Zerodust stylus Cleaner

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Sorry, forgot to post my experiences.

I've been using for a couple of years. I use it before every side. When it gets dirty, just put a couple of drops of water on the top and wash away the stuff. I used to wash it more thoroughly, but the squishy part eventually seperated from the paper backing, rendering it useless. Even at that, it looses its tackiness with repeated cleanings, so count on a life of a year or so, depending on how much you are spinning.
 
There's no need to spend anything. My Watts Dust Bug still reduces stylus fluff practically to zero - and giving good service after at least 30 years! Sometimes I dampen it slightly.

After playing two or three sides the microscope reveals a splattering of tiny sticky particles on the stylus and support tube. These can be removed by wiping with a small squirrel hair paint brush dipped into a 35-50% solution of ethyl or isopropyl alcohol in distilled water. Sixty ml in a 100 ml glass bottle will last a year or more.

Distilled water is to be preferred and can be produced very quickly by standing a small bowl on a mug or other spacer in a large pan. Place an inverted lid over the pan and gently simmer a couple of inches of water in the pan. The inverted lid should be filled with cold water, and condensation will form on the base of the lid and drip into the bowl.

In the absence of a suitable small squirrel hair brush, it's possible to make one from human hair! Start with a lock about 2 or 3 cm long, trim and dip the end into glue, and bind on to a small dowel or matchstick with tape. Allow the glue to dry and trim to about 1 cm.

I recently purchased a useful x100 LED inspection microscope for £4.95 from Maplin which now lives under the turntable.
 
I have one of these that I got when I purchased my ZYX R100H. It works very well, in my opinion, but I can't imagine I paid that much for it.

Then again, I was way over budget when I bought the cartridge, so maybe I did! 😉

I am contemplating getting a brush to remove dust (as opposed to dirt). Something like this:

AcousTech brush
 
It looks a little fierce to me. I also note the warning about the brushing direction! A soft bristled brush should never damage the stylus and the alcohol removes anything a bit greasy - it positively sparkles! It's also easy to clean right up the shank occasionally - there tends to be a slow build up round the pivot.

Smoke was the killer - you could see the build up under a microscope after someone smoked only one cigarette in the room. Thankfully, few people smoke now.
 
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