Cleaning AR glass

[Jana]

Our shop is starting to sell TruVue AR glass (not the UV AR museum glass yet). During our first two weeks of offering it, it was amazing to see how many customers were willing to try it. We have two framed LJ samples that we show customers, and have our spiel and prices set better than we did.

So when an order came due, I put on my gloves that I have used to handle glass for a while. They are cotton gardening gloves with little rubber dots on the fingers, and I thought I held the AR glass carefully. But upon inspection, the imprints of the little dots appeared and some other mystery spots.

So I tried to clean the glass, and it got streaky. The streaks pretty much disappeared when the glass was put against the mat, but it wasn't as pristine looking as the areas I didn't attempt to clean. If this piece of glass were used on a shadow box, the streaks would show.

Before I even tackled this, I had called LJ tech to find out what glass cleaner to use. They recommended Sprayway and a soft cotton cloth. I used it and got the streaks. (They also said to clean in one direction, not in circles and to not use anything with ammonia.) Then I tried some lens cleaner from the optometrist that is for anti-reflective lenses. That did the same thing. Our usual cleaner, diluted Awesome, worked about as well as the pricier cleaners. They all left streaks.

The best thing to do, I guess is not to clean it. But when it is necessary, what is the absolute best thing to use? I checked the archives and didn't see anything under the "Anti-Reflective glass" topic.

[tnframer408]

First, my son as a parttime EMT keeps me supplied with surgical gloves. Buy them and use them religiously on all your glasses.

Secondly, use Paul Frederick's formula for glass cleaner as found in his book. Iforgetthe exact formilation, but it goes like, water, alcohol, a few drops of Ivory Liquid (which acts as a surfactant which is a wetting agent) and, the key ingredient, Rottenstone--avilable from LJ.

Never had a problemcleaning AR or Museum, both of which we use on a regular basis.

[Shan Linde]

Ehh gads...

The fine formula of Paul Frederics is indeed great- for uncoated glass products.

The rottenstone may cause trouble with the coating.(glad that there hasn't been a problem so far)

My experience with the coated products is that they are pretty clean...spot clean only...wear cotton only gloves Or latex only gloves...IMHO those bumpy ones are nothing but trouble.

If you get a shard of glass onto the surface it can easily be lifted by dropping a small spot of alcohol (or water) on the shard. Most of the time the shard will float off.

Also helpful are (what will framers try to solve problems) post it notes...the sticky side will not leave a residue if lightly pressed on the surface-------- but do not leave it there.

tongue.gif One more thing that may help in working with this glass is if a wall mounted glass cutter is used, spot clean on the cutter, and move the glazing directly to the top of the matted art.

Shan Linde
former Glass Queen at Tru Vue

[PAMELA DESIMONE,CPF]

I quit selling AR product since it was such a bugger to clean. I reasoned that if I had trouble with it, that is use a special cleaner and cloth, how is a customer going to clean it and get good results? I had a piece come in for repair that had AR on it. It had been around awhile, and there was NO WAY that I could get that glass clean. I had to sell the guy new glass. I had heard from somewhere that the "pockets" in the glass that make it anti-reflective will collect soil and oils(from handlimg) in them, and cannot be cleaned out. After that experience, I believe it. BTW, 95% of my sales are conservation glass.

[MerpsMom]

Are we speaking of TV AR? I know ImagePerfect got the knock forever because of its difficulty with cleaning and streaking, but didn't know TV's AR was the same. I know IP glass has its detractors, but I still liked it, and in fact, still have some of it. Actually, I probably still would even sell it except that my rep was a complete bummer and so was the company response.

Great SuperBowl!! No bad guys here no matter who you were rooting for.

[PicFrmProd]

TruVue AR glass is coated but does not have "Pockets" the coating is smooth. You have confused AR with Image Perfect. No special cleaner is required for TruVue AR. TruVue does sell a glass cleaner and I found it to be superb. Otherwise any cleaner WITHOUT amonia is fine. The alcohol should be "denatured alcohol" A solution of 1/2 denatured alcohol and 1/2 water should work wonders. Most often streaking is caused by the cloth being used. It may not be clean or it may not be absorbent enough. Just my humble opinion. smile.gif

[Jerry Ervin]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by PicFrmProd:
TruVue AR glass is coated but does not have "Pockets" the coating is smooth. You have confused AR with Image Perfect. No special cleaner is required for TruVue AR. TruVue does sell a glass cleaner and I found it to be superb. Otherwise any cleaner WITHOUT amonia is fine. The alcohol should be "denatured alcohol" A solution of 1/2 denatured alcohol and 1/2 water should work wonders. Most often streaking is caused by the cloth being used. It may not be clean or it may not be absorbent enough. Just my humble opinion. smile.gif <hr></blockquote>


The TruVue cleaner is all we use in our shop.

BE CAREFUL if your using alcohol, DO NOT use rubbing alcohol because it has Lanolin in it and will leave a greasy residue behind.

[preservator]

Some supermarkets sell 99% isopropyl as rubbing
alcohol that should work without any residue. If
the glass has been cut with an oiled wheel, it will have to be cleaned with detergent, first,
since nothing else can cut the oil.

Hugh

[PAMELA DESIMONE,CPF]

Thanks for reminding me. That was Image Perfect glass I had all the trouble with. Still, I used TruVue Museum glass recently on a project, and I found it difficult to clean. Like I said, if I have to take special care and use special products, how is a customer supposed to clean it and get good results? I stay away from products that may cause problems somewhere down the line.

[Reynard]

What is rubbing alcohol?

[pdumbaugh]

Hello!

Here are the cleaning instructions we provide for AR and Museum glass. These instructions work well for all glass. Also, we have talked to many framers who have found 3M's microfiber cloth (costs about $4.00 and can be bought at Target) to work really well on AR glass.

Here's our official instructions:


1. Make sure all the glass chips left after cutting the lite have been removed with a horsehair brush as they will scratch the surface of the glass during cleaning.

2. Place the lite of glass on a clean, non-abrasive surface for cleaning.

3. Use a clean, soft, lint-free cloth to clean and dry the glass.

4. Spray an ammonia-free glass cleaner such as Tru Vue Premium Clean on the cloth and wipe the lite. It is recommended that cleaner not be sprayed directly on this or any glass.

5. Do not use coarse or abrasive cleaning agents or dirty cltohs to clean the lite of glass.

Hope this helps!

Patti Dumbaugh
Director of Marketing
Tru Vue

[tnframer408]

Reynard:
Rubbing alcohol is when I go to my favorite liquor store, buy my Glennfiddich or other single malt favorite, go home, take a slug and rub my tummy with a big smile and say "mmmmm good"

Works with Wild Turkey Special Reserve too. But I thought you'd know single malt before you'd know single barrel bourbon, no water added.

[Framerguy]

First of all, Jana, I am surprised that Larson-Juhl did not recommend their own brand of glass cleaner to you instead of SprayWay cleaner. I used SprayWay years ago and had a heck of a streaking problem with it.

I have found only 2 manufactured cleaning products that I can use to get a streak free absolute clean surface on any type of uncoated framer's glass. The first is TPI Glass Cleaner manufactured by Technology Products Incorporated, Box 427, Tennant, NJ 07763 and the other is Larson's Glass Cleaner. They both have IDENTICAL ingredients in them and they both do an identical job of cleaning non-coated glass. Both are priced within pennies of each other but L-J's cleaner is in a 19 oz. can where the other is in a 15 oz. can.

M.S.D.S. sheets are available for both products and should be asked for and read for further safety instructions. Having been in the Autobody Repair trade for over 33 years, I know the value of M.S.D.S. (Material Safety Data Sheets) and recommend that any framer who is doubtful about the ingredients or usage of any of the products that they keep in their shop request these sheets and READ THEM.

When I was doing body work I couldn't get a car window clean to save my soul!! But now, I have absolutely no trouble ever with using either of the above mentioned products for a clean streak free surface on glass. (AND the windows of MY vehicles also).

An additional note on cleaning glass. I have been using cloth baby diapers from K-Mart (goodbye my friend) or Wal-Mart (scourge of the small businessman but a sometimes necessity for certain items) to clean glass. The 100% cotton diapers are soft, absorbant, and relatively lint free and don't cost very much. I cut them in half, hem them (YES, I can sew), and launder them when they become dirty. Clean counts for alot on glass.

Much of the streaking problems come from using "clean" looking but dirty cloths and dirty hands. I spray directly on the glass, wipe from the center to the edges in a straight strokes and I handle the glass on the edges only after it is cleaned. Unbleached white table linen is another pretty good wiping cloth. It is lint free, not quite as absorbant as cotton, but does a good job also.

Framerguy, aka Goober, et al

[Jerry Ervin]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Reynard:
What is rubbing alcohol?<hr></blockquote>

Rubbing alcohol is a product sold in the US that is a mixture of Isopropol, water, and lanolin. The lanolin is there to leave a lotion for the skin after the alchol evaporates. Depending on price and brand alcohol % can be 20% to 90%. The lower being very cheap. Good stuff for cleaning cuts, but not glass.

[Reynard]

Does it taste as good as Glenfiddich?

;)

[Alan Sturgess]

We have sold for five years a glass cleaner called ULTRA LITE, suitable for cleaning all glass including conservation glass. We have had great positive comments back from our customers.

The cleaner contains no ammonia or alcohol.

It was developed and manufactured by Len Lastuck of Frame Speciatlies in Elkhart Indiana specifically for the picture framing industry. Len also developed the MAXIM 5/15 wood glue.

The cleaner comes in an 8 ounce bottle that you mix with 1 US gallon of DISTILLED WATER. You can pick up the water at most grocery stores for $1.00 to $1.50 per gallon. You must use distilled water as most of the bottled drinking waters contain many unknown minerals that will give you streaking if you add the ULTRA LITE to it. It works great with a simple spray bottle.

If you want to find the distributor nearest to you call Frame Specialties in Elhart at 1-800-777-3165 or order it from them directly.

Alan Sturgess

[Jana]

I want to try everyone's suggestions, because today, again I struggled with AR glass. I spent a good amount of time working with this glass for glossy photos of galaxies and stars complete with a black suede mat. What were we thinking? :confused: Some new 'stars' even appeared in the form of mystery spots on the glass. Life is too short.

It seems the glass gets a major static charge and every piece of dust in the vicinity is attracted to it. Now usually, I don't have trouble with black suede mats, but this new learning curve is throwing me for a loop, and I wanted to throw in the towel.

I noticed that the blurb for Tru Vue's cleaner in the UMS catalog says something about anti-static characteristics. Unfortunately, the cleaner is there and the order is due. :eek:

Thanks for all the advice. Any other hints would be greatly appreciated. Practice makes perfect, and I am determined to work out a system for using AR even on black suede mats. graemlins/icon9.gif

One other thing, a cross-stitch I did yesterday with a light green suede (Asparagus) mat turned out much better after initially giving me a similar amount of grief. I think the spots and specks are all kinda camouflaged. smile.gif

[Framing Goddess]

Hi Jan!
How's the AR glass cleaning going?
Here's how I do it...
The little shiny spots on the glass I think are "grease" or "oil"-- such as that from your skin. Maybe the bumply gloves leave some sort of residue... I'd lose 'em for this glass. I've used cheap cotton gloves from United but recently a nice pair of heavier "True Vue" cotton gloves appeared on the worktable and we have been using those. Nice. We use Awesome cleaner also-- if you get streaks, dilute it with more water. I have also used that Sprayway stuff in the can with the unique smell. I try to remember not to spray it on the glass although the truth is, I don't think it matters too much. I use just garden variety paper towels-- CLEAN ones though...right off the roll. Persist with the wiping/polishing. You don't have to scrub (you don't want to...) but you will eventually get all those shiny-ish spots to disappear. You won't get it as perfect as regular glass-- it seems that a lot of those teeny spots just won't be noticeable.
I like the diaper idea-- might give it a try.
Also, if static continues to be a problem, check out the anti-static brush from United-- #'s 4691, 4964, and 4983-- page 86 in the current catalog. These things are GREAT. They're about $20.00- 23.00 and will last indefinitely. I use them on plexi from which I have just peeled off that brown stickum paper and no need to clean! cool!
Good luck-- let us know how it goes on your AR mission-- people tend to get hooked on this stuff. I'm glad to hear they're going for it!
-Edie the fg