Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion cleaning old visigauges?

...can someone recommend a method for cleaning the inside of the visigauge glass without disassembling it? I've never tried - it might not be possible - but I thought I'd ask...thanks...

I used a lacquer thinner on my last one. I had decent results by letting it sit over night inside the glass. It got rid of allot of the residue inside, but for the best results I did completely disassemble. I am sure others may have some tricks.

Home Depot sells a Purple Degreaser.....very dangerous....use gloves and eye protection. Pour some in and let it sit overnight. Remove and flush with water. The glass should be varnish free at that time.....BEWARE...If this is used near aluminum, it will eat the aluminum away. Use on steel and cast iron only......not sure about pot metal but I'd keep it away from that too? Paul www.severngaspumps.com

Paul, I agree. -If you use Zep, or any other purple concentrate, undiluted, it is powerful stuff. I have used it to strip paint indoors. That stuff really does the job.

First time I used it to clean for about two hours without gloves, and last time without gloves.

...thanks for the replies!

...I'm pretty sure the spinners in a couple of the visis I have are aluminum, so...

...I have another question: is disassembling a visigauge as hazardous as disassembling the cylinder assembly on a visible, i.e., exploding/shattering/cracking glass?

Have never had one break even with the hazardous caulking ones. Slow boat, just soak and dental tool.

Soak the glycerine caulk with laquer thinner and use a curved hook to loosen the putty. Work slowly and the glass will come out easily. Don't know why the cylinder would explode? Never heard of that? Paul www.severngaspumps.com

...I've heard horror stories of visible pump cylinders shattering, after the tie rods were cut or loosened during disassembly, reportedly because the glass had been subject to compression for decades...as visigauges are basically little visible pump cylinders, I was just concerned...don't want to ruin something I'm supposed to be preserving...

...just so I've got it right: what order?

(1) soak/remove caulk first, THEN loosen/remove tie rods

OR

(2) remove/loosen tie rods, THEN soak/remove caulk

...thanks again for the info!

Yes, but do not use heat on the Rods.

Take the bolts out first. One at a time loosening them. Start with one and jump across to the next. Loosen each bolt a 1/2 a turn at a time until pressure is released. I soak mine in the purple degreaser first. Over night. This frees the cement from the glass. After the bolts are all out soak and scrape until you can twist the pieces off the glass.

Find a Metal can large enough to hold visi, Fill the visi w/ paint stripper, place in can & pour more Stripper in till visi is covered over, cover top of can, let sit for a couple days & remove from can. Reclaim all the stripper you can. Hose off w/ water. Then you can remove bolts/rods to disassemble.

I'm not sure if youve considered carb cleaner? You can buy it in a gallon container but its not cheap. Im pretty sure that would clean the inside clean as a whistle. Not positive about the aluminum though. Maybe spray a can of Gumout in there?