I am in the process of planning my new shop setup. I have a graymills parts washer that I used to fill with varsol back in the day. There are many choices from paint thinner (mineral spirits) to water based products with citrus. I don't want to buy 10-15 gallons of product and have poor results. In a previous life as a auto-Cat mechanic Safety-Kleen regularly serviced the green solvent based fluid that worked well. That is probably not used anymore and not available to individuals. I am looking for recommendations for the fluid from members. Thank you in advance.
Most local oil dealers can supply the low volatile solvent that safety kleen offers. Really it's still the best route for cleaning parts on the fly. But all the good cleaners have been gone awhile now. I just bought a solvent/parts washer tank/tub, local oil supplier had the same solvent as SK.
I have one of the standard cheap tub style parts washers with the circulator pump and have always used kerosene in it. Cleans well, inexpensive and available anywhere.
I use diesel in mine. But I buy used trucks with unknown age diesel in the tanks, and presto, some new "parts cleaner".
Old school parts cleaner is Varsol (mineral spirits), but like everything else it's getting expensive, and it's volatile, so one really needs to use caution around sparks and flame if you use mineral spirits. Alternative is low volatile solvent as truck shop mentioned, but in my experience, they're not as effective as petroleum distillates.
Kerosene.??!!! I just bought 5 gallons for my new heater today.. $6.50 A GALLON.!!!
Parts washer solvent is probably twice that per gallon.
Kerosene in containers for heaters and such is ridiculously priced. They try to clame it's cleaner or something than regular kerosene. If you can find a bulk fuel/oil distributor that sells it by the gallon from a large tank or pump like gasoline it is much cheaper.
I use the parts washer solvent from Tractor Supply.. it comes in a 5 gallon pail.. don’t have the number handy tho.. I’ve had it in my washer for 2-3 years and haven’t had to replace it yet.. I did hafta add tho.. it might evaporate.??
We call it Jet A here. 500 gallons was $1700 ~3 weeks ago.
I'm not positive but I think there is something a little lower grade than Jet A. I could be mistaken though. I remember getting some in a jerry can. The stuff in a store was $20 a gallon (4.54L) and that was almost 20 years ago.
Around here most gas stations have K-1 kerosene at the pump. It’s a little more expensive than on road diesel but not outrageous. My parts washer takes about 10gal and I only change it once every 1-2yrs, so I consider kerosene a pretty cheap alternative. It cleans a little better, has less odor, and leaves less residue than diesel in my experience.
A little off topic but only a little: Years ago, I'm talking early to mid 1970's when I was starting out in the shop boss had a salesman talk him into some "new safe solvent". Turns out it was basically dry cleaning fluid. It did clean real good but boss thought we were possibly taking it home as we were going through it so fast. Think we convinced he to put a couple cups in a 3 lb. coffee can and set it out for the night. He checked it the next morning and coffee can was dry! Two other problems with it was you did not want to soak any plastic handled screwdrivers in it as it would soften the handle and they would crack when dried. The other thing was if working in a closed shop you would seem to get a little buzz from the fumes! Have to wonder how many brain cells I lost from that exposure!
That is cheap.
Just use regular gas in a big tub on a bench with a battery charging near by and have a smoke while your scrubbing.
Carbon Tetrachloride. Used for years in the dry cleaning, and degreasing industries. Still have a couple of gallons in the shop as it was used extensively in electronics manufacture and maintenance/repair. I use mineral spirits in my Graymills washer. This has a copper tube snaked through it and small water pump from my heating boiler to warm the solvent and it works well. Also have a perforated pipe from the air compressor that bubbles the solution. I also have an older Van Norman aqueous cabinet that cleans well but seldom use it any more. This I use either caustic soda mixture in, or a strong alkaline solution dependent upon aluminum or ferrous cleaning.
Don't forget the wood burner to make sure you go KAPLOOEY.
My first day on the job when I was 17 years old I was told that, Gasoline is for washing parts, Alcohol is for drinking, If you want to go to the races bring Nitro. Thats what i was told, and have tried gas in a pinch on everything cold with batteries disconnected to clean up an oily mess, but not recommended. Way too volatile. Simon C
Gas will put out a cigarette. I use gas every day to clean things in the oilfield, I average around 2.5-5 gallons a day of use.
Gas does clean extremely well, and I used a chemical cartridge mask so as not to breath the fumes from the varsol sprayer. I put rags underneath , then collect the rags and put them on gravel to ignite so no one gets hurt but me. Use a pole with rag on end on fire and nothing to dispoose of after. Simon C
Ultrasonic cleaners are getting more affordable and work great for small parts.
Bob, that you? I still remember him walking out of the garage still with partial ciggarette and with eyebrows and hair mostly gone
Since we're on the subject of cleaning solvent, back in 2018 one of my brothers passed away, he had a '96 F250 that had been sitting for years and years. I had the task of liquidating all his stuff as he was single, never married. When I got to working with that truck to get it going, the steering wheel, no ****, was nothing but a sticky slimy gunk. I tried every cleaner I could think of, nothing would remove it. One day, recalling using gasoline as a solvent in my younger days, soaked a rag and started rubbing, and whaddya know, the gasoline removed that crap. Yeah, I still had to do some scraping with a putty knife, but the more I worked it eventually cleaned up real good. I thought I was going to have to replace the steering wheel it was so bad, but the gas did the trick.
Funny story to go with that. Years ago{the 70's} a shop I was working in the other mechanic was preparing to repair the distributor hold down on a RX4. I was at the drill press when I heard this unusual whoosh of air. Turned around to see Frank holding the brazing torch and brass rod looking rather shocked. Frank had a beard {I say HAD} it was burned off right along with his eyebrows and sides/top of head. All I could see was his white teeth and eyeballs, the rest was covered in a oily black soot and lots of smoke. He was going to weld the clamp emplace with distributor removed. SHE FIRED IN THE PAN igniting the crankcase gases which shot out the distributor drive hole. I laughed my *** off-what was left of his hair was blown straight back, he looked like Don King the fight promoter.
I got cured of using petrol (gasoline) for parts cleaning when I was 26, in 1975. Brother was fond of coating battery terminals with handfuls of grease to prevent terminal corrosion. That worked fine when you had batteries in good shape, and didn't need to jump start anything. But we had a Cat 930 loader (fitted with cabin), the batteries were under the seat on top of the transmission, and they were sick, and I needed to jump start it most days. One day, working by myself in an isolated location, I put the jumper cables on to start the 930, and upon pulling them off, I got grease everywhere, as grease tends to do. I hate grease getting everywhere, so I decided these 930 battery terminals needed to be washed to get rid of all this excessive amounts of grease. We had a cut-open 1 U.K. gallon (1.2 U.S. gallon) steel can that was always used as the washpan. I put about half a gallon of petrol in it, with a brush and climbed up into the 930 cabin to wash those battery terminals clean. It all worked fine until I dropped the can. It hit the positive battery terminal and the seat frame and the sparks flew at a mighty rate. The can exploded in my face, and the fire also lit up all the foam insulation inside the cabin. I went straight out the 930 door backwards with my face and hair on fire, and fortunately, there was a stockpile of clean yellow sand right next to the 930 where I landed. I put the fire out on me, then I had to put the fire out in the cabin of the 930! Not a lot of fun when you're starting to blister everywhere. I used the yellow sand to put the fire out, didn't have any extinguisher handy - big mistake. Fortunately we had some good burn cream in the medical cabinet, and I lathered the stuff on my hands and face. I thought I was in for some major scarring, but surprisingly, the cream worked well, and I healed up in about a fortnight with no major disfigurement. Sure taught me a hard lesson about using highly flammable products for parts washing, though.
Not just flammable, gasoline is extremely volatile, gotta be careful with that stuff.
The other good one is someone grabbing below zero windshield washer fluid to put out a fire. * Poof.
A local fuel distributor has both varsol and kerosene in 5's for about $45.00 per pail. It's been a long time since I have been around kerosene, Jet A or JP4. I don't remember how bad they smell. Lowe's up until a couple weeks ago had odorless mineral spirits in 5's. I read on another forum many people just use mineral spirits with ATF added to raise the flash point thus lowering ignition while helping with flash rusting. Although is leaves a residue. I appreciate all the advice. Legdoc
The big difference between kerosene and mineral spirits if evaporation of the cleaning fluid after the parts are cleaned. Mineral spirits will evaporate and dry much faster than kerosene. It's all personal preference. With due caution and proper safety measures, like, don't locate your welding table next to your parts washer, mineral spirits is an excellent parts washing solvent
I'm not sure how fuels and solvents are categorised in the U.S., but down under here, they are divided into two distinct groups - Combustible liquids and Flammable liquids. The division is rated only by the liquids flash point. Flammable liquids are the dangerous ones. The definition of a Flammable liquid is one that has a Flash point of 38°C (100°F) or lower. Vapours mixed with air are where fires actually start, so vapours need to be minimised. Essentially, the Combustible liquids are ones that will burn, but not explode readily. The Flammable liquids are the dangerous ones that give off a high level of vapours that are explosive. Explosive vapours are extremely dangerous because they can build up in areas not necessarily close to where you're working with the liquids that produce them. Then, those explosive vapours can be set off with just an electric spark from an electric motor or a powered hand tool - and sometimes, even just static. Diesel, low-vapour cleaning fluids, and the members of the Kerosene family (Jet A-1, heating oil, "home" Kerosene) are Combustible, but not Flammable. Any solvent you choose to use in a parts cleaner must be a low-vapour, Combustible liquid - not a Flammable liquid. There are a wide range of solvents produced for parts cleaning, with most being "narrow-cut Kerosene" solvents - hydro-treated petroleum distillates. But other chemical additives are often put into solvents to assist in cleaning parts. A lot of these chemicals are quite dangerous to your health in confined areas, so it pays to make yourself familiar with the ingredients of your chosen solvent, so you know what you're dealing with. I used to paddle with bare hands in kerosene, petrol (gasoline) and a multitude of other petroleum based solvents when younger, but as I got older I realised the long-term dangers of this, with your skin being a good absorbent of nasty chemicals that can affect your health. So, today, I never use any solvents without using good quality chemical-resistant long gloves. The long-term effects of absorbing chemicals in solvents are kidney and liver damage, tumours, skin damage, a range of nasty cancers, and even a shortened lifespan. I once read that mechanics overall have a 5 year shorter lifespan than the general population - and the primary reason given, was paddling in used engine oil, which contains a frightening array of carcinogenic compounds, from the by-products of combustion. Gear oils and transmission oils are not quite so deadly as used engine oil, as no combustion takes place in them.
I tend to wear gloves when using the solvent tank but always seem to take them off for one reason or another. Usually they are too slick to hold onto small parts, or get caught on something sharp and ripped open, (surgical type gloves) so I find myself bare handed a lot. The grease comes off my mitts near 100% of the time thanks to the solvent tank. Seldom am I submerging my skin purposely in the vat but it does happen. As of the past several years, I've been purchasing dip baskets from the local kitchen institution supplier and these work very well for the small parts. I have an array of different ones so the smallest fasteners to parts nearing a foot square can now be dipped and I don't touch the solvent. About once a year I pump the tank down, scrape out the bottom after removing the floor screen and distill out the solvent yielding a crystal clear product to reinstall with another couple of gallons of fresh dumped in to top the vat up. I keep the liquid level at about 18" depth so fairly large parts can go in once and not have to moved around a lot. I keep the lid on the vat closed when not in use and evaporation has really not been a concern for me. It is nice to be able to use the solvent bath to degrease parts and then take these and run them through the aqueous washer to remove most everything else. The combination of heat, and caustic, or alkaline solution along with a bit of detergent and water softening agent lets you have very clean parts to work with or rebuild. I set this up to clean truck, and equipment radiators and heat exchangers also and caustic soda does a great job removing buildup internal to these flushing and cleaning them from the inside out.
Go the whole hog - trichloroethylene. Nothing like it for getting parts clean......
We used it a lot when I was in the military. I still have a couple of spray cans but don't know if they remain pressurized. Brought it home after banning. Used R-11 refrigerant also which is almost as good. Had a USMC personnel suffocate and a second almost cleaning an AV8B "Harrier" jet engine bay and near immediately a ban on it's use came forth.
The wood burner could make it somewhat safer as it would burning the fumes a little at a time. Note I said somewhat! Then again my grandmother used to start the fire in her wood burning oven on the family farm in Minnesota with a splash of kerosene! Only heard of one time where she had a "little" problem caused by left over coals from the night before. Think it took a few weeks for eyebrows to grow back!
The dry cleaning fluid we used for a short time sure did clean parts good and dried fast!
I'm not sure how it's spelled but I'm sure carbon dye would strip the metal right off the parts
One thing to remember is some of the cleaning fluids listed above can have a long lasting odor once on material, it's one thing to work on diesels and another to smell like one. * As far as contact with skin-I've worn 7mil nitrile the last 15 years. If one stays in this business long enough something will probably contribute to ones death. Most all the old degreaser/cleaning solutions that I used years ago are long gone. Such as the old DIP carburetor cleaner although it can be bought in some places, And the favorite hot tank chemical {Oakite}, tie a wire around a piece of aluminum lower in tank remove three hours later only to have the wire. Although there is Oakite 164 for aluminum. Can't use those chemicals and hot tanks anymore with out State & Federal EPA coming down for a visit. Benzine was in everything at one time.
Using Trichloroethylene gives you 6 times the chances of contracting Parkinsons Disease - especially if you use it a lot, and work in confined spaces with it. I'd have to say the Australian Navy guy couldn't get adequate ventilation when using it in ships. Legal ruling on TCE in Parkinson’s case is a game-changer A former Australian serviceman has been the first to receive the Navy’s acknowledgement that exposure to the industrial chemical trichloroethylene (TCE) during his service caused him to develop Parkinson’s disease. The recent decision by the Veterans' Entitlements Appeal Board could have... www.envirofluid.com
I was working on a HOT engine and was trying to find a leak.. I sprayed Brake Cleaner on the engine.. that’s when BC was made w 99% TriClor.. I took a deep breath and it collapsed my lungs.!! Thank God I think quick on my feet.. I grabbed an air hose and shoved it in my mouth and eased the trigger on.. U laugh, but I’m still here to tell the tale..
Neighbor down the road uses your granny's trick with a little splash of diesel to fire his wood fired maple arch, says "the stink will be gone before it's sugar". Last year he almost burned down the sugar house after his son in law drained some old gas out of a snowblower and decided to dump it into the diesel jug. Same story, hot embers in the bottom of the arch, blew the top of the stove pipe off and made one hell of a whoosh. Poor feller didn't lose any whiskers, but I think he may have pooped a little.
Carbon tetrachloride was the dry cleaning fluid in use and it excelled at electronics cleaning. The teletype maintenance guys used it liberally as it left no residue. I still have a small can of it at the shop. Carbon tetrachloride | Halogenated Hydrocarbon, Chlorofluorocarbon, Solvent Carbon tetrachloride, a colourless, dense, highly toxic, volatile, nonflammable liquid possessing a characteristic odour and belonging to the family of organic halogen compounds, used principally in the manufacture of dichlorodifluoromethane (a refrigerant and propellant). First prepared in 1839 by www.britannica.com
One of the best de greasers I have ever used, and I don't think it was at all flammable, was when I worked at a certain aircraft company, we used it to clean some machine tools. Not sure what the ID number was for it, but it was Freon. This was in the early 80's. You will not find this in a search nowadays I guess it is top secret, but Freon was also used for deicing aircraft windshields when at high altitude. Go figure.
Freon can cause brain damage and be fatal if inhaled.
I'm certain that is my affliction; but I've always had a lack of functioning brain cells. Grandpa always made certain I knew it too. Back in the 70's, when you inhaled, (through your mouth) R-12 refrigerant then packaged in cans marketed for small "foghorns", it froze your vocal cords and made you sound, or talk "funny". Used to do this on boat outings at the lake back when alcoholic beverages were a player. That would have been refrigerant 11, or R-11. It used to be so commonplace in industry citing exactly what you discovered. Was liquid at room temperature for the most part but upon evaporation left no residue at all and did not damage circuit boards or etch metals. Basically totally inert. The drawback was it displaced oxygen content in the air. Not bad if used out of door at all or with good ventilation, but was fatal if used in a confined space as mentioned earlier. Trichlor, (or "Trike" as called) was the same way in being a very good product for the purpose, but wasn't used correctly, or proper precautions taken. Either product in a bug sprayer worked very well for large areas as they made grease and oils disappear instantly.
Years ago we used mek when i was at united airlines. I think its banned now.
Not banned, but discouraged from use.
Great, now I have an excuse. So none of my posts should ever be locked or deleted. LOL
I have that brain damage as well, and therefore can make that happen with no conscience of my actions. LoL
I have a parts washer and use solvent from O Reiley's. I thank it is about $80 dollars for 5 gallons. It is only used for special things. Cannot find any of those other products locally anymore and wash a lot of stuff with gas. Dangerous and explosive? I thank it was a Safety Clean machine. Old Joe was washing parts with a non filter Camel in his mouth, as usual. New boy ran across the shop yelling " Hey you have to put that out! You are going to blow us all up! Joe looked at him and took a big drag making a bright orange glow on the end. Held it out and dropped it in the parts washer. Young mans feet were off the floor as the solvent extinguished the the the glow. Then Joe told him something like " Now why don't you go back over there and do what they asked you to do and leave me alone to what I know how to do? Some of this gas anymore is not much as well.
I've seen a cigarette put out by gas many times
Yeah like gas on a hot exhaust manifold is no big deal. But hydraulic oil that lights right up. Gas only likes flame or sparks.
Gas can light on a hot exhaust manifold. I know someone who had their motorcyle catch on fire when filling it with gas right after riding it. There have been other M/C's and equipment that have also caught on fire. On one of the biker build off shows a Billy Lane bike caught on fire from a leaking gas tank made by a noted metal fabricator not him.
Im running walter CB100 in a heated Bio circle parts cleaner. So far I am liking it. Easy on the hands and nose. Seems to melt the oil and grease off nicely. Works ok at room temp, if you let it heat for 2 hrs it works even better. Oil separates from the fluid and sits in the top of the tank, the fluid that comes out the hose is always clean. 170cad/ 20L CB 100™ – Walter Surface Technologies Ultra-powerful natural cleaner and degreaser. Products www.walter.com
I thought to get a Walter Bio Circle system you have to lease the system and they come and replace the fluid when required. I don't think you can just buy the machines, just the fluid. Maybe it has changed though?
Gas is something like 360° to light up, hydraulic should be more since it's gas more carbon in it. Diesel manifolds are cooler than gas ones irc
The Captain shovel was brought to its knees when a hyd. oil leak caught on fire from an electrical spark. I think maybe from the the slip rings for the swivel.
Well while we are sharing I once had a 4000 Ford gas tractor. I was the 3rd in the family to own it and at was bought at auction in Sikeston Mo. It was bored out to the max and no telling how many times the head had been shaved. It would gas rattle bad under load and had a storage tank of high octane so it would not. We were running it a lot. Pulled in the field with a square baler and noticed something looked odd? Little no seeum gnats, some thing in my eye? No a hole had rusted in the gas tank. Gas was dripping on the glass pack muffler under the hood and little puffs of smoke were coming up next to the hood.
Nah you can buy machines and fluid outright. Think I was quoted north of 3g for the Bio circle parts washer. Bought one used from someone who had no idea what it was for 300$
I know they aren't cheap.
Gas in an overfilled start engine gas tank on an old 46A nose down pushing and gas dripping all over the hot exhaust manifold just steaming off. Then when the nice old style non recalled fix for the lift cylinders or the middle divider blow a hose and spray hydraulic when your out in the woods on the same machine instant fire on and around the exhaust manifold. Thats how I know. Then theres the ex wife.,, gas spraying everywhere under the hood, on the way home, lucky the plug wires didn't flash over, things were soaked, exhaust manifold all all. Octane means something, it resists hot spot ignition, Cetane means it loves hot air to ignite. In very simple terms.
A fine spray of already hot oil under pressure from something like a burst hose will light off easier than if it were a large stream of oil. Gas fires are probably similar but there are many stories of gas engines catching on fire from leaking or spilled fuel.
It is the vapor pressure of the fluid that gives it it's volatility. Gasoline, (the liquid does not really burn easily) but the vapors evaporating off are explosive. That is why you can flood an engine dumping raw gasoline into the air horn of a carburetor on a running engine, but that same carburetor mixes and breaks up the liquid into a gaseous form which readily burns creating internal combustion to the engine.
It's common to get a fire trying to prime engines directly in the carb. Usually it goes out just from cranking the engine but I'm sure more than a few have had singed eye brows or hair.
I imagine hydraulic oil is already hot when a hose blows because it's being used and can't cool the manifold like gas would. I do wonder the ignition point.
Parts washer i have distills the solvent so it's always clean.
The distiller I use is a portable commercial unit with stainless basket using cooling water from a garden hose, or recirculating pump and tank. It works well with solvents, coolants, or any liquid that is placed into it for a pure product on the output. It worked great in the body shop atmosphere before all coatings became 2K as it would readily separate solvent carriers, (thinners) from the coatings materials for reuse. The machine also does a fantastic job on both ethylene, and propylene glycol based engine coolants as the contaminants and old additives remain in the pot for easy clean up and disposal. The glycol component discharge is crystal clear and you add the new and desired additive package(s) back into this for fresh coolant that is probably better than new as it's monitored closer. Not hard at all to separate say ethylene glycol from propylene glycol as they evaporate a different temperatures having differing vapor pressures.....