Repartee wrote:

Some more robust mechanics dip the entire machine in diesel fuel... or so I am told. I am also told that in the past some repair shops used gasoline, which has to be about the craziest thing I have heard because of the volatility and explosion hazard. Mineral spirits to the best of my knowledge are effectively gasoline with the most volatile stuff missing so would serve the same function. Me, I like to put the machines in a pressure vessel and compress methane to liquefaction for use as a solvent.

Just kidding. Though I bet liquefied methane is a killer solvent. 

Off topic, but I am struck by how even so-called high fuel prices are dirt cheap organic solvent prices. $4/gallon? Get outta town. Earth came with an essentially infinite supply of organic chemicals buried in the ground for our use, which is a very handy thing optional planet feature - essentially infinite that is if we stop squandering the damn stuff by burning it in air as fuel!  

 

I remember cleaning a milling machine with gasoline when I was about 17.  After about two days, I got it clean, but was I sick.  I think Methane, which as we know is made from garbage--including the excrement of many various creatures--and is also a component in some refrigerants such as R134A--Tetrafluoromethane--would probably be like acetone.  That stuff is MURDER on rubber and plastic.
 

Stupid enough to be true, but false.  According to Wikipedia carbon tet does not simply displace air but is a potent liver toxin, and that is the primary reason it was banned in consumer products in the US. Of course acetaminophen is also a potent liver toxin in case of only moderate overdose and is still sold over the counter as a pain reliever! Go figure. This is the first time I fact checked this anecdote since high school. 

 <= former smilie suffering from chronic carbon tet poisoning.

TypewriterKing wrote:

reakeener1970 wrote:

Since it is a poll (?) it doesn't let me edit the original post -- was trying to add Acetone as another of the options.

Yikes!! You know how powerful that stuff is?! That stuff EATS floor tile. Anything made of rubber inside the typewriter will be melted to a paste on contact. If you use that stuff in an enclosed room you'll be higher than a kite within about ten minutes, and brother, the headache you'll have when you come back down!!
 

And yet AFAIK it is still the primary ingredient in common nail polish remover and has a pleasant smell to my nose - though I swear I never concentrated the vapors in a paper bag and deliberately inhaled them. Really.

Another chemistry teacher told us that if you squirted some acetone from a wash bottle on somebody's polyester suit the suit would shrivel up and disintegrate. Why would he pass on this information in this subject/predicate form, with the specific scenario being squirting it on somebody else...? It's the anecdotes that stay in your mind.

I use meths (called 'denatured alcohol' in the states?) because it's very cheap here, and you do need a lot of it.  Simply flushing down through the slots is the 'textbook' way, just letting the flow of the liquid take a little more gunk each time, but I have found that the process can be speeded by jetting the meths into the slots from something like a turkey baster (large rubber bulb on syringe)

Thing is to protect all paint finishes from whatever solvent you choose - specially older crinkle finishes; have found to my cost that even mild and innocent solvents can flush the finish off quicker than you can realise what's happening. 

Maybe do the work over a plastic bowl and reuse all the stuff that falls through the machine.

Good luck.

I have been told by the local typewriter repair shop to not use rubbing alcohol for cleaning of typewriter parts.