[TR] Cleaning Bakelite without turning finish to dull haze - was Control Head

[Chris Simo]

I saw Gary's Control Head post and sent him a message on the evils of using
some solvents to clean Control heads.   The finish on bakelite is very thin
and can be damaged by aggressive solvents and abrasives.

I did a quick search and saw that it had not been discussed here (at least
in the past 5 or 6 years) so I thought I'd bring up the subject.

The control head on my TR2 was a dull dark brown color - the button even
lighter brown.  Never thought there was an issue - my  brother in law plays
with old table radios from the 30's and 40's and said that someone destroyed
my control head and button finish using the wrong stuff to clean them.

He said  - Alcohol and ammonia should not be used.  And figured any brake or
carb cleaners should be avoided likewise - paint thinner is ok.  Any alkali
or ammoniated cleaners should be avoided.  He uses Go-Jo with success.  I
stole the term from the article before as it seems more descriptive than
what my brolaw told me.

My control head was broken - so I pulled it out - since the finish was
destroyed there was no fixing it.  The old box of control head parts was in
the attic - and after careful washing with paint thinner and gojo - I had a
set of almost brand new shiny bakelite parts for the rebuild.  Lucky for me
the only broken bits were the horn button and gunk and bugs nests inside the
housing.  Reassembly was a bit tricky but Randall (I think) has a nice hand
drawn illustration on his google docs site that aids greatly with reassembly
(a third hand helps too).

I just did some searching to try to validate what he said and found the link
below it gives a pretty good explanation of how Bakelite is made and why the
finish is so thin and how it can be damaged by cleaning.

http://www.radiolaguy.com/info/clean-shine.htm

>From what I can tell there is no way to rejuvinate the finish of bakelite
other than cover with paint.....

Please add your two cents to this thread - I'd like to hear what others have
done or their contrary opinions.

Chris