[Hallicrafters] REMOVING NOCOTINE

[Mike Everette]

I have had pretty fair success removing stinky-weed
residue, at least from wrinkle finishes, using a mix
of water and mild shampoo.  As with any cleaning
solution, GO EASY!  Patience is a virtue.  Use either
a soft rag or maybe a chamois cloth to apply and scrub
with it.

A while back I acquired an S-22R that was absolutely
nasty with nicotine.  In fact it was so bad that the
wire mesh speaker grille was almost completely clogged
with the stuff and the part behind the "h" was solid
with it.  Aerosol organic solder flux remover worked
wonders on the cabinet, but I was very careful to keep
the spray away from dials and lettering.  

As for the grille, I laid it on paper towels and hosed
it.  You absolutely would not believe what came off. 
I can only imagine what the former owner's lungs must
have looked like.

I also used the flux remover to help clean the chassis
but applied it to cotton balls instead of "hosing" the
surface.  Once the flux remover did its job (along
with a lot of elbow grease), an aerosol equipment
degreaser got what was left.

The flux remover I used was Rite-Off #1637.  I've been
told that Rite-Off is out of business or perhaps has
been bought out by a larger company, but this has been
a fairly recent development and you might still be
able to buy #1637 from some distributors.  Rite-Off
#1635 is a similar, but milder, flux remover.

Use this with plenty of ventilation and wear rubber
gloves.  And on gloss enamel finishes, it might attack
the paint, so be careful. This happened when I
scrubbed a little too hard after spraying it on the
panel of a Hammarlund HQ-180, but in this case it
wasn't that big a deal because the panel was already
scarred.  Many of these old rigs were not primed
before they were painted, and this accounts for much
of the phenomenon of peeling or flaking paint.

73

Mike
WA4DLF



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