Trumpe, I have had the same kind of piano in my shop and it really does stink up the place. I have had wonderful success with Dow Scrubbing Bubbles Bathroom Cleaner. It has done the trick without water rinsing. Spray the bubbles on, watch the brown tar and nicotine float off and blow them off or vacuum them up with a strong shopvac (large cantainer type to catch the foam). In some cases I have also used a McCulloch steamer to blow the bubbles and crap with high pressure steam to a place where it can be absorbed with paper towels. The combination of steam and Scrubbing Bubbles works very well. Finally blow dry with compressed air or a Metro Vac or leaf blower. You can use it on all hard surfaces and strip felt. I avoid leather and hammer heads. You have to try this. The Scrubbing bubbles comes in a tall green colored aerosol can. I like it better than Super Clean. Much easier to use and works better too. Doug Gregg Classic Piano Doc Southold, NY Date: Wed, 16 May 2012 02:43:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Euphonious Thumpe <lclgcnp at yahoo.com> To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: [pianotech] Glass cleaner to remove cigarette tar and other piano-cleaning fun... Message-ID: <1337161420.17649.YahooMailMobile at web114718.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Got a "free" Chickering Ampico grand w/500 rolls last month. I put that in quotes because the stench of tobacco tar on this one is truly atrocious. ( Terribly stinking up my shop.) I was able to take all the removable case parts (refinished maybe 30 years ago) outside and spray them with "Purple Power" ( cheaper version of Castrol's "Super Clean" that doesn't have the lye smell "Super Clean" now has, that doesn't rinse out) and scrub them with a green Scotch-Brite pad and hose off and quickly dry. After 2 such scrubbings, the smell is only barely detectable and this remainder will come out during refinishing, I trust. The main body of the piano is a "different animal", though. So far I've hit it with glass cleaner and wiped with paper towels --- but how am I going to really get the smell out of the underside? (After removing the player system, of course.) Blasting with Purple Power and a hose sounds too potentially damaging. (Even if quickly dried, and after the plate and strings are out.) Suggestions appreciated. I'm anticipating a lot of hand-wiping and then bagging the thing and blasting with high-concentration ozone for a while, and I'll report on how well that works. But any other ideas on how to clean all the parts and get thje smell out would be appreciated. As far as the rolls goes: I've been vacuuming off the boxes and then wiping them with naptha-soaked paper towels, which seems to be getting some of the tar off the cardboard, without disturbing the ink on them. Sincerely, Thumpe
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