Where do I even begin to clean this chassis?
 

Since we're at T minus one week to the cabinet coming home, I was thinking about :wtf: I can do to clean this grungy chassis.....any thoughts guys?

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachm...tid=6935&stc=1

We had a Zenith 1930's radio chassis in for repairs that looked like it had been at the bottom of a lake...really heavy corrosion. We removed the tubes, used Rid-Ox spray deoxidizer and an old toothbrush, then wiped off the dissolved dirt, and it removed a lot of the corrosion and gunk. Rid-ox is a petroleum based product made by Tech spray? and seemed to work well for this purpose although I prefer non-flammable Deoxit for control cleaning.

Would love to see the chassis, but all that's there is that infuriating red "X" in a box. Could be this POS computer I have, too, however.-Sandy G.

Came up fine for me, so you are probably right. Try rebooting.

Kamakiri - make sure you post the "after" pic, as well.

BTW - when are you picking up the video game?

It's just you, Sandy :-)

It looks like the chassis of what seems like every piece of equipment I have in the basement at my house. That nice, uniform medium-dark grey patina of congealed dust lightly but evenly coating everything :-)

I'll try to repost it just for grins! First, I'll paste the URL (http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachm...tid=6935&stc=1) as an Image:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/attachm...tid=6935&stc=1

Then (sorry for the bandwidth toasting) try to upload it ab initio, slightly reduced in size.

Can you see me now?


BTW, I don't have many good suggestions and I am curious to see what comments Tim gets on this. Were it me, I'd probably dust it first with a 1" round camel hair paintbrush (medium stiff brush). I am a firm believer in judicious use of Windex (just like the old man in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding") for cleaning but it won't help much with metal oxidation.

A guy here goes to NJ every other week, lemme see if he's ready to get it yet......he was supposed to let me know :mad:

The fact that you promise to take it is much more important than the fact that you actually do so. Its been there for a few years, so what's a few more. No hurry (seriously - its not going anywhere). Let's wait for better weather. But whenever is fine.

Now, how do I stick a 'happy banana' into this post?

Here's a heretical approach: put it in your utility sink. Spray heavily with a good citrus-based degreaser/cleaner until every spot is wet. Wait a minute, then HOSE IT DOWN, but getting as little H20 in transformers and paper caps. Use a soft brush on trouble spots. Your old toothbrush is good for small spots. Rinse thoroughly.

Now the most important part: put it in a nice warm dry spot to throughly dry out. Take a good look at the area around your furnace, or an extra forced air register where the wife won't mind. Have WD-40 handy to dry out trouble spots, prevent corrosion, and to help polish surfaces etc.

I am told all the time this is nuts, but a friend of mine has done this for about 35 years without a hitch. OH, don't fire up that unit till it's REALLY DRY. Don't get any more water in the transformer than you have to!!!

I have done this on dozens of units, and all have fired up just fine. I don't get water in paper caps, of course... Often you can turn somethign horrible into something quite nice in 10 minutes or less.

Okay, fire away now and tell me how horrible this practice is. I'm used to it.

Honestly that's not a bad idea. Since this set has a bad picture tube, it has almost zero chance of ever functioning again. But then again, years from now if the rebuilld process is ever developed, who knows......

This appears to be a ct-100 TV chassis...there are nearly irreplaceable transformers on here...would not expose this to water as there is too great a chance of damage to very difficult to find parts.

I don't take a chance of getting water inside any chassis....it does not have to be perfectly clean to be functional. Personally I would advise against the water technique...why take the slight risk of damage when it could be avoided.

Er, I probably should have mentioned that the water method is not something even I would use on precious stuff. I thought we were talking about very ordinary stuff -- because to my ignorant eyes that chassis doesn't look special. I defer to you guys on all TV matters.

Some "heretics" on the R-390A board swear by putting assemblies in the dishwasher...but there's a LOT more R-390As out there, & the decks are made of stainless anyhow, so if you do screw something up, it's not that big a deal. But man, oh man, they sure are PURTY when ones been cleaned like that....-Sandy G.

Okay, shoot that then ;)

Cleaning your Chassis
 

I find the "hose me down" technique a bit scarey. Getting water into coils, transformers and flybacks is never a good idea.

I generally use a cloth or paper towels and water, maybe with just a little mild soap, and a green scratchy pad to remove the surface dirt and grime. The green scratchy will also remove light surface rust. The plating on the chassis is corroded, and nothing you do will ever make it look "good". If there is really bad rust in spots, I use OSPHO or some other rust inhibitor to stop the corrosion process, but as long as the chassis is in a dry spot, further corrosion should not be a problem. I know poople who use spray paint on corroded chassis, but that is not for me. I just makes it look like a spray painted chassis. And I don't think your chassis looks all that bad. I do like to clean and paint the end bells on power transformers (black).

Well, thats just my opinion....

BTW, before you reinstall the chassis in the cabinet, I recommend you take the rotating piece which drives the fine tuning off the front of the tuner and clean and lubricate the wheel which drives the arm up/down and the bearing whis wheel rotates on. This gets stiff and hard to turn, and is why many of the CT100 fine tuning knobs have the tabs broken off.

I've been using some stuff called "RestorIt4", it's made for cleaning calcium and lime deposits. It's mostly a weak phosphoric acid and I've used it on two of my prewar sets. To see the before and after pictures of the chassis go to my web page (www.myvintagetv.com) and go to either the TRK-12 or TRK-5 restoration page.

It won't do anything for rust, that you'll need to use wire brushes and lots of elbow grease, but for oxidization and crud it works great.


Chuck

Don't tell my wife, but the dishwasher works GREAT on all kinds of old items.

I would start with the brush attachment on the end of my vacuum cleaner hose. Use a 1" round camel brush to augment the vacuum brush. See where this gets you before trying other, more vigorous, methods, like water washing.

Well, first you drop trou...

Where do I even begin to clean this chassis?
 

For about a year now, I've been cleaning Predicta chassis's at my local carwash! Yes, CARWASH! Not a problem one. I even leave the tubes in and they get clean. I do remove them afterwards and use WD-40 (which displaces the mositure) generously on the tube sockets and all controls, mechanical assemblies, etc. As stated elsewhere, let it dry a day or so. Try it, you'll see that it works.


Larry

You wild man! How the heck do you DO it? Toss 'em in the pickup bed and drive through??? This makes my radical bath look tame by comparison -- I love it!

I just remove dust, spider webs and things like that. Rust is treated with a little Naval Jelly and any tube shields are wirebrushed. Other than that, they stay the way they are. I do clean the CRT, safety glass (if equipped) and make the cabinet look as nice as possible (I do need to do some finish repair on one). There is only one set I have that needs total cabinet and chassis restoration (RCA 16" wood). I was considering giving a chassis a bath, but with my luck, I would have fried critical parts. I find a paint brush and shop vac do just fine.

Spray that chassis down with an industrial cleaner-degreaser (take it easy around the transformers)then hose off with warm water. As long as it dries off it will be fine.
The place where I used to work did that with industrial monitors before repairing them, they had to as they would be full of grease and coolant from cnc machines.
Never had any problems and the units looked like new when finished.
In the end it is someones own personal preference as to how they want to do it, personally I have repaired hundreds of monitors and televisions over the years and always preferred the above mentioned way.