[GreenKeys] Cleaning Teletypes (The older ones)

[Richard Knoppow]

    Back when the dinosaurs roamed I worked for a small company that 
made established reliability resistors. We had a vapor degreaser for the 
ceramic blanks. It used 1;1;1 trichlorethane. The vapor was caught in a 
hood and recyled. It was an extremely effective cleaner.
    Varsol is still made. Its another name for Stodard Solvent, AKA, 
mineral spirits, white spirits, Kerosene Substitute and some others.
    In the dim distant past (when men were men and women wore bustles) 
typewriters were cleaned by soaking in a tank of Kerosene and machine 
oil mixed one part  oil to five parts Kerosene. Some parts had to be 
removed such as keys with paper labels in them. I would imagine a 
Teletype machine would require more disassembly since I don't know how 
electrical stuff including motors reacts to this mixture. The vapor 
degreaser would probably take all the paint off along with the grease. 
Trichlor was a _very_ useful cleaning solvent, too bad its a hazard (it 
really is). Both Stodard solvent and trichlor and freon were used in 
place of carbon tetrachloride (awful toxic stuff) which in turn was used 
in dry cleaning in place of naphtha or just plain gasoline. Naphtha is 
still available and is a useful solvent but is very inflammable.

On 5/21/2017 11:56 AM, Jeffrey D Angus wrote:
> On 5/21/2017 11:53 AM, kn7sfz wrote:
>> Hi Ken,
>>> I believe the cleaning agent to have been a type of liquid
>>> Freon...
>> Yep, that was probably R-11, a wonderful cleaning solvent that is
>> now banned...sigh.
> That or the more commonly used**1,1,1-trichloroethane or trichloro-
> ethylene. I used to have a Baron Blakeslee vapor degreaser at my
> shop, but I couldn't the solvents for it any longer.
> 
> Like Carbon tetrachloride, poly-chlorinated biphenyls and DDT, all
> have been banned for a good reason, not "just to piss off the people
> using them."
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jeff-1.0
> wa6fwi
> http://www.foxsmercantile.com

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL