Cleaning a 70mm Hub Reel

[Yves Leibowitz]

Silly question, but what is the smartest way to clean a metal hub reel for 70mm?

[John Eickhof]

if the reel is a fixed or solid hub (meaning the center does not spin separate from the side flanges) then just clean it with a degreaser like 409. If it is a floating hub, (the center will spin separate from the flanges to allow smoother start up) then clean the hub where the flanges engage with a light solvent like kerosene to remove any oil or dirt residue that would cause the hub to stick, then apply a drop or two of light oil in the groove so the flanges will spin easily separate from the hub. this applies to 35mm reels also. if the hubs and flanges are excessively worn, Goldberg used to make repair kits for replacing the hub centers, probably have a hard time finding any of them now. General Dynamics made 24" reels with ball bearing hubs. They operated well and lasted a long time.

[Jim Cassedy]

When the theater I'm at re-opened after the Coronapacoplyse last year, I had to clean awholebuncha solid hub
70mm reels that had collected dust while the theater was closed prior to using them for the "Licorice Pizza" run.
Like John said, I just used some "409" spray, mostly because that's what I had handy, and a plastic 'brillo' type
pot scrubber. The dirt on two reels, for some reason, was a lot more stubborn than all the others, and I wound
up submerging them in a large slop-sink to give them an extra good scrubbing. After wiping the excess water
off, I 'spun dried' them on the rewind bench, & they were clean & 'good as new' -

[Randy Stankey]

Barkeeper's Friend.

It's a powdered cleanser containing oxalic acid which is great for cleaning copper, brass, aluminum and stainless steel.

If you have some old, aluminum pots and pans that have turned gray from being washed in the dishwasher (aluminum shouldn't really be washed in the dishwasher for that reason) the application of some Barkeeper's Friend (BKF), a Scotchbrite scrubbing pad and a bit of elbow grease will make them shiny again, on short order.

You can get BKF at Walmart or any of the other usual suspects. It comes in a gold colored can with blue and white lettering.

Just be sure to rinse your items really, really well, afterward and, of course, dry really, really well.

If you can eat from cookware cleaned with BKF, I see no reason you couldn't use it for film reels, provided you rinse and dry, well, before using them again.

[Jesse Crooks]

A bit late to the party for this post, but after a lot of trial and error I've settled on using naphtha and cotton rags to clean very dirty reels. It's a cheap and effective cleaner that evaporates without leaving residue, and unlike the water-based cleaners it won't introduce moisture that promotes corrosion. And it's used as a film cleaner, so you know you have nothing to worry about in terms of print contamination. You'll want to use it outside or with adequate ventilation to deal with the fumes.

For a light cleaning I use 99.9% alcohol, since I have that around for many other applications and it doesn't give you a headache if you use it without ventilation.