Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
A friend who likes to add springing to all his locos and rolling stock made a comment about someone he knew dunking his models with captive wheels in water to wash them off and his fear of them rusting. This prompted me to try something that had been bubbling in the back ground for a while without really coming to the fore in my mind.
For some time I have been using "Bartoline Clean Spirit" as a paint stripper and more lately to remove the rubber/foam covering from recycled steel rods found in toner cartridges and drum units
While doing this I noted that while it cleans and removes paint and breaks down the rubber if you leave it long enough (talking a few weeks) it doesn't rust the steel.
With all this in mind and having recently finished my bolster wagons I needed to give them a good clean. By good fortune I had recently bought a couple of 750ml bottles of clean spirit one of which went into my already dirty tub that I use for paint stripping etc. and the other was sat as stock. I poured it into a rectangular tub the type that has a lid with four snap down tabs to lock it in place (mine is a cheap home brand version but ideal for what I used it for).
This just fit into my Ultrasonic cleaner bath with out its lid and I them filled the bath with water to above the level of the clean spirit in the tub but below where it might slosh over and contaminate the clean spirit. I place the first bolster wagon in and gave it 15 minutes without any heat. The result is as you see it on my build thread. After that I gave it a rinse in clean water* and immediately blow dried it and re-oiled the bearings.
*Before rinsing in clean water, I did a Google search to see if the clean spirit would evaporate on it's own, removing the need to rinse. But it seems that it doesn't.
To be honest I didn't think it would evaporate much because I have been using the same bottle for paint stripping etc. for getting on for a year and the only loss seems to be what clings to the object being cleaned as you remove it from the solution and what you lose when you periodically strain it to remove most of the accumulated bits of paint and rubber (in my case).
I have used it to stripp both acrylic and rattle can paints with success. It just takes a couple of days soaking.
For some time I have been using "Bartoline Clean Spirit" as a paint stripper and more lately to remove the rubber/foam covering from recycled steel rods found in toner cartridges and drum units
While doing this I noted that while it cleans and removes paint and breaks down the rubber if you leave it long enough (talking a few weeks) it doesn't rust the steel.
With all this in mind and having recently finished my bolster wagons I needed to give them a good clean. By good fortune I had recently bought a couple of 750ml bottles of clean spirit one of which went into my already dirty tub that I use for paint stripping etc. and the other was sat as stock. I poured it into a rectangular tub the type that has a lid with four snap down tabs to lock it in place (mine is a cheap home brand version but ideal for what I used it for).
This just fit into my Ultrasonic cleaner bath with out its lid and I them filled the bath with water to above the level of the clean spirit in the tub but below where it might slosh over and contaminate the clean spirit. I place the first bolster wagon in and gave it 15 minutes without any heat. The result is as you see it on my build thread. After that I gave it a rinse in clean water* and immediately blow dried it and re-oiled the bearings.
*Before rinsing in clean water, I did a Google search to see if the clean spirit would evaporate on it's own, removing the need to rinse. But it seems that it doesn't.
To be honest I didn't think it would evaporate much because I have been using the same bottle for paint stripping etc. for getting on for a year and the only loss seems to be what clings to the object being cleaned as you remove it from the solution and what you lose when you periodically strain it to remove most of the accumulated bits of paint and rubber (in my case).
I have used it to stripp both acrylic and rattle can paints with success. It just takes a couple of days soaking.
