[Towertalk] Cleaning Aluminium. Thanks

[N9EN@VOYAGER.NET]

Hello T-T'ers...

I will put out this posting one more time and then that's it.
First of all, there seems to be a lot of misinformation that
gets circulated on these reflectors. A good case in point
is the subject of cleaning aluminum and the use of STEEL
WOOL in the cleaning of it.

I have been cleaning aluminum antenna elements for many
years with the aid of steel wool and have yet to see ANY
of the "side effects" that have been mentioned on this
reflector in regards to the use of steel wool. I will share with
the group my process and you can take it or leave it. All I
know is that it produces excellent results and the appear-
ance of my antennas and their performance speak for
themselves, even after being up for many years.

Here is how I clean aluminum tubing...I use #0 steel wool,
which is a pretty fine grade. I have tried other degrees of
coarseness but the finer grades take too long to use and
the coarser grades do more scratching that cleaning and
polishing.

Anyway, I use #0 steel wool along with dishwashing
detergent. I first wet the aluminum tubing with water and
also wet the steel wool. I then add a small amount of dish-
washing detergent to the steel wool and proceed to scrub
the aluminum.

The steel wool picks up a lot of aluminum oxide and dirt
and for this reason, needs to be rinsed out periodically
with water. Then more dishwashing detergent is added
to the steel wool and more cleaning can take place. Also,
I continually rinse off the aluminum tubing while I am doing
this. If the steel wool & the aluminum are allowed to
remain full of dirt or if the material gets too dry, that slows
the process down considerably.

The #0 steel wool provides the abrasive and the dish-
washing detergent provides additional cleaning action and
allows the water to carry the dirt away more efficiently.
After I am done cleaning a piece of aluminum tubing, I
rinse it THOROUGHLY with clean water and then dry
it off with a clean rag.

Using this process will give you aluminum tubing with a
brand-new appearance. There will be NO steel wool
residue if you rinse the tubing thoroughly after you are
done with the cleaning.

I have tried many grades of steel wool and many other
types of abrasive, including 3M's Scotchbrite. Nothing
seems to work (for me) as well as #0 steel wool, along
with dishwashing detergent and water. The Scotchbrite
tends to scratch the aluminum, instead of giving it a nice
polished look. The same is true for the coarser grades of
steel wool.

After I am done cleaning the aluminum and wiping it off,
I stand it up at an angle to allow any water to drain off
that is inside of the tubing. When I assemble an antenna
after cleaning the aluminum, I apply a very thin film of
Penetrox-A anti-oxidant to all of the aluminum-to-
aluminum connections. Penetrox-A is an anti-oxidant com-
pound that is made by the Burndy company, specifically
for aluminum to aluminum connections (joints) that will be
outside in the weather. I imagine that there are other anti-
oxidants that will work as well but I have been very happy
with the results that I have received from using Penetrox-A.

By the way, I NEVER attempt to clean the outer aluminum
shells of antenna traps. I suppose if one were to go to the
trouble of completely disassembling the traps and then
cleaning the outside surface of the trap tubes, it would be
OK. There are a couple of reasons why I don't clean the
outsides of the trap tubes. The first one is that my antenna
traps are not in a "bad" enough condition to warrant the
disassembly of them. The second reason is that I don't
want to risk getting any of the steel wool particles inside
the traps, and possibly causing short circuits. The third
reason is that the outsides of the trap tubes comprise such
a small area, compared with the area of the elements them-
selves and for that reason alone, I don't bother with them.

About 5 years ago, I purchased a used CushCraft 2 el.
40-2CD, which looked very bad when I bought it. I used
my process to clean up all of the element pieces and then
made the strengthening modifications to the antenna & the
boom. I did not bother with peeling back the heat-shrink
tubing on the loading coils of the elements and replacing
the screws with stainless steel fasteners, as the heat-shrink
tubing was in excellent shape.

The antenna has been up for about 5 years now and it
still looks almost like a new antenna. When the sun shines
on it, the elements still gleam and the antenna still performs
just as good as it did when I first put it up.

Well, there you have it. This is the process that I use and
it has served me very well over the years. Good luck to
all in your aluminum cleaning endeavors. Just remember
to rinse the aluminum very well and dry it off when you are
done with the cleaning. If you follow these simple steps,
you will not have any problems.

73 de Brad, N9EN @ Radio Free Roscoe (IL) [tm]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Gilmer" <n2mg@eham.net>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Cc: <msole@loxinfo.co.th>
Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2002 11:52 AM
Subject: [Towertalk] Cleaning Aluminium. Thanks


> I would never use steel wool except as a last resort - it deposits steel
> shavings all over everything and you can never really clean it all off.
> These shavings will rust and perhaps cause dissimilar metal issues.
>
> I use Scotch brite pads (assuming you can get them).
>
> 73 Mike N2MG
>
> HS0ZED wrote:
> > Thanks for all the responses on good ways to clean aluminium. Seems like
> good old fashioned steel wool is the favourite, along with lots of elbow
> grease of course. Now I just have to convince the xyl as to why she
> needs to help me do this.
>
>
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