Tom Fine wrote:

> If Keith Monks makes fluid for your specific machine, then it's bound to 
> work well.

As the USA/Canada seller of the Keith Monks Dual Chemistry Archivist Record 
Cleaning Machine for over 10 years, I really need to weigh in on this...

After Keith's passing when Jon Monks took over the company, he introduced his 
cleaning fluids and I asked him to tell me for my own assurances, what is in 
them.  His response was that he would hold that information at least for the 
foreseeable future... but he did say the ingredients were "all natural". 
Sulphuric acid is naturally occurring but I don't think I'd want my records 
cleaned with it!  Needless to say, I did not find the response acceptable!

FYI: Duane Goldman (the Disc Doctor) prints on his bottles the chemical content 
of his cleaning solutions, although it is not a recipe to make your own.

This is, I believe, a US government requirement, particularly for poison 
control center information with severe penalties and liabilities for 
violations.  If this is the case, I don't expect that you will find the Monks 
solutions available in the USA until Jon Monks decides to divulge the information.

There aren't really any "secrets" in the chemistry of cleaning solutions that 
any good chemist couldn't tell you, but if you don't know what you are using, 
then I suggest you DON'T USE IT!

I covered a safe easy-to-prepare inexpensive cleaning solution (along with some 
other cleaning suggestions) in the manual I wrote for the Keith Monks machines 
before the Monks company offered their own.




... Graham Newton

-- 
Audio Restoration by Graham Newton, http://www.audio-restoration.com
World class professional services applied to tape or phonograph records for
consumers and re-releases, featuring CEDAR's CAMBRIDGE processes.