Warning about IPA

[Mr Sprue]

You must wear an awful lot of nail polish 

 

[Bealman]

You must wear an awful lot of nail polish 

[Hailstone]

I have been using IPA for nearly 10 years now, to clean the railhead of the track and in cleaning away dirt/oil deposits from the backs of wheels and pick ups, and for more general cleaning when I strip a loco down. used sparingly and with care, it pays dividends in smooth running, as with oil, the trick is not to use too much.

Regards,

Alex

[joe cassidy]

In my opinion lighter fuel is the best solvent for track cleaning and it doesn't harm paintwork.

Best regards,


Joe

[Les1952]

IPA isn't that kind to the plastic used in Peco Setrack.

Both of my first two exhibition layouts Furtwangen Ost and Hawthorn Dene had to have extensive replacement of Setrack after it literally fell apart.  I used to use a cloth on the end of a stick which I soaked in solvent to clean inside the tunnels on Furtwangen Ost.  Setrack was used here as the curves are tight and hidden.  The layout is only 2 feet deep.



The picture shows the missing track on Furtwangen Ost- the daylight is an extra hole that had to be cut in the end of the layout to get to the broken rail and how difficult access for cleaning was.  You can also see a couple of odd sleeper ends of the disintegrated curve. 

Moral here is double- don't use solvents on Setrack if you can't get to it to use VERY sparingly, and make sure hidden bits of a layout have adequate access.  The latter is something I learned quickly enough to make Hawthorn Dene more accessible, but still with an odd tricky bit.  Croft Spa won't have the tricky bits....

Les

[keithbythe sea]

And I was just about to buy vast quantites of IPA, BUT I use Peco setrack...