Cleaning Badges, Is there a preferred method?

[Charles218]

I am in the final stretch of bringing three pairs of 4X's back to life, having replaced the capacitors, a thorough cleaning of the pots, and replacing the grill cloth with "Wichelt Lambswool Linen". The final touch is the badges and most of mine are rather tarnished. I'm looking for suggestions on the best cleaning method and would appreciate hearing from anyone about their experience with these.

Thanks!
Charles

[JKent]

If they are extremely early, the "AR INC" is etched and you can then polish the brass with brass cleaner. But the vast majority were silk screened and cannot be cleaned successfully. If you are interested, I have some anodized aluminum reproductions.

http://www.classicspeakerpages.net/IP.Board/index.php?showtopic=6002

Kent

[Charles218]

Kent -

My badges are the "AR INC" style, and if I could figure out how to attach a photo I would. So you are saying that I can use something like Brasso to clean these, do I then want to apply anything to help preserve them?

There it is, I found the path to attach a photo.

Thanks!

Charles

[Carlspeak]

Those badges are NOT cleanable with brasso. Brasso will remove the printed AR inc. IIRC, they are NOT cleanable. However, vintageAR on *bay sells some great looking, self-adhesive reproductions. I've got a pair I'm saving for one of my 4x restos.

[Charles218]

So, can I safely do anything to clean these up? I really like the idea of keeping them as original as is reasonably possible, though I have repro badges on my 3-A's and they look wonderful and in no way affect the music

It would be nice to be able to do a mild cleaning, I am just concerned about some kind of chemical reaction that might have a negative affect on them.

Charles