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     Rick_oleson Tinkerer Username: Rick_oleson Post Number: 896 Registered: 07-2006 Rating: N/A |
Carbon Tetrachloride is a banned substance, available (if at all, any more) only for controlled laboratory use. It was replaced, for most purposes, by 1,1,1-Trichloroethylene, which is now ALSO a banned substance. Next in line is Tetrachloroethylene, aka Perchlorethylene, which you can still buy in spray cans as "Nonflammable Brake Cleaner" at auto parts stores. In addition to the obvious health concerns, all of the above are SEVERE stress cracking agents for Polycarbonate, which is the most common plastic material used in camera bodies... a whiff of these chlorinated solvents can be instant death for a modern camera. Many other solvents, such as paint thinner, xylene, lacquer thinner etc, are not stress cracking agents but are dissolving solvents for many common plastics. All of these should be strictly avoided if there is any chance of plastic parts in the camera you're working on. I have found some particularly nasty hardened lubricants that I could clean up only with Xylene - but I would consider that a very last resort, both for the fumes and the risk of damage to plastic parts. I wore rubber gloves when handling it, and ended up with cracks in the gloves. Alcohol is generally OK, high concentrations may mar some plastic surfaces ... but it is generally not as effective as a degreasing solvent as Naphtha. It is great, however, for removing Sharpie ink ... so if you have something that Naphtha doesn't want to clean up, you might try alcohol. I don't use gasoline for cleaning anything but carburetors, and only then if I don't have something better available. The relatively unique property of Naphtha (chemically, it's Nonane, but you're not likely to see it by that name) is that it is both an effective degreasing solvent AND safe for use on all plastics that I've tried it on (and that's a pretty fair sampling). Other solvents in the same family, including faster-drying Heptane, share this property, but they are either hard to find or have other issues such as not existing as liquids at room temperature. I have not yet encountered any problems with CRC "QD" Electronic Cleaner, which I have used occasionally since I could no longer find Heptane .... but it is a blend, and I don't trust blends as much as pure chemicals because each component will have its own compatibility issues, and the more components in the solvent the more checking I have to do. In some cases you can degrease with water and detergent, depending on what you're working on ... but I have not found another solvent that has as good a combination of safety and effectiveness as Naphtha. |