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| One of the nice things about carbon rods is that they're totally unaffected by acetone.
Ok, so you say, "Who cares, I don't use any acetone, it smells funny and it's generally useless for
model-building?" (because it dissolves CA glues).
Actually, it's this last part that makes acetone so handy. It fully disolves CA glues but at the same time it does nothing at all to carbon rods. Soo..... let's say you have a rod you've used before and is full of old glue and bits of wood but you now want to "re-purpose it" (fancy way of saying you want to use it again instead of throwing it away). (:-) Well, then, all you have to do is to fill up a glass jar with acetone, dip the rod in it and let it sit for a few hours. When you return the old glue will have totally fallen away from the rod leaving it as nice, round and shiny as it was the day you first received it. All you have to remember is to use a glass or jar (acetone will mess up most plastic jars), and to cover the top of it with some alu foil to keep the acetone from evaporating too fast. Metal jars work also, but glass lets you see how much junk has accumulated in the solution. Also most glass jars have better caps that can be sealed to preserve the acetone in between uses. Acetone does not in any way degrade the rods, does not soak in or change any mechanical properties so your old rod will now be 100% ready for further use.
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