cleaning tacking iron

[Raymond Bleesz]

over time, my tacking iron has accumulated "gunk" from dry mount tissue. what h ave you found to be the best way to clean the iron?

i suspect that preheating the unit at low temp and using acetone would be ok. a ny thoughts??

[Tony Brent]

It should but please be careful with that stuff. It is EXTREMELY flammable, sometimes almost explosively so. The older stick-um used to have a shellac base that alcohol would cut.

[Jim McD]

Seal makes a platen cleaaner that should do the job. It comes in a 2 fl.oz. tub for about $35 from light Impressions/about $26 from B&H. it seems pricey but i have a drymount press that has a pile of gunk on it and I was about to buy a tub unless someone comes up with a better answer here. I tried some 1-1-1 trichoroethane and it did NOT work well.