Thread: another one

There are two degreasers that I use on old scales. The most common one is starter fluid. It is quite noxious and should be used outside, preferably with a very light breeze. It works very well. The other one I use is oven cleaner. Once again very noxious. with this stuff I often put it in a bag and let the scales soak for the day or overnight. When you first take them out and rinse them you will think there is a crazy cool color effect on the scales. Unfortunately it goes away fairly quickly. It will leave them quite clean and ready for filling and gluing. Nasty stuff both of them, oh and I forgot some gloves is a good plan too.

Have you ever used Acetone? While I've never used it on plastic or horn scales all other projects were very easily and as far as I can tell totally degreased.

The one thing that keeps going through my mind about degreasing horn is that so many times I've read and practiced soaking horn scales in Neatsfoot Oil to re-hydrate them and a degreaser is sucking the natural oil out.

I 'think' that if I were to just need to repair a chip in a horn scale I'd just use a Qtip and dip it in some acetone to clean only the immediate area and then repeat. Acetone dries Very Quickly.

But then, What do I know as I've never tried it

Acetone and nail polish remover both work well.

As a retired diesel mec. I've used starting fluid many times cleaning parts. Also there is a non-flammable brake cleaner that works real good on some things. I have some old broken scales of the same color horn I will see what works best. the brake cleaner may leave a residue and may not don't know but if all fails I have a set of black horn from an old broken blade. I rat hole parts and mix and match. I was a mechanic in a junk yard and a steel mill. When I retired I think I could have built a V671 Detroit from parts rat holed in my tool box.

Originally Posted by RezDog

Acetone and nail polish remover both work well.

Acetone is the main ingredient in nail polish remover. For the life of me I've never understood how the manufacturers can say that their nail polish remover has 'softeners' in it as the solvent should remove anything that is there except perhaps 'fragrance'.

Once again, what do I know?

That one's got potential, I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

It seems my camera shows any and everything. to my necked eye I don't see all these spots. anyway after removing the scales on the hunter I found that the scales not only had bug bites it also was broken at the wedge end. So I just took a set of scales in the mixed bag and reshaped them and installed them. now all I need to do is hone. I do think I will change the setting on the camera and take new photos. less resolution.

My camera does that too. I believe that they are brutally honest pictures. I can't see a lot of stuff up close, so I use a 10X visor when I restore. My co-workers refer to them as my dork lord glasses.