from twisting on and twisting off the sections. In the long run, I say do what you want and when the cork needs to be replaced, replace it. It’s a false economy to spare the cork at the expense of being able to pick up the flute and play it.
I’m deifnitely in the “don’t worry about it” camp. I leave my Copley delrin together all the time and, so far, haven’t noticed any difference whatsoever. The joy of the polymer flute is not having to stress about it! Even if it does mess up the cork eventually, compare the (years down the line) cost of getting recorked to all the playing time you’d lose by looking over at the pieces of your flute and not quite picking it up because you don’t want to put it together.
Around here, going about half-corked is quite common.
ish sho hard to gett itt outta the bottle that way