Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Pablito,
This reminds me of something from when I lived in New Mexico. I worked at a camera store in Santa Fe for a while after I moved there, and one of our regular customers was an old man (about 65) who smoked so much (and had done so his whole life) that he talked with a raspy voce and smelled like a gigantic ashtray. One day, he brought in his Nikon LS-5000ED scanner for us to sell for him on consignment. He had gone digital a while back and was using the scanner to scan his film archives. He'd finished, so he wanted to sell the scanner. It was covered in such thick tar that you couldn't tell what color it was. You could scrape it off with your fingernails in thick globs. One of my co-workers spent two days removing it layer by layer with Windex, a cleaning chemical originally made for cleaning windows, but popular for cleaning countertops and other surfaces in the home. It worked, but took her many hours of hard work! She had to be careful not to get the chemical in the scanner, and we never did take it apart to see how bad it was INSIDE! Nastiest thing I've ever seen!
This reminds me of something from when I lived in New Mexico. I worked at a camera store in Santa Fe for a while after I moved there, and one of our regular customers was an old man (about 65) who smoked so much (and had done so his whole life) that he talked with a raspy voce and smelled like a gigantic ashtray. One day, he brought in his Nikon LS-5000ED scanner for us to sell for him on consignment. He had gone digital a while back and was using the scanner to scan his film archives. He'd finished, so he wanted to sell the scanner. It was covered in such thick tar that you couldn't tell what color it was. You could scrape it off with your fingernails in thick globs. One of my co-workers spent two days removing it layer by layer with Windex, a cleaning chemical originally made for cleaning windows, but popular for cleaning countertops and other surfaces in the home. It worked, but took her many hours of hard work! She had to be careful not to get the chemical in the scanner, and we never did take it apart to see how bad it was INSIDE! Nastiest thing I've ever seen!
greyelm
Malcolm
Whatever cleaning fluid you use I would avoid getting any of the resulting brown goop on exposed skin, it is probably carcinogenic.
Darthfeeble
But you can call me Steve
The beauty of using alcohol is that even if it gets into the innards, it will evaporate in a short time and harms nothing.
Bill Clark
Veteran
And think of the gents lungs.
Larry Cloetta
Veteran
I don't know about the EU, but can vouch from personal experience that Simple Green, (Brand name) applied carefully as described above, works unbelievably well on tobacco tar. Windex would take forever and you would be likely to abrade the surface in frustration. It's a lousy solvent for tar stain, and so is alcohol, in my experience. It can work, but it is really slow. Simple Green is literally probably ten to twenty times faster, and gentler.
Downside on a camera is that it's soapy, so don't use too much, and rinse well with water so you get it all off. Just be careful, as always.
johannielscom
Snorting silver salts
For reference: In the Netherlands and Germany, it seems 'Dasty' is the best alternative. Might have to dilute it a bit though, if the tales about how effective it is are actually true.