[asam2006]

Originally Posted by Josh7975

yeah as I mentioned I am not so sure about pipeshield, though it's good to hear you're still confident in it. I'm pretty sure it fades some colors, both in Paulsons and ASMs. I'm guessing the problem is specific to organic dye-based colors, which would be attacked by pipe shield. Also, I have the suspicion that longer soaks in pipeshield might result in a rougher surface. Maybe I am way off on this one.

Anyways, I'd be keen on something as fast and cheap as TSP.

I've cleaned thousands of chips mostly Paulsons with inlays and hotstamps with PS and its worked great. It takes some of the oil out of the chip as to be expected but a little mineral oil takes care of that. It won't remove hot stamps and I've never noticed any problems. I'm pretty sure it doesn't fade the colors on ASMs and Paulsons. That has been my experience and thats why I've stayed with it. I love my chips and I would never mistreat them ( unless one of them was extremely bad).

[Josh7975]

ok well apparently it's illegal to sell TSP in New York State. There is a "TSP-substitute" available, which is in liquid form, but I'm not going to mess with that.

Looks like I will be sticking with pipeshield, or maybe I'll look for TSP next time I am across the border in Ontario.

I will try to post pics of a few EP ASM $5s I cleaned in pipeshield. I don't know what the actual color is supposed to be when clean, but the ps definitely faded some of the chips-- a few are less pink on one side than the other, probably due to the fact that I flipped them over half-way through a 24-hr soak. Mineral oil darkened the color, but didn't remove the color difference. I know another CTer mentioned problems with fading in purple paulsons.

From what little I know about pigments, some colors (esp. scarlets and non-toxic bright reds) are made by precipitating organic dyes onto aluminum dust. It's possible the pipeshield eats up the dyes, just like it eats up other organic material. I think most other pigments are made of ground up minerals, like iron oxide. They're inorganic and wouldn't be affected by pipeshield. Just my thoughts on this.

Thanks again for everyone's tips.

[monkeydog]

I used Bondex TSP substitute with good results.

[clmayfield]

Thanks for the patent info on this thread. I found some DAP brand TSP at Lowe's. As it turns out, their TSP product already contains sodium carbonate. Using the info from the patent (and some basic chemistry), I calculated that if I mixed a gallon of purified water with 2 teaspoons of baking soda and 15 teaspoons (5 tablespoons) of the DAP TSP product (really TSP/Sodium Carbonate), I approximated the mix of Diamond Chip cleaner.

My chemistry is way back, but I think that the Baking Soda serves as a buffer to maintain a pretty consistent pH. The mixture has worked well on my Treasure $1's allowing for a good cleanign without being too harmful to the chips. It would be interesting to try this mix with a hot stamped chip and see what happens.

In comparing to the price of Diamond Chip Cleaner or even Pipe Shield in my area, this is a real bargain. Many many thanks for this discovery!