Solvents

So, I got the tracking number for my refurb kit today. It ships out of Canada, Quebec, to be precise. It's on the way, and scheduled to be here Monday, and since that's my day off, I'll be here with my friend to work on it. There will be a huge post and lots of info!

So, to kinda get ready, I decided to start mixing up some of the solvent mix that I've seen on the forums, to see if it really works. Here's what I did:

I started with a normal quart tin purchased from Lowe's. I was worried about the enamel finish inside would be affected by the solvents, but it appears that it is not, but that's from a short period of time. I'm going to let it hang out in here til Monday and see how it's affected.

By the way, red Solo cups are polystyrene, and they don't like Acetone!

Usually, the mix is mentioned as being 4 or 5 parts Butyl Carbitol to one part Acetone. I mixed at 5 to 1.

I mixed 2.5 cups Butyl Carbitol to 0.5 cups Acetone. Poured them into the tin together and stirred. Mixed it is a clear liquid; the Butyl Carbitol is a more viscous liquid, like a light oil, and the Acetone is very watery, be careful when pouring it.

I then tried it out on the electronics lid, which looked pretty nasty. It worked spectacularly.
Here's the lid, after a little cleaning, as a before picture.

This is after about three seconds of rubbing with a corner of the paper towel dipped in the solvent.

And the after, as you can see that whole area rubbed is just clean beneath. I didn't do a whole lot more, I'll wait a little to work on that, but it really works well on the dried ink. I even used it on an old, very dry ink spill, and it came right up, no problems. I'm excited for how this should work on the insides of the printer.