Cleaning CD lens with Ethanol

[romeo]

Is ETHANOL (Audio and video recorders head cleaner) is good to clean CD lens
?

Tnx

romeo

[David]

Some manufactures absolutely say NEVER use alcohol of any kind on the cd
lens as it will damage the coating on the acrylic lens.

I have only seen three cases of alcohol damaging a modern cd player lens.
As a result I ONLY use the cleaner specifically made for cleaning plastic
eyeglasses and have NEVER had any problems and it does a very good job of
cleaning.
David

romeo <ro...@microtec.net> wrote in message
news:srX_7.50659$qF2.4...@carnaval.risq.qc.ca...

[Xavier van Unen]

Hi Romeo

> Is ETHANOL (Audio and video recorders head cleaner) is
good to clean CD
> lens

I use IsoPropyl Alcohol for cleaning CD laser lenses. This
stuff was suggested by the Denon importer in Holland. Most
Denons use Sony laser units. Works fine for me for all CD
players up to now.
Hope this helps.
Regards Xavier van Unen.
www.XtendRepair.nl
www.DrTube.com

[Sofie]

romeo:
Some folks would tell you to never use alcohol on the CD lens. To be safe
you may want to use plastic eyeglasses lens cleaner or windex....etc.....
.....HOWEVER, I have cleaned hundreds, if not thousands of CD lenses with
alcohol and NEVER have had a problem.
--
Best Regards,
Daniel Sofie
Electronics Supply & Repair
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"romeo" <ro...@microtec.net> wrote in message
news:srX_7.50659$qF2.4...@carnaval.risq.qc.ca...

[Captain Beefheart]

We used to use Everclear (190 proof ethyl alcohol) for cleaning everything
from nuclear detector amplifiers (>10^15 ohms input impedance) to microscope
optics.

I didn't believe them when they first told me about it but that stuff is
VERY highly distilled and there's really nothing there except ethanol and a
bit of water. You'd think that there'd be some residual fat from the corn
mash or something but they run that stuff in a continual distillation
process. So, all contaminants you'd care about are long since washed out of
the batch you get.

We could have bought CP reagent-grade anhydrous ethanol in 55 gallon drums
but the BATF taxes that like 55 gallons of booze. We couldn't even use
denatured ethanol to clean the nuclear detectors, since the denaturants were
highly contaminating to the surfaces we wanted to be absolutely clean.

We had some great parties with whatever Everclear was left over after a
product run, too...buy a few quarts at the local liquor store on the
company's nickel, use a couple of cc's and save the rest for the Christmas
punchbowl.

Seriously, those acrylic lenses that are on CD players shouldn't craze from
brief exposure to isopropyl or ethyl alcohols. Remember, you're cleaning the
MgO coating, not the plastic lens substrate itself. The MgO multilayer
coatings are usually overcoated with silicon monoxide these days to improve
durability.

Actually, you'd be a lot worse off using Windex. That stuff has a lot of
ammonia in it. Ammonia WILL attack MgO optical coatings, as I found out the
hard way on a pair of AR-coated glasses I used to wear.

I occasionally clean the lenses for my Nikon and Leica with Everclear and
new, clean cotton swabs. I follow that by a touch of distilled or DI water
on another swab and a final gentle touching with a new, dry cotton swab.
This gets optical surfaces "squeaky clean". I certainly wouldn't expose
$1200 camera lenses to anything that I didn't know was safe!

Do be aware that alcohol is highly hygroscopic so only leave it open long
enough to get a bit onto your applicator. Similarly, leaving an optical
surface wet with alcohol can cause it to attract water from the air and as
the alcohol evaporates, it leave the water behind which may spot the lens
coating if not removed before it, too, evaporates.

Finally, don't allow any solvents to slop into the focusing servo areas,
etc. I've noticed that some of the modules use lacquer to hold things like
the linear motor windings together. Extended alcohol exposure may wind up
softening something in that area and messing up its function.

Hope this helps.

Geoff

"romeo" <ro...@microtec.net> wrote in message
news:srX_7.50659$qF2.4...@carnaval.risq.qc.ca...

[Adrian]

chemically isopropanol (or as you said incorrectly) is almost identical and
so
the properties of this alcohol are except that isopropanol can solve lube
and grease a bit better.

adrian

[Sue D Nim]

I think the best solution is to go to a camera store for lens cleaning
solution and lens cleaning tissue. Not very expensive and less chance of
hurting anything.

BTW, I don't think using cotton swabs or raw cotton is a good idea on photo
lenses. I was told MMA by the Nikon School that most domestic cotton,
because it is picked by huge machines, is prone to contain abrasive
particles unless specially processed. Likewise, using any solvent on a
camera lens is a bad idea because any excess that gets on the edge could
affect the cement that holds the glass segments together.

[LeeAnn Rice]

99% alcohol works very well on virtually all laser lenses.
That is as long as you remember to rotate your swabs a lot, and use a swab
and lens- cleaning paper to finish/dry (and remove any excess).
The best thing to remember is "delicate is best". If it takes several time,
don't sweat it.

"romeo" <ro...@microtec.net> wrote in message
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