[pianotech] Cleaning Very Old Plate

[Douglas Gregg]

Dean,

I have used 409 with less dramatic results as the Scrubbing Bubbles.
The best part about the Scrubbing Bubbles is the foaming action. The
foam floats off the dirt, tar, and nicotine with very little liquid
exposure and very little time on the surfaces. The Metro vac blows it
down to the bottom of the rim, if the grand  piano is on its side on a
skid. Just catch the liquid with a towel. The Metro vac is so powerful
that everything is dry in a couple minutes. I did spray through the
bass strings. I may replace them, but maybe not. Much of the
tubby-ness  of old strings is due to contamination from cooking
grease, tar, nicotine, and dust on the surface and especially between
the copper windings.  The Scrubbing bubbles will clean off some of
that too.  The Scrubbing bubbles is mostly just a detergent with a
little bit of alcohol. It dries fast and is gentle on even the decals
and paint. I doubt it will take off the pin striping on a plate.

Cleaning bass strings is another topic and I have some really good
experience cleaning them like new and they sound good enough not to
replace them  too.

Does it leave any residue on the strings and metal parts. I think it
is very little, if any, as the blower leaves it nearly dry. It has
been a couple months since I did this Chickering and there is no new
surface rust.

By the way, I sprayed the string felts too and used the blower to blow
the moisture out of the felt. The came out nearly dry  and clean as
new with the  Scrubbing bubbles and Metro vac. That is some machine.
It really has power. It is like those new hand dryers in the public
restrooms that have turbo power. The Metro Vac is small, and cheap
too. About $70.

Doug Gregg
Classic Piano Doc

Message: 1
Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 17:39:58 -0400
From: "Dean May" <deanmay at pianorebuilders.com>
To: <pianotech at ptg.org>
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Cleaning Very Old Plate
Message-ID: <CD0E7F3D2574468694C7ACBB791527AF at Portege>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="us-ascii"

Thanks for the pictoral. Did you spray the bass strings, too, and did it
make them dead? Or did you just try to avoid them.

I've had similar success spraying 409 directly through the strings onto the
soundboard and letting run down(piano on side). It works well but is pretty
messy.

Dean

Dean W May (812) 235-5272 voice and text

PianoRebuilders.com (888) DEAN-MAY

Terre Haute IN 47802
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Douglas Gregg <classicdoc at gmail.com>
To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org>
Cc:
Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 11:18:16 -0400
Subject: Cleaning Very Old Plate

Terry,
As I recommended last week and several times before, use Dow Scrubbing
Bubbles bathroom cleaner in the green aerosol can. I can't tell you
how well this works. You have to see it.  I had an old Chickering
grand that was given to me. I did not even want to take it. Finally,
they paid me to take it away. I was planning on taking it directly to
the dump. It had cat vomit, mouse droppings, a layer of cat fur like
felt on the soundboard. A cat had lived it it. I used to do
postmortems on animals dead in the sun for a day or two. I have a high
tolerance but this grossed me out, but I decided to give it a try just
for scientific purposes.  I didn't know it had a soundboard decal
until I cleaned it.

I left the piano on the skid. I first used a parts cleaning brush from
NAPA (a stiff nylon round brush) with a Metro vacuum to clean the
heavy stuff out. The stiff nylon bristles go through the strings and
disturb the dirt and the vacuum sucks it up. I wore a good 3M dust
mask too. When I could not get any more heavy stuff out, I used a
soundboard wand with a microfiber sock to get some more stuff off. I
found the decal but could barely read it. I did the same treatment for
the plate that also had a Chickering decal. Then I put some old towels
at the bottom inside the rim to catch the run off. I sprayed the plate
and soundboard with scrubbing bubbles, including the strings. After a
minute or less, the rest of the dirt floated up in the bubbles. I blew
the bubbles and dirt down to the towels with the Metro vac on blower
mode. . For the tuning pin area, I used the brush again with the
scrubbing bubbles to get the last of the dirt out. The towels were
brown when I was done. The plate looked nearly new and the soundboard
too. Just look at the pictures.

Doug Gregg
Classic Piano Doc


Message: 5
Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 08:57:45 -0400
From: Terry Farrell <mfarrel2 at tampabay.rr.com>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Cleaning Very Old Plate



------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 16:12:54 -0700
From: "Joseph Garrett" <joegarrett at earthlink.net>
To: "pianotech" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Subject: Re: [pianotech] Cleaning very old plate
Message-ID: <380-220125222231254703 at earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Douglas said:
"As I recommended last week and several times before, use Dow Scrubbing
Bubbles bathroom cleaner in the green aerosol can. I can't tell you
how well this works. You have to see it. I had an old Chickering
grand that was given to me. I did not even want to take it. Finally,
they paid me to take it away. I was planning on taking it directly to
the dump. It had cat vomit, mouse droppings, a layer of cat fur like
felt on the soundboard. A cat had lived it it. I used to do
postmortems on animals dead in the sun for a day or two. I have a high
tolerance but this grossed me out, but I decided to give it a try just
for scientific purposes. I didn't know it had a soundboard decal
until I cleaned it.

I left the piano on the skid. I first used a parts cleaning brush from
NAPA (a stiff nylon round brush) with a Metro vacuum to clean the
heavy stuff out. The stiff nylon bristles go through the strings and
disturb the dirt and the vacuum sucks it up. I wore a good 3M dust
mask too. When I could not get any more heavy stuff out, I used a
soundboard wand with a microfiber sock to get some more stuff off. I
found the decal but could barely read it. I did the same treatment for
the plate that also had a Chickering decal. Then I put some old towels
at the bottom inside the rim to catch the run off. I sprayed the plate
and soundboard with scrubbing bubbles, including the strings. After a
minute or less, the rest of the dirt floated up in the bubbles. I blew
the bubbles and dirt down to the towels with the Metro vac on blower
mode. . For the tuning pin area, I used the brush again with the
scrubbing bubbles to get the last of the dirt out. The towels were
brown when I was done. The plate looked nearly new and the soundboard
too. Just look at the pictures.

Doug Gregg
Classic Piano Doc,

All I can say is: WOW! <G> The only question I have is what the longterm,
(residual), effects may be. As you probably know, you can put mild
chemicals on metal and there will be no immidiate effect, but over time
corrosion and such will raise it's ugly head.
Thanks for the input. I am going to try it. (on something I own, first.<G>)
Regards,
Joe
Joe Garrett, R.P.T.
Captain of the Tool Police
Squares R I