So, a couple of years ago I’m watching a show that follows around, supposedly, real Moonshiners and there’s an old toothless fellow talking about how the best thing to clean a Copper still is to use ketchup and salt. So, that night, for shits and giggles I scrub a copper tube mod I had with ketchup on a toothbrush and washed it right off and it was a little cleaner, but probably nothing a regular scrub wouldn’t do.
Fast forward to tonight...I decided I wanted to use my Authentic Able Mod and Goon Clone, which I haven’t broken out in quite a while. I find them and put it together and it’s in need of cleaning badly. Well, I recently moved and couldn’t find where my girlfriend put my rubbing alcohol and I don’t have any booze in the apartment for drinking or cleaning and I’m out of Vinegar, but I decide to try the ketchup thing again, but this time leave it in the ketchup for awhile and see what happens. I must say...I’m pretty damn surprised on how it turned out and am glad I decided to snap some before and after pics.
This is the mod/RDA as I found them:
Then I broke everything down and washed it all with dish soap and warm water and it was looking like this (First pic using flash, second one with no flash):
So, I take all the broken down pieces and rub them down separately with ketchup and then squirt a ton into a ziplock bag and throw all the pieces in there and squish it around to make sure everything is coated:
About an hour and ten minutes later, I pull the pieces out and only run warm water over them to wash off the ketchup..no soap or rubbing, and I took this pic before even drying them:
Then I took each piece and washed it off with dish soap and warm water again and arranged them as I did with the before pic and took another couple (first pic using flash, second pic no flash):
Now I just reassembled it and this is the final result:
All of the green oxidation in the threads is gone, and the mod is smooth and shiny, but not bright shiny...just a dull shine, which I like. Now, it does appear to have a bit more of a reddish tint to it now, but we’ll see after being out and used a bit, how that holds up and if that’s just a temporary type of deal.
I just wanted to share with anyone curious about this, if they’ve heard about it, whether it has any real results or not.
So, if you’re like me and in need to clean a Copper Mech but can’t find anything harder than soap or water...maybe you can find the solution in your refrigerator, lol...it seems to have worked for me.
Just for the sake of not having to scroll, here are the fully assembled before and after shots again for an easier comparison:
You're not drinking water are you?! You realize that stuff is found in antifreeze!?!
Fast forward to tonight...I decided I wanted to use my Authentic Able Mod and Goon Clone, which I haven’t broken out in quite a while. I find them and put it together and it’s in need of cleaning badly. Well, I recently moved and couldn’t find where my girlfriend put my rubbing alcohol and I don’t have any booze in the apartment for drinking or cleaning and I’m out of Vinegar, but I decide to try the ketchup thing again, but this time leave it in the ketchup for awhile and see what happens. I must say...I’m pretty damn surprised on how it turned out and am glad I decided to snap some before and after pics.
This is the mod/RDA as I found them:
Then I broke everything down and washed it all with dish soap and warm water and it was looking like this (First pic using flash, second one with no flash):
So, I take all the broken down pieces and rub them down separately with ketchup and then squirt a ton into a ziplock bag and throw all the pieces in there and squish it around to make sure everything is coated:
About an hour and ten minutes later, I pull the pieces out and only run warm water over them to wash off the ketchup..no soap or rubbing, and I took this pic before even drying them:
Then I took each piece and washed it off with dish soap and warm water again and arranged them as I did with the before pic and took another couple (first pic using flash, second pic no flash):
Now I just reassembled it and this is the final result:
All of the green oxidation in the threads is gone, and the mod is smooth and shiny, but not bright shiny...just a dull shine, which I like. Now, it does appear to have a bit more of a reddish tint to it now, but we’ll see after being out and used a bit, how that holds up and if that’s just a temporary type of deal.
I just wanted to share with anyone curious about this, if they’ve heard about it, whether it has any real results or not.
So, if you’re like me and in need to clean a Copper Mech but can’t find anything harder than soap or water...maybe you can find the solution in your refrigerator, lol...it seems to have worked for me.
Just for the sake of not having to scroll, here are the fully assembled before and after shots again for an easier comparison:
You're not drinking water are you?! You realize that stuff is found in antifreeze!?!
