My uncle swore lighter fluid would clean a turntable platter

He handed me a Zippo and said 'this melts the grime right off' - I was skeptical but tried it on a crusty old Dual 1229 and it actually worked, no damage at all. Has anyone else used a weird household product that turned out to be the right call for a vintage repair?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliviabennett21d ago

I remember reading somewhere that lighter fluid is basically just naphtha, which is a mild solvent that evaporates fast. A lot of the old timers in the audio world swear by it for cleaning old switches and pots too because it won't leave a residue like some other cleaners. Your uncle probably knew what he was doing, even if it sounds crazy at first. I've heard stories about people using vodka to clean tape heads and it working just as well as the expensive stuff, which I always thought was funny. It does make you wonder what other "wrong" products might have been the right call all along.

caseywest20d ago

20 years ago I saw a guy use lighter fluid to fix a scratchy volume knob on a 70s receiver and it worked fine, but I’ve also seen it eat through plastic on a different model. It’s not a magic bullet. People act like old timers knew some secret, but half the time they were just winging it with whatever was around.