# What Is Your Favorite Soaking And Cleaning Agent?



## catskinner

What do you guys use to soak parts in?  And what do you use when you clean a machine that is not disassembled?


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## Franko

I guess it depends on what the parts are made of, Catskinner. When I rebuilt an old Willys Jeep, I got a small parts washer and mixed a couple gallons mineral spirit paint thinner with pint of transmission fluid. It helps keep it from drying out your skin. When wiping down greasy machines, I just use the cheapest paint thinner they've got.

Zep makes a good citrus based de-greaser they sell at Home Depot.

When I was a kid, I used gasoline but that wasn't very smart. But, all the mechanics did it in the olden days.


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## catskinner

Good info Franko, I also use mineral spirits but like the ATF idea. I got one of those bottles that you put fluid in and then charge with compressed air to spray as a cleaner or lubricator.  Ok guys keep the ideas flowing.


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## kd4gij

I have a 5 gallen pale of carb cleaner with a basket.


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## Ulma Doctor

Diesel Fuel, Kerosene,Mineral Spirits, Carb Clean,MEK ,Lacquer thinner if it is disassembled.
for assembled stuff, mineral oil and steel wool


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## jumps4

sometimes stains that will not come off with the items the others have listed will come off with WD40
be careful of purple stuff it can change the color or your paints encourage rust and even erase decals
I wiped all the numbers off the shop phone keypad with it
Steve


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## catskinner

jumps4 said:


> sometimes stains that will not come off with the items the others have listed will come off with WD40
> be careful of purple stuff it can change the color or your paints encourage rust and even erase decals
> I wiped all the numbers off the shop phone keypad with it
> Steve



That's some funny stuff, wiped the numbers right off.


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## kd4gij

jumps4 said:


> sometimes stains that will not come off with the items the others have listed will come off with WD40
> be careful of purple stuff it can change the color or your paints encourage rust and even erase decals
> I wiped all the numbers off the shop phone keypad with it
> Steve


 

  Simple green will do the same thing . { ROF}  .

 PS We need the old smiles back.


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## brav65

Palmolive, you don't even know your soaking in it


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## catskinner

brav65 said:


> Palmolive, you don't even know your soaking in it



Hahahaha


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## kd4gij

brav65 said:


> Palmolive, you don't even know your soaking in it


 

You are right, more way's than one.


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## brav65

I knew there would be some guys old enough to know who Marge was!  Sorry if I got the thread off subject I am just a smart ass and can't resist...


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## Shadowdog500

I use Crown PSC1000 from tractor supply in my parts washer.  Works well for me.    http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/crownreg;-psc-1000-parts-cleaner-5-gal

As for carb cleaner, I haven't found any carb soak that works as well as the old stuff from the 80s and before.   I use CRC to clean carbs now, but I've read on several threads that yamaha carb cleaner mixed with water (as per instructions) and heated in a crock pot works about as good as the old stuff.  I will try this Next time I need to clean a carb. 

Chris


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## Baithog

brav65 said:


> I knew there would be some guys old enough to know who Marge was!  Sorry if I got the thread off subject I am just a smart ass and can't resist...


That was Madge doing the soaking... and yes, it is a decent detergent for removing dirty greasy stuff where water is appropriate.


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## brav65

Baithog said:


> That was Madge doing the soaking... and yes, it is a decent detergent for removing dirty greasy stuff where water is appropriate.



Yes you are correct it was Madge.  Thanks for helping with my failing memory!


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## Cobra

For your question on cleaning parts where you haven't disassembled the machine, I have rented a CO2 blaster. Works like a sandblasted using small pellets of CO2. You can often rent them from the gas suppliers like Air Liquide or Praxair. 
Removes dirt and debris but not attached paint.  Can also be used on motors and wiring.

Edit: interesting that the flag changes depending on where you are at the time of posting.   Unfortunately New Brunswick is not in Mexico, though we are at the present!


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## astjp2

Berrymans B12 chemtool, its a soaking carb cleaner, if not Stoddard solvent.  Tim


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## Franko

I use B12 to soak and clean my saw blades.


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## kvt

I use both the Berrymans Chemtool and their carb soak.   It gets expensive around here though.   The carb soak only last a short while  after opening and using on the first carb or parts.   Best to clean them off first with the spray chemtool then soak them.   I wish I could find some of the old stuff that I used,   put the powder in the water,  heat the vat to almost a boil, put any parts in except aluminum and an hour or so later you had bright shiny parts.   You had a separate vat and solution for anything made of Alum or soft medal like that.   The big one would pretty much eat it. (did it once just to see).


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## 18w

Mineral spirits and a little atf in the parts washer. Keep acetone, alcohol, and lacquer thinner on hand. I have a sure shot sprayer and keep a 5gal. can of brake parts cleaner on hand. I use a non chlorinated brand sold by the local Interstate battery dealer. This may have been posted before but I will reiterate. DO NOT use brake parts cleaner on parts to be welded! It can create phosgene gas aka mustard gas. That is one of the uses for the acetone and alcohol as I do a fair amount of Tig welding and use those prior to welding. I have no experience with it but have heard lot's of people use Zep floor stripper from Home Depot to clean the painted surfaces of grimy machines. Anybody have any experience with this product?

Darrell


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## Tony Wells

Most, if not all floor strippers are ammonia based. Various surfactants are added.

I use a variety  of cleaners, depending. Sometimes just water in a pressure washer, sometimes with some sort of soap. If you want a cheap hot vat, use Tide. It's very aggressive against grease when it's hot.  Caustic soda is the old stuff in vats, but NaOH is still available as drain cleaner. Just avoid the kind that comes with aluminum chips mixed with it. And DON'T get it on you or in your eyes!

I used to use Berryman's B-9 (Chem Dip), their carb dip, but switched to Gunk's HydroSeal. Basically the same stuff. Dichloromethane as a base, if I'm not mistaken. At least the old stuff is. Not so sure about the new stuff.

Of course, all sorts of sprays, depending on what I want get off, and preserve the base. Also Simple Green, several ZEP products, and Dawn as a degreaser. The list is long.


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## catskinner

Tony Wells said:


> Most, if not all floor strippers are ammonia based. Various surfactants are added.
> 
> I use a variety  of cleaners, depending. Sometimes just water in a pressure washer, sometimes with some sort of soap. If you want a cheap hot vat, use Tide. It's very aggressive against grease when it's not.  Caustic soda is the old stuff in vats, but NaOH is still available as drain cleaner. Just avoid the kind that comes with aluminum chips mixed with it. And DON'T get it on you or in your eyes!
> 
> I used to use Berryman's B-9 (Chem Dip), their carb dip, but switched to Gunk's HydroSeal. Basically the same stuff. Dichloromethane as a base, if I'm not mistaken. At least the old stuff is. Not so sure about the new stuff.
> 
> Of course, all sorts of sprays, depending on what I want get off, and preserve the base. Also Simple Green, several ZEP products, and Dawn as a degreaser. The list is long.


Good info Tony, lots of things for different situations.


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## roadie33

I use Brake cleaner on most parts that are not painted. 
Found some good stuff for Rust at Harbor Freight called Evapo-rust. 
I picked up some new rusty, filthy End mills, reamers and Files.  So I put them in it and let them soak for 2 days and they came out looking like brand new.


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## catskinner

roadie33 said:


> I use Brake cleaner on most parts that are not painted.
> Found some good stuff for Rust at Harbor Freight called Evapo-rust.
> I picked up some new rusty, filthy End mills, reamers and Files.  So I put them in it and let them soak for 2 days and they came out looking like brand new.


I think I might get some of that Evapo-rust. That sounds good for some things.


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## kvt

The problem I found with the Evapo-Rust when I used it was the fact you had to get all the oil and gunk off first.  If you clean it with something and do not get it all off, then it did not clean that area of rust.  
Another item that works on heavy grease for me is the orange cleaner,  Straight with a stiff brush for real heavy and thinned down for lighter.


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## coolidge

Non-flammable brake cleaner is my go-to degreaser. For removing rust Evaporust is nothing short of amazing and so non-toxic you can just pour it down the drain when its wore out. Will not harm plastic, paint, or metal but flat destroys rust.


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## benmychree

Another good cleaner is "Oil Eater" sold at Costco; I use it full strength to clean machinery, but the recomend watering it down; It will soften paint, but the paint will re harden in a relativly short time; I have also used it in my parts washer, suitably diluted; given some time it will remove nasty crud very nicely.  It works nicely on oil stains on machinery.


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## catskinner

benmychree said:


> Another good cleaner is "Oil Eater" sold at Costco; I use it full strength to clean machinery, but the recomend watering it down; It will soften paint, but the paint will re harden in a relativly short time; I have also used it in my parts washer, suitably diluted; given some time it will remove nasty crud very nicely.  It works nicely on oil stains on machinery.



That's some good info benmychree thanks for posting.


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## GarageGuy

I use kerosene for general parts washing.  I use Simple Green or Zep Orange for de-greasing engines.  Brake cleaner is good for de-greasing small parts that will not be welded.  I use Acetone for wiping down aluminum before welding.  I use mineral spirits to light the charcoal grill.  I have some lacquer thinner, but I don't use it much.  It destroys heavy duty nitrile gloves in seconds, and gives me a monster headache unless I'm outdoors and up-wind.  Zip Strip will remove cured powder coating.  Misc cans of carb cleaner, denatured alcohol, Desolv-it, etc on the shelf.

GG


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## DonC

5 Gallons of Gunk Carburetor Cleaner with basket also. Takes grease and paint off in one shot. Can't keep it in my shop though, it stinks too much but is the most effective stuff I have ever used. No scraping or brushing, just hit it with a high pressure stream of water and all the funk is gone. I then soak the parts in Rust Dissolve, they come out like new. Doing it this way has saved me a bunch of time cleaning old greasy parts and allowed me to get other things done while the parts soak.


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## catskinner

DonC said:


> 5 Gallons of Gunk Carburetor Cleaner with basket also. Takes grease and paint off in one shot. Can't keep it in my shop though, it stinks too much but is the most effective stuff I have ever used. No scraping or brushing, just hit it with a high pressure stream of water and all the funk is gone. I then soak the parts in Rust Dissolve, they come out like new. Doing it this way has saved me a bunch of time cleaning old greasy parts and allowed me to get other things done while the parts soak.


I like that, I'm thinking of doing that in my plastic bucket with a sealable lid and a 2 gal bucket with holes used as a screen. Good tip simple, easy and thorough great post DonC


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## iron man

For years everyone used dry cleaning solvent in there parts washers it worked great keeps your cloths clean too.. Ray


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## catskinner

iron man said:


> For years everyone used dry cleaning solvent in there parts washers it worked great keeps your cloths clean too.. Ray


Was that acetone or does anyone know exactly what it was. I can remember the smell when I walked by the dry cleaners.


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## JimDawson

They used to use Carbontretacloride, then went to 111-TriCloroEthelene until that was outlawed, I don't know what they use now.


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## Tony Wells

According to Wiki:

*Tetrachloroethylene*, also known under the systematic name *tetrachloroethene*, or *perchloroethylene* ("*perc*" or "*PERC*"), and many other names, is a chlorocarbon with the formula Cl2C=CCl2. It is a colorless liquid widely used for dry cleaning of fabrics, hence it is sometimes called "dry-cleaning fluid." It has a sweet odor detectable by most people at a concentration of 1 part per million (1 ppm). Worldwide production was about one million metric tons in 1985.[1]


I doubt this would be readily available on the consumer market, but if it were, it sounds promising as a degreaser. I believe it is usually the chlorine content that ends up making this family of solvents fall into disfavor. Most likely an ozone killer.


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## catskinner

JimDawson said:


> They used to use Carbontretacloride, then went to 111-TriCloroEthelene until that was outlawed, I don't know what they use now.


Oh yeah I knew that, duh.


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## iron man

You could use this...

http://www.truevalue.com/product/16-oz-Guardsman-Dry-Cleaning-Fluid/25013.uts#activeTab1


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## DonC

Tony Wells said:


> According to Wiki:
> 
> *Tetrachloroethylene*, also known under the systematic name *tetrachloroethene*, or *perchloroethylene* ("*perc*" or "*PERC*"), and many other names, is a chlorocarbon with the formula Cl2C=CCl2. It is a colorless liquid widely used for dry cleaning of fabrics, hence it is sometimes called "dry-cleaning fluid." It has a sweet odor detectable by most people at a concentration of 1 part per million (1 ppm). Worldwide production was about one million metric tons in 1985.[1]
> 
> 
> I doubt this would be readily available on the consumer market, but if it were, it sounds promising as a degreaser. I believe it is usually the chlorine content that ends up making this family of solvents fall into disfavor. Most likely an ozone killer.



If I'm not mistaken the main ingredient in brake cleaner is PERC, the non clorinated will not have PERC. I don't like messing with it myself. Used to use it all the time to clean my grimy parts. I got lazy one time and didn't put on my rubber gloves. One of those times when you say to yourself you'll be exposed to the cleaner for only a minute. Anyway a day or two later my hands and fingers started to itch badly, couldn't even sleep at night. Ended up with dermatitis, steroid shot took care of it. So be careful if you use this.


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## catskinner

DonC said:


> If I'm not mistaken the main ingredient in brake cleaner is PERC, the non clorinated will not have PERC. I don't like messing with it myself. Used to use it all the time to clean my grimy parts. I got lazy one time and didn't put on my rubber gloves. One of those times when you say to yourself you'll be exposed to the cleaner for only a minute. Anyway a day or two later my hands and fingers started to itch badly, couldn't even sleep at night. Ended up with dermatitis, steroid shot took care of it. So be careful if you use this.



Good info, many of these cleaners need to be handled carefully.


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## pebbleworm

I used some California Air Resources Board paint thinner to degrease some bicycle parts recently, and it both worked well and was nicer to work with than the "good" white spirits/paint thinner.  It's a milky looking product made by reacting the raw petroleum distillates with hydrogen through some top secret catalytic process- secret on the part of the oil companies, not CARB.  Did a fine job on cleaning up the parts and did not dry out my un-gloved hands.  I like it.  One way to kick any degreaser up a notch is to add some straight butoxyethanol or butyl ether (same thing, and the active principle in Castrol Super Clean and Formula 409). I have some in ampoules left over from a work chemistry project, and it's available on eBay. Use discretion- if you add too much it will soften or remove paint.


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## Lucky 13

I bought my Bridgeport 1 year ago this weekend and it was absolutely filthy. I bought a gallon of Simple Green, a gallon of Purple Power and 2 dozen green Scotch Brite pads. I didn't make a dent in the years of build up. I spent 3 days scrubbing my fingers bloody until I made a trip to Home Depot and discovered Zep Fast 505 industrial cleaner. At first I bought just a squirt bottle of it not having much faith but I was immediately surprised at how incredibly awesome it worked. The 32 Oz. squirt bottle finished off cleaning the rest of my mill but I went ahead and bought a gallon to keep refilling. It is kinda rough on your hands so wear rubber gloves and it is pretty rough to breathe so try and use it outside.


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