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What's best for cleaning in between keys/posts?

DavidUK

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:confused:

Is there some kind of, possibly impregnated, strong thin cloth which can be used "shoe-shine" wise in between posts and under keywork so as to remove dirt and to polish at the same time? Having just dismantled my YTS-23 to give it a thorough clean I'm thinking that for routine cleaning a simpler solution is needed.

We use a two stage "E-Cloth" method on granite work surfaces in the kitchen and I'm also thinking this may be ideal. The first cloth is a heavier one which is dampened and wiped over the surface. The second is a micro-fibre cloth used dry which polishes the surface and leave sit dry and shiny. Both can be machine washed.

Is there a ready made solution for what I'm after?

Thanks for any ideas.

:thumb:
 
When I used to do it regularly (working with a repairer) I used strips of old sheets and meths.

Don't really do routine cleaning.
 
When I used to do it regularly (working with a repairer) I used strips of old sheets and meths.

Don't really do routine cleaning.
Is meths the best evaporative? I use isopropyl alcohol for other cleaning jobs. Would it do the job just as well?
Any technique to use, or just poke the dipped strip in between the posts and pull to and fro?
 
My suggestion to remove the dust, dust bunnies, and such is to use a small paintbrush with long soft bristles to dislodge the material followed by blowing with the blower attachment of a vacuum, or compressed air. Vacuuming the case regularly goes a long way to prevent the accumulation.

For oil based crud created by over oiling the mechanism and putting oil on the outside rather than the inside of the hinge tube, I use a different approach. To pick up the oily dust I use a Q-tip dipped in Lemon Pledge sprayed into a small jar. That is followed
by one or more dry Q-tips to dry and polish the surface. It takes a while, but it does a nice job. After one has cleaned up dozens of dirty/oily saxophones in this manner like I have one begins to understand why I take the hardline position that it is best to remove the keys to oil them once a year.
 
Any technique to use, or just poke the dipped strip in between the posts and pull to and fro?
Yup. That's what I used to do. Meths has the benefit of being cheap. I imagine isoprop would do as well.
 
My suggestion to remove the dust, dust bunnies, and such is to use a small paintbrush with long soft bristles to dislodge the material followed by blowing with the blower attachment of a vacuum, or compressed air. Vacuuming the case regularly goes a long way to prevent the accumulation.

For oil based crud created by over oiling the mechanism and putting oil on the outside rather than the inside of the hinge tube, I use a different approach. To pick up the oily dust I use a Q-tip dipped in Lemon Pledge sprayed into a small jar. That is followed
by one or more dry Q-tips to dry and polish the surface. It takes a while, but it does a nice job. After one has cleaned up dozens of dirty/oily saxophones in this manner like I have one begins to understand why I take the hardline position that it is best to remove the keys to oil them once a year.
I seem to think, for some reason, that it may be saliva which perhaps picks up the dust and so mixes the two at an early point ruling simple dusting out, unless the sax has been cleaned of such deposits and left on a stand to gather dust with no binding agent such as oil or saliva. I've used Q-tips and isoprop before but it's difficult to get at the back of posts sometimes. I thought wrapping the cloth strip around and through the posts may be a better idea. Maybe a combination of the two?
 
I use Q-tips, a paint brush and a micro-fibre cloth. From time to time I would apply Meguiar's Cleaner Wax on the larger surface on the horn. While I wipe off the wax, I would try to hit those difficult areas with the same cloth, so the wax is cleaning and polishing at the same time.
 
Cotton pipe cleaners work as well---with or without a solvent.
 
A quick spray with MrSheen and a going over with a big (4") soft paintbrush cleans the crud out of the fiddly places, doesn't dislodge any springs or bits of cork and leaves the sax shiney, shiney, shiney. The silicone finish dissuades crud from sticking and makes cleaning next time much easier.
 
I fold a pipe-cleaner in half and hold the open wire ends (so as not to scratch the sax). I usually use only water to wash my saxes - on a cotton handkerchief for the bits I can reach and on the pipe-cleaner, in between the little bits I cannot reach.

Just occasionally I have accidentally flipped off a spring, so take it slowly and watch what you are doing!
 
For the definitive method of cleaning your sax, go to you tube and type-cleaning your saxophone expert village and it's the second video down. It has 16 likes and 50 dislikes. Reading the comments is the best bit of this video!

Dave
 
There is another saxophone forum from which I have been banned for life more times than any other member (5 at last count) on which a member once posted (in all seriousness) to take a shower with your saxophone in order to clean it and wet the leather pads to make them "seat" better. I replied that it was a good thing he was only kidding because only an idiot would suggest such a stupid idea. That was either the first or second time I was kicked off the forum for being "rude" to another member. My views on that have not changed, but I have now learned to say the same thing without using the words "idiot" and "stupid"---at least not in the same sentence. :)
 
There is another saxophone forum from which I have been banned for life more times than any other member (5 at last count) on which a member once posted (in all seriousness) to take a shower with your saxophone in order to clean it and wet the leather pads to make them "seat" better. I replied that it was a good thing he was only kidding because only an idiot would suggest such a stupid idea. That was either the first or second time I was kicked off the forum for being "rude" to another member. My views on that have not changed, but I have now learned to say the same thing without using the words "idiot" and "stupid"---at least not in the same sentence. :)

Oops! I have never actually been told how to clean a sax, I just figured that the minimum amount of intervention was best, hence the handkerchief and pipecleaner dampened in water, then buffed dry....all done very carefully. :D
If someone is stupid enough to think that taking a sax into the shower is a good idea, then I think they should be told, so good for you :welldone
 
I am not sure that I have ever cleaned my saxophone, except a very perfunctory wipe, so I am not really qualified to answer, but I do have a puffer brush for dusting camera lenses. That'd probably work well for.removing dust from delicate saxophone bits.
 
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