Who knows. Back in the 70's, studios and stages were filled with smokers. I have no idea where that machine had been, only that it's current owner at the time was a non-smoker. When I rebuild these machines, in nearly every case I remove substantial amounts of tobacco residue. It's disgusting. I use a lot of ammonia and a lot of "Purple Power" when cleaning them.
These days all of the nuts, bolts and screws go into an industrial ultrasonic cleaner that I purchased. I also use it to clean the key spring and pinch rollers as well as the pressure pads. It adds a whole new level to pinch roller reconditioning too. Everything comes out all sparkly most of the time. Knocks about 5 hours off the overall time it takes me to restore one of these things. I still clean and polish everything that can't be cleaned in the ultrasonic bath.
So the end result is that when they're done they smell good and are squeeky-clean.
In a message dated 4/2/2010 8:01:05 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, pocotron@yahoo.com writes:
In what kind of environment was #1342 kept to get that kind of build-up?