Cleaning Trulite Furniture
Has anyone found an effective way to clean Trulite furniture? At Cooper Union we have a couple of cabinets of the stuff and it is corroded and awful. It is so rough and chalky that it irritates my hands, especially in the winter. Is there any way of cleaning and stabilizing this lousy alloy without it eroding?
DGM
Magnesium alloys do this, if there isn’t a very light film of greasy residue to keep the pieces from oxidizing. Cleaning can only be achieved by the application of a little bit of steel wool with light oil — and some Elbow Grease! Then wipe off all excess oil — the film remaining will protect the furniture.
Caution! Never smoke, or have ANY source of ignition anyplace in the vicinity of finely-divided magnesium; it is extremely flammable, if not explosive.
In the future, keep stuff like this away from any dampness; this oxide may indicate a humidity problem.
Frank.
I was under the impression that this light weight furniture was an aluminum alloy, here in the UK one manufacturer was Cornerstone and their furniture was anodised. Consequently it does not oxidise, however furniture made by cefmor was not anodised and is susceptable to oxidation. I bought some a couple of years ago and was they were covered in ink, so I made up a solution using soda crystal which cleaned off the ink and cleared of the oxidation. I then washed the furniture in hot clean water and dried them off in the cooker on low heat. This seems to have done the trick.
Thank you for your input. This furniture does appear to be a magnesium alloy, not aluminum. My inclination is to replace it. It is just such awful stuff!
frank, i just got almost 100 pound of cornerstone furniture, most of it is 30 to 72 picas up to 12 pica wide. its pretty dirty, a lot of ink. so i will try your mixture with soda crystal. its available here in the us under the name washing soda or soda ash. i will report back.
IMG5437.JPG
macernst-
If you have any of that Cornerstone stuff to spare, I am trying to fill out this cabinet and am short a lot of 40, 50 and 60 length pieces. I would be happy to buy some!
DGM
dan,
i sent you a mail to your web page.
ernst