Cleaning circuit board based chassis?

[RetroHacker]

Nice work on that set Eric. I'll have to see what kind of cleaners I can find around here. That "Blue Beast" stuff you mention sounds great, but I'll have to find something similar. Is it a degreaser? Floor cleaner? Is it anything like say, Simple Green? 409? I'll check at the store on the way home from work and see what I can find that might work. All I've got is the basic array of home surface cleaners, nothing too powerful. I need something that'll take the grime off but not dissolve bakelite, phenolic or resistors. BTW - how _did_ you find out that "Blue Beast" dissolves bakelite? I didn't think there was much that could. Bakelite won't even melt.

This is a 60's set, so it probably uses paper coil forms. I'll go over the chassis carefully first and tape some plastic over anything that I don't want to risk getting wet. I've never tried hosing down a TV chassis before (although I've done it with computer circuit boards. Those you can put in a dishwasher...).

Anyone have any idea on tubes? A couple of these are going to have to be cleaned, they've got enough fuzz to be approaching a fire hazard. Now, I could just scrub them and forget about the numbers, but I'd like to keep them on. Maybe if I try soaking them in plain water? Also, another thing I have often wondered - If you _do_ rub the numbers off a tube, how can you mark it so that you know what it is? I've thought about just writing the numbers back on with a Sharpie pen, but what happens when it gets hot?

Tonight on the way home I'm going to stop by the library and get the schematic. (I got it once already, when I found the set three years ago, but managed to lose it.) This set has a few of those blasted black beauty/bumblebee capacitors, a couple of which don't make sense when I translate the color code (.00033 at 9400 volts?!?). Fortunately the library has photofacts (Sam's 483-1, GE U4 chassis, in case you were curious) and a photocopier that does 11x17.

-Ian