Cleaning material

[Neverenoughwatches]

Eyup watch  peeps, who actually uses this, what are your thoughts and tips for it.

[HectorLooi]

Errr..... what's that? Denuded pith wood or old cigarette butts?

[Neverenoughwatches]

26 minutes ago, HectorLooi said:

Errr..... what's that? Denuded pith wood or old cigarette butts?

Pithwood relieved of it's home. I trimmed an old elder tree at the bottom of my garden. The inch and a half branches held a small section of pith at their center so i cut them into 2 inch lengths and forced them out with a pencil. This is what shot out across the lawn with a pop. I just wondered if anyone actually used pithwood, either dry or soaked in benzine. 

[HectorLooi]

I just took another look to make sure it wasn't some feminine hygiene product. 

[nickelsilver]

I use it all the time. I like the buttons (now hard to find) for cleaning oilers and pushing pinions into to scrub the leaves. The sticks like the pic are handy for that as well, but the buttons are denser and better for pinions. I use the sticks to wipe off mirror finished parts, cut to a blunt screwdriver shape on the end with a razor, dip in alcohol or benzine and blot on paper, then clean the part. Any remnants blow off easily with a blower. Another similar use would be if some shellac flowed to the top of a pallet fork when adjusting the jewels- plug the fork into a dense button (arbor in button), then as above with alcohol and wipe until the shellac residue is gone. The lower applied shellac remains fine.

 

The sticks vary in size and density. I have some old stuff that's cut square, some that's fluffy and airy, some that's dense.

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by nickelsilver

[Neverenoughwatches]

10 minutes ago, nickelsilver said:

I use it all the time. I like the buttons (now hard to find) for cleaning oilers and pushing pinions into to scrub the leaves. The sticks like the pic are handy for that as well, but the buttons are denser and better for pinions. I use the sticks to wipe off mirror finished parts, cut to a blunt screwdriver shape on the end with a razor, dip in alcohol or benzine and blot on paper, then clean the part. Any remnants blow off easily with a blower. Another similar use would be if some shellac flowed to the top of a pallet fork when adjusting the jewels- plug the fork into a dense button (arbor in button), then as above with alcohol and wipe until the shellac residue is gone. The lower applied shellac remains fine.

 

The sticks vary in size and density. I have some old stuff that's cut square, some that's fluffy and airy, some that's dense.

The density probably varies with age of the cut branch. These are less than a years growth and are light and fluffy. I read somewhere ages ago about using PIR insulation board as an alternative.  Its foam structure is similar to the light and fluffy of pithwood.

[praezis]

1 hour ago, nickelsilver said:

. I like the buttons (now hard to find)

Stewart,

the Indians sell them cheap (e.g. earlier mentioned CTS). They are 10cm long pieces, and you can then cut discs from.

Frank

[nickelsilver]

13 minutes ago, praezis said:

Stewart,

the Indians sell them cheap (e.g. earlier mentioned CTS). They are 10cm long pieces, and you can then cut discs from.

Frank

I've seen some buttons and sticks like you mention, but they were far spongier than the Florida stuff. I haven't seen anything quite like that stuff. I've taken to buying NOS boxes of it now.

[nickelsilver]

Mazboy, your spam is showing.

[Mark]

He’s banned