What is the best way to clean a metal dial such as the one on this 12s Elgin?

Any comments are welcome....

Thanks,
Jerry

I find these dials the toughest to clean. My experience is that if I get it to look a little better I've done well. I hope someone has some good tips for cleaning. I use a mild liquid dishwashing soap, my fingers and a warm water rinse. Anything I've tried more aggressive than that has caused more harm than good.

Roger

I find that if you give these dials a good rubbing with a piece of Rodico they will clean up a little. What I do is knead a piece of this stuff until it softens a bit.Then I rub and knead,rub and knead until it looks better.Every watch bench should have a few sticks of this in a drawer.

there is nothing that can't be fixed with rodico. i fixed a leak in the top of my windsheld on my old t-bird with it.

So what is Rodico? and what is it really supposed to be used for?


OOPS, I missed the link.

Pretty cool stuff huh?

It is like a green silly putty. It has a thousand uses. Everything from pulling dirt off pivots, cleaning pivot holes, holding parts you are working on, walking the dog, just kidding about the dog, but it is great stuff. It won't stick to parts, but will pull away gunk that is stuck to the parts.

Yep! As soon as I left the question, I noticed the link. Looks like some pretty nice stuff.

Thank you!

At disassembly, it is really good for pullin up the wind and click wheels after you unscrew them.

After clean, polish and servicing train pivots, I "polish" every one with rodico as the last thing before dry spin test and final (oiled) assembly.

When I "button up" a movement, I use rodico to clean off all the exposed plates, and then after final hand installation, I use it for taking fingermarks off dials.

Sheila, I am going to the show at Daytona beach Feb 18th. I will get it there and send you a box.

Here's my experiment in cleaning a metal dial with cream of tartar.
This dial was pretty far gone but there is an improvement. And it doesn't seem to have any major adverse affect on the white and black portions. But it is a little harsh on the gold accents.

After cleaning and as purchased on the right.