Posted by js on July 09, 2002 at 21:43:54:
In Reply to: Cooking oil posted by Odd Question on July 09, 2002 at 21:14:10:
Occasionally over the years, I've gotten in instruments that have been oiled/greased with cooking oil. It eventually dries up and glues an instrument's moving parts together.
So far, I haven't found an effective solvent. Perhaps immersing in boiling water, but I haven't tried that yet...' seems a bit risky just to unstick some old Yama-thing, etc.
In addition to completely gluing the instrument together, the cooking oil gets rancid and STINKS.
As of about two years ago, I began refusing to work on such instruments. When someone asks me what to do, I suggest, "If you discover an easy answer, please let me know, just in case one of my rental instruments ends up like this."