The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Mineral spirits here.

I use kerosene, since it's what I always have on hand.

Gasoline,gloves, scrunge pad, parts brush and the rotted picnic table.
-bill

martinola wrote:My choice is Lacquer Thinner. Amazingly it is still available in California (unlike Mineral Spirits).

Wow! What do you use in place of mineral spirits?
-bill

Kerosene, mainly because it is readily available in quantity for a relatively cheap price. However, carburetor cleaner, brake cleaner, engine cleaner, steam or any automotive grease dissolver works well...

wjw wrote:Wow! What do you use in place of mineral spirits?
-bill

Umm, I'm still working on that. This latest bit of madness just kicked in this year (right in the middle of an oil-based home improvement project). The offered new compliant replacement thinner is a useless joke. All I can say is that when they outlaw paint, only outlaws will have paint!

Martin

I use kerosene or mineral spirits for the heavy stuff in the springs and barrels and clock cleaner for everything else. Clock cleaner is followed by a water rinse and a blow dry to keep rust from forming. Because I don't have an ultrasonic cleaner, I usually have to clean out gear teeth, bushing holes and other small areas by hand with toothpicks.

Jim

I actually tried some mineral spirits today and it worked great. I was out of clock cleaner and rinse which I prefer because of the brighteners. I used some mag wheel cleaner on the motor frame and it brightened up nicely.

Regular unleaded gasoline.
Wire brush for the really caked-on stuff.
Tooth brush for most other stuff.
Old pocketknife to scrape off rust.

I use gasoline.

HisMastersVoice wrote:

PeterF wrote:Does this mean that this can all disappear overnight if the Owner decides to quit paying some fee?

I will start a separate thread on this in the next couple of days so as not to hijack this one.

Did you actually do it, later? I can't seem to find the thread...