Clock movement cleaning formula

[@TheG3nman]

I know this is a 3 year old video but I have found your content priceless. I watched the entire Seth Thomas rebuild, which is where I picked up on the cleaning solution. I follwed to a tee and Man did it work like a charm. Thank you for your content and inspiration to dabbled in keeping these old clocks going.

[@kevinfox3875]

I think you've got the function of the chemicals wrong. The acetone is purely a cleaner and serves to remove any oils from the surface of the brass, thereby allowing the ammonia to access the brass and remove the oxides from it's surface. Any soap added to the formula is largely an ammulsifier, binding the water, acetone and ammonia together, whilst also enabling the removal of the oils as scum.

[@thegregolahorologyclub6799]

For the "pre rinsing" what should be used? Great video, btw. This gave a lot more context to the cleaning solution(s).

[@okbridges]

Any degreaser should be fine I do the pre-rinse thing very rarely, and mention it as a caution because a badly soiled/very dirty movement will have light/dark spots because the heavier grease and dirt deposits will protect the brass from the ammonia/oil soap that tends to brighten it. I have doubts it would be an issue using an ultrasonic cleaner vs. manual parts washing. Usually I just wash the parts twice if I have this problem.

[@woodsmithbc]

Acetone mixes completely with water. If you leave the lid off of acetone it will absorb water from the air as quickly as the volatile components evaporate.

[@rkruby5132]

I have been collecting old clocks for decades, most of which did not work. But I never gave. Now at the ripened age of 77 I'm going to start cleaning my clocks, oiling and see what happens. thoroughly enjoyed your this video. In fact I want to find more videos to watch and learn. I'm going to look for the book/manual you suggested to see if I can find an old copy still readable. Wish me luck. Any links to your videos would be much appreciated. I'm in Iowa. Do you have the ISBN number of the book?

[@harryballz6358]

Tying a can on a lawn mowers handle (lower bar or on body away from heat?), kick its Rs up, should vibrate better than a dryer. Acetone won't remove all the grease. We use Lard on paint masks for OEM vehicle parts because we wash the stainless steel masks in Acetone to remove all the paint every 20 minutes. The lard stays on the masks even if you soak them in the Acetone tanks for hours at a time. We kept 2 masks in our acetone tanks & used one mask "if" we had all 3 still? Many times we ran two masks. We'd grab the cleanest one every 20 minutes anyway & always scrub paint off at some point spraying our high rates with 2 masks, acetone never impressed us, its cold as heck when your hands stay in it all day to start..lol. Gloves only made it worse. We used thousands of gallons of it working there, always cleaning guns/booths up /thinning paint, chics always bent over cleaning chrome parts dipping Q-tips in it all down the line. Awful sight there you know?..:) The paint masks first got a heavy wax sprayed on, then 1/2" of lard brushed on top, then we painted over that. Crazy even soaked, scrubbed by hand/brushes, washed in large steaming wash machines & at weeks end much of the wax & lard remains. So the masks then get soaked in Joy water a several hours or more then all masks are repaired & the wax, lard is re-applied so their ready for Monday or stored up for later runs. I retired from it but I was a cerified OEM hand sprayer for Guardian SRG Global for yrs. Mostly robots spray shit now, slow arse f'n robots took over..lol All we make there are new OEM automotive trim parts inside/outside for nearly every auto maker including Harley Davidson. I assure you there is more grease than meets the eyes left behind. Stick some dirty grease & some lard if you have it on a flat piece of metal & dip a screw in it too. Set both in a cup of acetone. Dont shake it simply let the acetone do the job you think its doing. When you pick them up later you'll find grease in the threads. If acetone works the paper towel will still be clean if its wiped on them. A real degreaser will break it down on its own with no help. Crazy how the lard & wax stayed on the masks till Joy took it all off. TSP is what gov removed from all detergents. I buy it from Amazon but it's pricey now cause it's going bye bye. Idk if it will discolor mechs but it's amazing.