Liquid stylus cleaner without solvent

Use a small painter's brush. Cut bristles down to a quarter inch. Cut wood handle down to 3 inches. Voila! Stylus brush.

I just need to find an easier brush to use with the Lyra fluid. Any suggestions?

I use two products. Osage AIVS Enzymatic Stylus Cleaning fluid and Lyra SPT.

I recently started using the Osage AIVS as a way to do a little deeper cleaning with it's included brush. It seems very effective. And, I've been a long time user of the Lyra SPT and, while it does clean, I always thought of it as more of a lubricant and protectant that helps get the stylus deeper into the groove while minimizing wear on it.

I've  used Last Stylus cleaner on all the carts I have had for last 40 years and have never had a problem. Just one small application every 15 to 20 records. I use a soft dry brush after playing every side.

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I've  used Last Stylus cleaner on all the carts I have had for last 40 years and have never had a problem. Just one small application every 15 to 20 records. I use a soft dry brush after playing every side.

My Flux Hifi ultrasonic stylus cleaner will be here Thursday. I recently received the Lyra stylus fluid and brush. I have a problem with the brush as it's much smaller than the typical nail polish style brush used with other cleaners and my hands are a little too shaky. Anyone have a source for a bigger brush that would be safe to use?

The new stylus cleaner articles from Michael Fremer are a real eye opener!

I have used Zerodust and now the DS Audio. 

I believe Michael uses Audio Intelligence.

Any Miyajima fans willing to share a safe stylus cleaning recommendation?

Thank you.

If any body has an old cartridge in need of a re-tip, one that has a glued on stylus they could test the glue with any number of solvents.

@emailists, liquids migrating up the cantilever is not an issue as the materials cantilevers are made of are not fluid absorbent, do not have channels and are usually not hollow. You might have to worry if your cantilever is an open tube due to capillary action assuming the inner parts are even in danger. I would bet the rubbers used in suspensions are impervious to most solvents. You can pour all kinds of caustic stuff on car tires without issue. 

This seems like a great thread for Peter Lederman to comment on, since he has probably seen it all in his work.  
Can’t recall if anyone has pointed out the possibility of liquid migration up the cantilever, to the suspension.

I’m pretty guilty of not cleaning my stylus often, and my records are fairly clean (though I don’t have a dust cover on my table)

I just carefully dry dip the stylus in Magic eraser from time to time.  I really should get a USB microscope to see if I can detect build up, but not even sure if that would work.

@chakster, whether or not solvents are safe to use with glued on styluses depends on the type of glue being used. Maybe in your research you could find out. There may be certain solvents like water that are perfectly safe. Lyra's styluses are glued on and they make a liquid (water based) stylus cleaner that works great but costs too much. I would be willing to bet that a chlorofluorocarbon solvent would also work fine. chlorofluorocarbons are extremely inert but great non-polar solvents and evaporate very quickly. They are safe to use with epoxy and other two part adhesives. The solvent in "Last" is a chlorofluorocarbon. The problem is that unless we know what the glue being used is, we do not know for sure. You can always go for a bottle of Lyra's cleaner. I would never recommend Onzow. It is just too easy to f-up and rip the stylus off.
The Lyra cleaner also comes with a very nice little brush.

Lyra SPT works for me.  It is water + enzyme based apparently, and relatively safe for stylus glue.  I use it in conjunction with the DS ST50 stylus pad (and vacuum record cleaner) to keep my stylus clean.  To be honest, without visual inspection with a microscope I don't know how well it is working, but to my ears, my stylus sounds clean!

I can explain using a few images of my carts on macro lens (after cleaning):
With press-fit diamond like this it’s OK to use liquid stylus cleaners (a few drops on stylus cleaning brush). But with this type diamonds glued to the cantilever I wouldn’t use liquid cleaners! If you don’t want your stylus to fell off do not use liquid cleaners, use dry brush or onzow.

The concern is only for styli that are glued on. As for what kind of solvent would attack the glue? That depends on the type of glue being used.
Alcohols will attack epoxy. Acetone will attack cyanoacrylates. I have not been able to determine what type of glue is being used. There are some very tough adhesives out there that are rapid curing. The adhesives used on solid surface material (Corian) are a good example. They are two part like epoxy and cure within minutes. Very little will attack them. There are many adhesives that are perfectly stable in water. If water attacked epoxy the entire fiberglass boat fleet would be sinking.  

lewm is correct. Water is a weak polar solvent. The Lyra stylus cleaner is water based. I have a bottle and it seem to work fine. But do you really need a solvent? I think Cleeds makes a very valid point. If your records are clean then what is there to worry about? A very soft artist brush will knock any incidental dust off just fine....as long as the dust is dry and not carrying any lipid like pollutants produced by from cooking and smoking various combustibles. You mix up dust with water and you get cement. Mix it with cooking fumes and you get tar.  If this gets on your records then you stylus will collect it like a plow collects snow. A dry brush will not get this stuff off. I am sure there are solvents that are safe to use. When you see these blanket statements there is usually a liability issue underneath. Problem is that without knowing the exact adhesive used it is hard to know what is safe. One thing is for certain, the gel or solid stylus cleaners are not. I know of two examples of people loosing styluses using gel cleaners. If the motion is anything but straight up and down the lateral stress will break the diamond off. Whatever glue is being used it is quite brittle. You can see that in the picture I took of the missing Clearaudio stylus, a jagged and sharp fracture line. 

If your environment is clean, no smoking or cooking and your records are clean then all you need is a soft brush which is what Peter Ledermann recommends. Mostly that it all I use. Unfortunately, life is never perfect and occasionally I will see some adherent goop on the stylus. I have always used a 50% solution of isopropyl alcohol in water but switched to Lyra cleaner after my Clearaudio stylus disappeared. If we can find out what adhesive is being used from one of the manufacturers we can know exactly what is safe. My guess is that many of the manufacturers also have no idea what is being used. It appears the cantilever assemblies are manufactured elsewhere, made to order and supplied ready to install. 
Perhaps we can get Peter Ledermann or Jonathan Carr to comment on this subject. 

If to look from chemistry side in order to dissolve oil based contaminants you can't do it with pure water. You have to have dispersing agent and alter pH to alkaline side in order to make it work faster. Also IMO water based solvent for regular use is better as it's not drying so fast as alcohol based so you can remove residue without allowing it to dry on stylus
For the very sticky contamination I do use isopropyl lab grade but I am soaking tip into it several times. But it's special cases and it not always make good results. 

Last Stylus Cleaner (it comes with a very dense circle of short bristles on a plastic handle with which to apply to the stylus), followed by an application of Stylast. I’ve been using both since they were introduced in the 1980’s.

@whart is correct: Ortofon recommends using just the stylus brush, without any liquid.

I too find the Lyra cleaner quite effective.  The instructions state that the solvents in the cleaner soften the glue holding the stylus to the cantilever, so, after cleaning, one should wait something like ten seconds after cleaning before playing a record to allow the glue to harden again.

@lewm- I think the concern in general terms (I can’t speak to chemistry as such) was that solvents, including alcohol, could dissolve the glue that binds the diamond to the cantilever. Ortofon in particular was a brand that warned about this at one point, but for the purposes of this post, I did not pull up their current statement on the subject.
Thus, the concern about using a liquid that might cause damage by "ungluing" the stylus from the cantilever. Others may be able to speak more knowledgeably about this than me. I have used liquids in extreme cases, where gunk got on the stylus despite deep cleaning. And I did use the Lyra liquid when I owned their cartridges because it was recommended by the cartridge manufacturer. Beyond that, I guess I’ll let others take the lead. Hope that wasn’t a blithering insight into the obvious.

Every liquid, even water, is a potential solvent.  Can you be more specific? "Like dissolves like", we were taught in chemistry.

whart

... I tend to use liquid stylus cleaners only sparingly anyway ...

Same here. If your records are truly clean, there's very little that can accumulate on the stylus. I'm sure that @whart  is one of the exceptions, but many audiophiles have never heard a r-e-a-l-l-y clean record.

AIVS has such a product and I just bought a bottle of it; haven't used it yet. I tend to use liquid stylus cleaners only sparingly anyway, though did use them when I had Lyra cartridges. Jim Pendleton claims that his product under AIVS brand will not harm the bond between the stylus and the cantilever shank. 
I did stop using the gels and Blu-stuff, though both are effective, out of concern that their use stresses the cantilever unnaturally. I do not know of any damage caused by that and am not claiming that the gels or sticky stuff will cause harm-- it's simply my own paranoia.
I dry brush using a couple of different types of brushes under mild magnification. Clean records help too, as does a clean environment around your turntable area. 

The best stylus cleaner is LYRA SPT .I don't know about solvent but this is the best by far.