Hi, I would like to clean my Atlas RS-3 trucks and gears. What would you recommend to clean the plastic parts? Thanks, Hansel
70% alcohol in a bowl. Let em soak and use an old toothbrush to scrub em. If the trucks are painted alcohol may remove the paint. The alcohol wont damage plastic parts however. There are more expensive alternatives but none that are really better JMO YMMV.
Straight hot tap water with a drop or two of Dawn Dish Detergent added and agitate the container they are in until clean. They can also soak for some time in this solution without harm. I am hesitant about using alcohol since depending on the plastic it can remove some of the plastic volatile oils eventually leaving the plastic brittle. I would recommend purchasing a very small ultrasound bath if you are only going to be using it for small parts. Most of the small ones are relatively cheap and come with some attachments like a wire cage to hold small easily lost parts. They also work well using a small narrow jar, like an olive jar to hold loco shells to strip paint. Simply put the stripper in the jar, close the jar top, allways have water in the bath, and cycle it a number times as needed. The supplied cleaning solutions for these baths are really not needed to clean instead the dish detergent and hot water works fine.
Bestine. Available at Michaels as "rubber cement thinner". I use it as a potent degreaser and wax cleaner for the days when illustrators used wax to stick typeface to drawings. It'll clean your parts like crazy, and won't affect either paint or plastic...at all. And it'll make for instant hangnails on your fingers, so be careful with the stuff and vent it out by using a spray booth or in your bathroom with the door closed and fan on. Dheers! Bob Gilmore
You can "make" a simple but effective ultrasonic cleaner by gluing a small tupperware container to the top of an (old) fish tank aerator with hot glue or silicone sealant.. I use mine to clean the bearings in my RC cars.. Its a lot easier than continually shaking a jar full of parts... ;-) Mark..
+1 on this.I used to pour dish soap all over the mechanism of a locomotive,then turn the armature by hand for while,then rinse it out with the hottest water my hands could take..Now I use an ultrasonic cleaner..
I use diluted Lestoil and a small ultrasonic jewelery cleaner from a yardsale for parts. I have an old battery operated electric toothbrush I use for cleaning cracks and crevieces.
