Tips on cleaning used Lego

[MarleyMoose]

12 minutes ago, Shortbus311 said:

I saw some videos claiming that soaking pieces in hydrogen peroxide under UV light (sunlight) will remove yellowing from old pieces and restore the original color.

About to try it on a old 6080 castle set I have today...

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Yes, that does work. There are many YouTube videos along with lots of articles on this.

[Ed Mack]

13 minutes ago, KShine said:

For a bulk (prebuilt) lot of bionicles - I would just let mother nature take care of it.

Spread them out on the back deck - Soon enough, the breeze, rain, etc. will take care of them.

Don't be a hater.  Bionicles bring in the bucks.

 

[KShine]

26 minutes ago, Ed Mack said:

Don't be a hater.  Bionicles bring in the bucks.

It isn't that I ever hated Bionicles - It's just that they're not real LEGO

Although some of the classic ones are cool.

[S Vassiliou]

A friend/coworker is cleaning out his garage and he gave me a huge box of Lego today. I started going through it and it's an incredible quantity of stuff; Lego, Technic, Bionicle - probably 50,000 pieces. Mostly Lego but also some MegaBlocks and other stuff (which I'm separating out). Some of the Lego stuff is pretty old and it's all pretty dirty. Can anyone give me some idea of how to clean it?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions/instructions.

If it's only dusty, I suggest you to use a shaving brush! It makes excellent work!

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[$20 on joe vs dan]

24 minutes ago, S Vassiliou said:

If it's only dusty, I suggest you to use a shaving brush! It makes excellent work!

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I find a swifter duster rag (the replacement pads) does a great job of getting the dust without it getting airborne

[exracer327]

I've used the $.99 paint brushes.  They work fairly well.  But joe vs dan's idea is prob better to contain the dust.  

For caked on dirt / dust that won't "brush off", I've washed them by hand with a vegetable brush and dish soap.  Then left them overnight to dry on an absorbent towel.  I've done that with a Queen Anne's Revenge, Star Destroyer 6211, and Motorized AT-AT 10178.  Worked great.

It really is amazing how dirty LEGO can get.  Technic pieces are the worst.

[legorunner]

When I sort used bulk, I'll often put a towel down across my desk or table to contain the bricks (using a solid color or all white helps my eyes focus on the bricks too). When I encounter dusty bricks, especially plates, I'll just run them across the towel a few times. It doesn't get all of them 100% clean, but I've found that its a pretty quick way to start the process. Once sorted, I'll recheck at a later time. 

Also, thanks for all of the posts above endorsing the peroxide cleaning method for white bricks. I'll be giving that a try with a set soon...

[iriki]

Yes, that does work. There are many YouTube videos along with lots of articles on this.

Only on whites and greys. It damages blues and blacks.

[mr_rotary]

I clean all my stuff through a heated ultrasonic cleaner (Mine is about 3L in size). Add a tiny drop of dishwashing detergent. If they are really dusty, a second wash will be required. After the wash run under cold water to make sure they are clean of any suds or dust that may be in the water. Then layout a towel in the sun and dry them.

Comes out looking like new again.

[joch29]

I'm finally getting around to cleaning old returned Lego sets that were opened and built. Recently washed, cleaned and built the Voltron set, but it was missing a bunch of pieces.  I've started on the mountain cave.  When I got it over a year ago, it smelled like smoke. But it looks like the smell has dissipated. I washed it using a few plastic tubes and dish detergent. I used smaller plastic bins with holes in it to swish and swirl the lego. I tried drying them by laying them out on old beach towels, but there's always water left in the crevices. So, I put just enough of them on a towel that I can grab the four corners and give it a good shake. There's something satisfying about the sound of shaking lego in a towel, it's not the same as a box. I haven't come across and crusty Lego yet, are there any new techniques?

My main purpose of the post was looking for a lego sorter, but did not see any available big enough except for Etsy, but it was too expensive.  I also saw this but it's too small.   It would be great if there was one that would fit on top of a 5 gal bucket. I was thinking it would be another great way to clean them and pretend you sluicing for gold. LOL.

 

Edited March 2, 2023 by joch29

[$20 on joe vs dan]

58 minutes ago, joch29 said:

I'm finally getting around to cleaning old returned Lego sets that were opened and built. Recently washed, cleaned and built the Voltron set, but it was missing a bunch of pieces.  I've started on the mountain cave.  When I got it over a year ago, it smelled like smoke. But it looks like the smell has dissipated. I washed it using a few plastic tubes and dish detergent. I used smaller plastic bins with holes in it to swish and swirl the lego. I tried drying them by laying them out on old beach towels, but there's always water left in the crevices. So, I put just enough of them on a towel that I can grab the four corners and give it a good shake. There's something satisfying about the sound of shaking lego in a towel, it's not the same as a box. I haven't come across and crusty Lego yet, are there any new techniques?

My main purpose of the post was looking for a lego sorter, but did not see any available big enough except for Etsy, but it was too expensive.  I also saw this but it's too small.   It would be great if there was one that would fit on top of a 5 gal bucket. I was thinking it would be another great way to clean them and pretend you sluicing for gold. LOL.

 

if going to that much trouble how about the 'ol hydrogen peroxide bath & in the sun technique?

basically most LEGO pieces , even those that yellowing, will come out brand spanking new

[learned it from Jangbrick]

[Shortbus311]

Salad spinner helps to get all the water out of the crevices and dry faster.

[keymomachine]

I've got a couple of the "sorting" Lego storage heads I got with a used lot. They have a couple of the gridded trays and work ok.

I use laundry bags to wash mine in a bucket of warm soapy water, then rinse it and then dump out the Lego onto a towel, fold it up and shake it, dump onto ANOTHER towel and then onto mesh sweater drying racks with a fan on them.

[vincevaughn]

I use an industrial ultrasonic cleaner.  Since LEGO recommends temperatures under 104 F/40 C you are very limited on the heat benefits of cleaning.  I elect to clean longer at lower temperatures to offset this.  Usually go 18 minutes at around 38-40 C.  After that, as others have said, use a salad spinner to remove excess water (this also helps eliminate water spots when they dry).  good news is you can get a super cheap all plastic spinner, as Lego won't stress it (mine is a five dollar Walmart model that I have been using for over 5 years now).

After that I use tray based food dehydrators and lay the pieces out on the trays.  Make sure you get a model that can adjust temperatures to below 100 F.  Mine defaults to 158 F and I set it to the lowest temp it can go at 95 F.  Make sure the pieces are not touching as water tension can seal bricks to each other and lock in moisture.  Again I go with more time to offset lower temperatures.  Usually let a full load go overnight.

Final step is to bag the LEGO in gallon ziplocks with a couple silicon desiccant packs (come in big packs super cheap on Amazon).  I Leave them bagged for about a week to ensure all moisture in deep crevices is gone before sorting/allocating them.

I realize this might be overkill to most but it is the best, safest and most thorough way to clean pieces.  I have been refining the process for around 6 years or so.  Also this is very scalable to bulk operations.  Eventually I want 2 cleaners and 5 dehydrators for a full time operation.  Biggest thing to observe is that hard limit of 104 F on bricks.

Edited March 3, 2023 by vincevaughn