Carb cleaning.

[zxr750]

Hello,

has anyone used MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) to clean their carbs?

Is it safe to soak the dismantled carbs in & for what length of time?

[CovKid]

Thought that stuff was banned. I use cellusose thinners, Don't get MEK on ANYTHING rubber.

[scottbott]

I used to use MEK for cleaning or reviving rubber blankets after having a smash on a printing press,been a while since I was in print so do not know if it is still used

[printmonkey]

Yep, it's still around.

[tobydog]

Used it when I was an apprentice toolmaker as well as acetone and dichloromethane. They all clean the gum and varnish off of metal, but take care as they dissolve a lot of plastics. They all smell jolly nice, don't sniff them too much!

[CovKid]

Scottbott, what was that LOVELY pink stuff used on litho plates. Worryingly it smelt devine.

I started my working life as a litho printer in Leamington Spa with Maisey & Kennard, a fabulous old-school printing shop and was paid the head-swimming total of £18 a week. They were great, always supportive and absolutely nothing like the terrible closed-shop I moved to that was Edwards the Printers in Coventry. Money was double but you couldn't so much as blink without a nod from the shop steward. What a mistake that was.

Neither exist now but if anyone from Maisey & Kennard (as it was then) survives, thanks and what a wonderful start to my working life. Even now I can tell what pigments are in any colour, just by sight. Good skill to have.

[scottbott]

the only pink stuff I can think of was deletion fluid for removing the image or scratches,we also used Itek paper plates and the deletion fluid was pink but smelled of farts(not so divine),whenever I see white vans I always think of them being warm or cold whites after having to mix inks,grey with a lot of transparent white and a fraction of red or something were real bastards to match,sometimes hours were spent trying to get the press washed up clean so these greys were printing properly with no contamination from previous colours showing,nightmare

[CovKid]

Been many years since I worked on them but I was the only one on the floor who could get the Rolls Royce blue used on their letterheads right so I always got the job. On the otherside was an 80-year-old typesetter. I was always astonished at how he could set up type in reverse (at speed) for the Heidelbergs. Must have taken him his whole life to learn how to do that only for the skill to have virtually vanished when computers came in.

[scottbott]

typesetters,setting the type upside down and back to front,clever,a lost art