The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

JohnM wrote:Vegetable cooking oil dissolves grease just as well as a petroleum-based solvents and is much less flammable and non-carcinogenic to boot.

This is true, but then you have to clean off the vegetable oil- if you don't it will turn gummy. I learned this the hard way when I once oiled a clock with Wesson. BTW- an old timer told me to avoid using 3 in 1 oil on any precision device because the mixture contained vegetable oil. I have no idea if he was correct.

Valecnik wrote:

gramophoneshane wrote: I always use petrol because it cuts through the grease so muck faster. You just got to take all the usual safety precausions when working with petrol, most of which apply to any solvent anyway.


Nice find Brad, & thanks for the px!

So I guess that means put out your cigarette before starting the project?

Yes, I always finish my cig first, and I do it just outside the back door so there's a good draft & plenty of ventilation, although truth be told, it usually takes longer to fill the car at the petrol bowser than it does to clean a spring in petrol, so exposure to fumes is very brief.

The dad of a well known collector in St. Louis was the first person to show me that springs could be removed and in his case he riveted them back together. He always used gasoline as the cleaner and left the motor soak in it for overnight then cleaned it off, outside of course. It does clean well.

Also I learned the hard way too that vegetable oil turns to a nasty sticky mess when it gets old. My mom had put some in a can to brush on the tools after gardening to prevent rust. I always used old motor oil or similar products. After a winter in the garage the shovels and hoes had a heavy sticky gunk that resisted nearly every way to remove it and made digging a real mess. No more vegetable oil for me except maybe for making soap..

My mom tells the story of how, during the depression, her mother did her own dry cleaning in the back yard , washing clothes in a bucket of carbon tetrachloride, which is banned since 1970 in consumer products here in the US. She lived to be 96...