I'm still a novice at this, so the "quick and easy" solutions probably hold a lot more allure than the long and painstaking ones. Still, I recently bought an Oliver 3 for $30 US that is covered in rust--from the typebars and carriage down to the keys. In times of distress, I dream of just dunking the whole thing, but I'm not savvy enough to know what each type of chemical would do to each type of metal, including the paint on the cast-iron base. 

So, I should probably avoid trying something like this... right?

Right. I got that from the discussion earlier in the thread. The platen is a disaster area all its own--probably not aided by the fact that it has a piece of paper stuck in it that looks to have been there (quite literally) since the 1920s. But thankfully it was relatively easy to get the carriage off the old Oliver so I can work on that separately. 

Many thanks for the link to the dunking instructions--though you're making it sound like a more alluring option, not less! Do have have similar instructions/ suggestions for what to do about protecting the painting/decals? I've heard wax...? 

Thank you, once again. 

ztyper wrote:

Diesel? This is probably the oddest cleaning method I've heard... And that seems to be a trend too. People use alcohol, lighter fluid, brake cleaner, carb cleaner, gasoline, and now diesel. I sometimes feel like I'm suck in the past in the way I use q-tips and light cleaners.

The common element is that these are all organic solvents which are handy to some. Diesel has the advantage that it is burned as fuel hence mighty cheap as a solvent, is readily available to those who might frequent gas stations with jerry cans, and is less immediately dangerous than gasoline.

I don't want cancer or anything (especially since I just moved my operation from my room to the garage because I was inhaling those fumes for hours at a time...) and I don't want to break a law by dumping in a river or having it contaminate the water supply (NJ water is bad enough...). And how and where should I do it?

You are right on target with these concerns. We should avoid chronic skin contact or inhalation of most solvents which are not water, and disposing of dirty diesel fuel is not likely to be easy - legally.

Rather than a full-immersion dunking, I wondered if anyone has explored using a suitable small fluid pump as a scaled-down pressure washer. You could recover, filter and re-use whatever cleaning fluid you might choose.