Author Topic: Cleaning diabolos (Read 55399 times)

Rusty · « **on:** November 20, 2004, 07:05:03 pm »

When the diabolo starts to wrap up on the string all the time I blame it on the string, and change it.

Do you guys clean you diabolos axels regularly?

Rusty, Norway

(Lots of snow here now)

barnesy · « **Reply #1 on:** November 20, 2004, 07:06:22 pm »

I wipe the axles with cloth (well, with my T-shirt) a little bit just to keep them grease free. And toothpaste seems to be good for scrubbing Henry's cups with, as it's slightly abrasive.

Sean · « **Reply #2 on:** November 21, 2004, 05:31:06 am »

A little bit of acetone and a bunch of elbow grease works wonders for cleaning the rubber cups. Matt Hall got me into that. He always seems to have white Henrys that are so clean they could be new - no small feat. Not that I've bothered to do it in the last 3 months or so, but if you want to get diabolos clean, nothing seems to work like acetone.

(You can find acetone in bulk at any hardware store.)

MattF · « **Reply #3 on:** November 21, 2004, 11:16:42 am »

a touch of ligher fluid (the stuff you can get for zippo lighters) also seems to do the trick when it comes to cleaning diabolo cups.

JGherkin · « **Reply #4 on:** November 22, 2004, 07:57:36 pm »

I was well pleased the other week when I managed to get two of my diabs clean with soapy water and a scourer...ok so i had no ends to my fingers anymore and cudn't actually use my keyboard properly afterwards but it was worth it, I'll try some of the ol acetone on my third diab when I can be bothered to get some

Paul · « **Reply #5 on:** November 22, 2004, 08:24:59 pm »

I usually get my girlfriend to clean mine. Its much easier that way!!!!!!

Martijn · « **Reply #6 on:** November 22, 2004, 08:30:33 pm »

A friend of mine once cleaned my 2 Henrys Circus diabolos (blue/black) with just water and some soap. It toke a while but they came out clean! However, a few tricks later there were black marks on the blue cups again...

Maybe aceton works? I'll try it someday (and a bunch of elbow grease you said

my english isn't that good, so I don't understand

)

el_grimley · « **Reply #7 on:** November 22, 2004, 09:20:10 pm »

elbow greese is using your muscle and working at it.

More of a when to clean point: I would really recomend washing diabolos thoroughly with clean fresh water after use in a salty enviroment (like on the beech). In about 3 weeks my axels rusted through on my Henry's after two weeks beside the sea.

Graham

Matt · « **Reply #8 on:** November 23, 2004, 12:26:58 am »

Hi everyone!

I use acetone and a brillo scouring pad. I sit them in the sink with warm water and scrub until my fingers are sore and red. They look great, but it is a bit time consuming. Everyone at the fest is always shocked to hear how long I've had mine (because they look new), but I've stopped cleaning them until WJF and now they are DIRTY. I'm talking MFP's diabolo dirty (those of you who've seen know what I mean). haha

Arjan · « **Reply #9 on:** November 23, 2004, 03:04:38 am »

A white is black you mean Matt?

Well, you shoudn`t clean them, you better spend that time on playing

seán_ · « **Reply #10 on:** November 23, 2004, 03:50:06 am »

Thanks for the acetone tip.

I had been using some kind of oxygenated kitchen cleaner (until it was pointed out that having a clean kitchen might be a little bit more important than having clean diabolos...I bit my tongue). It did the job but worried me the first time because the bells went very matt coloured which soon reverted to shiny then black

.

What makes Henrys go black? One theory I heard was that friction removes material from the axle, which gets transfered to the string that then gets transferred to the bells. I dont know if this is the case but if it was then using a different material running axle might help. If its down to the actual rubber then thats just one of those things.

Seán

staticjuggler · « **Reply #11 on:** January 15, 2005, 08:29:14 pm »

Hi,

Are you saying that finesses don't get dirty, only henry's do because of the rubber?

Static

www.staticjuggler.com

seán_ · « **Reply #12 on:** January 15, 2005, 08:53:35 pm »

Finesesse get dirty but not as dirty as Henrys it would seem. I'm not sure about Harlequins since I dont have any myself.

I think it is a combination of the rubber and the axles that Henrys use.

kamikace · « **Reply #13 on:** January 15, 2005, 09:51:13 pm »

I clean my diabolos with burn alcohol (which is blue), but I have never cleaned my diabolo axels!

I thought they were cleaned by the string friction....

isn´t they?

Yoda · « **Reply #14 on:** January 30, 2005, 02:31:47 pm »

I clean my circus with querosene (Is this right in english?), I've tried many things, like soap, acetone... but the only thing that cleaned it was querosene, and it required a lot of work to get it clean (Its a circus glow)... I Also clean my henry's yellow string with querosene when its getting dirty and it works! =D

[]s

seán_ · « **Reply #15 on:** January 30, 2005, 02:50:46 pm »

Quote from: Yoda

I clean my circus with querosene (Is this right in english?), I've tried many things, like soap, acetone... but the only thing that cleaned it was querosene, and it required a lot of work to get it clean (Its a circus glow)... I Also clean my henry's yellow string with querosene when its getting dirty and it works! =D

[]s

Kerosene (parrafin in the UK) , the fuel used for fire juggling?

I have not tried it. One thing seems consistant though, all methods seem to require a lot of work.

edit* I had a word with Yoda, he says thats it, he also mentions that he washes the string with water after cleaning

Carefull with this one as its potentially very dangerous. usual warnings about avoiding naked flames, making sure you are in a well ventilated area and not drinking it etc.

http://www.brownoil.com/msdskerosene.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene

[/b]

Chiok · « **Reply #16 on:** January 30, 2005, 07:07:47 pm »

From what I've learnt from Mechanical Engineering,
Mixing parafin (kerosene for US) with washing up liquid and water (not sure of the quantities) makes a very effective cleaning and degreasing agent and is used in manufacturing applications to remove grime and oil from components. Not sure if it'd be good on string due to it's poruous properties, I would have thought that it would make it very slippery like a parafin spill on concrete.

Chiok

Sean · « **Reply #17 on:** February 25, 2005, 06:33:19 am »

There's been some talk about finesses not getting as dirty and being easier to clean. After an hour of intense scrubbing with acetone I gave up with 2.5 of my circuses clean. Later on that evening I decided to have a go at my white finesses.

About 60 seconds later with only a scouring pad and water I had the following accomplished:

Amazing.

Martijn · « **Reply #18 on:** February 25, 2005, 08:51:12 am »

Cool! I just love that white color of Finesses!

Matt_ · « **Reply #19 on:** February 26, 2005, 04:18:53 pm »

wow, that's beautiful sean. i tried cleaning my circus out of whimsy, and i scrubbed it with some kind of cleaner my mom gave me, that didnt work very well, but at least it got off the chunks

News:

Author Topic: Cleaning diabolos (Read 55399 times)