Anyone Still Using Zerodust

It’s not a good cleaner, but not for the reasons speculated. It’s not dangerous. It’s just not very effective at keeping a stylus clean over time, certainly not effective at clearing away any hardened or bonded crud, and completely useless at cleaning the cantilever & other bits of a cartridge. I have 2 sitting in a drawer, plus a DS Audio gel that has seen VERY little use and probably won’t again.

Use Magic Eraser (lots of application techniques on that one - I use a more "bold" approach than most) and a dry brush. Clean your cantilevers and front yoke/pole too. Liquid cleaners are OK if you like them.

I've been using Magic Eraser & dry brush for years, ever since @dougdeacon and others explain@bkeske and some other friends are fans of Blutak, including a Soundsmith employee.

@mulveling any opinion/concern regarding comments like "Magic eraser is an abrasive so I wouldn't go near a diamond stylus with it." 

I THINK Magic Eraser is doing its job well, but I don't have a USB microscope etc. and can't confirm that no abrasive damage is being done. Cheers,

Spencer

"Magic eraser is an abrasive so I wouldn't go near a diamond stylus with it." 

True, but the action of simply dipping isn't enough to damage a diamond surface.

@mulveling any opinion/concern regarding comments like "Magic eraser is an abrasive so I wouldn’t go near a diamond stylus with it."

Yes, good! The abrasiveness is what makes it an effective cleaner. Diamond is exceptionally hard; much harder than melamine. You either have to wear it down with other diamonds, or through massive attrition over time via softer materials (like thousands of miles of vinyl groove playback - which btw can also contain other materials from imperfect cleaning). Slow-speed dipping or even gentle rotational scrubbing with ME (once per session - don't be obsessive) doesn’t qualify as either.

This is like being concerned about rubbing alcohol being poison, but dabbing it on a scrape anyways. It’s not nearly enough absorption to damage your body, and the cleaning effect is more important to longevity.

The abrasiveness is what makes it an effective cleaner. Diamond is exceptionally hard; much harder than melamine.

Yep, my buddy who is an engineer and builder at Soundsmith uses a specialized xacto knife to scrape hardened ‘gunk’ off a used diamond stylus (under high magnification) to bring back to life when possible. Doubt Magic Eraser is going to do any harm because of its abrasiveness.

He is also a huge proponent of BluTak and Magic Eraser before/after each spin.