1 of 1- East Coker
- Inactive Member
Offline - Registered: 25-9-2016
- Posts: 6
Cleaning the painted mask
What solvents are you using to clean glossy paint (mask, space bar, erasing table, etc.)? Primarily for removing that pesky white schmutz carelessly spilled on the ribbon cover and painted space bar. Gentle and non-dulling suggestions? Thank you.
p.s. another solvent for the acrylic card guides?
- TypewriterKing
- Inactive Account
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- From: DeepInTheHeartO', Texas
- Registered: 17-2-2016
- Posts: 1,011
Re: Cleaning the painted mask
Turpentine, or miniral spirits. Charcoal starter fluid. I've even used WD-40 for cleaning before--does pretty good, but as a lubricant it's absolutely terrible--unless you really need a lubricant, and this stuff is all you have. On the acrylic, that's a tough one. The above distillate-based stuff should get it mostly clean. If you use denatured alcohol on any of the stuff you've mentioned, you will get the white off the card guides, but also you will get a dulling, so you'll probably want to stay away from this stuff.
Underwood--Speeds the World's Bidness
- Uwe
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Cleaning the painted mask
Turpentine and mineral spirits are both paint thinners, so I don't recommend their use on a the painted surfaces of a typewriter. I use a mild general purpose cleaner that is safe for painted surfaces for newer typewriters (those made from '50s onward), and a good quality Carnauba wax/cleaner on older machines (black paint with a top coat).
For specifically targeting Wite-Out and similar correcting fluids, I've found the conservative use of products such as Goo-Gone works quite well - and it's safe for painted surfaces. I have other products that I use but it's difficult to make specific brand recomendations when I don't know if they're available in your area.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
