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Cleaning a dirty/oily lathe
- Thread starter G Jones
- Start date
OKay, I'm a little confused on your series of posts. The results in these photos is fantastic. But which product(s) did you use? In post #7 of this thread, you list three (I think). Purple Power, Simple Green, and the 'Foaming Oven Cleaner in the BLUE Can'. Also, what step did you 'skip'?I couldn't find the pictures I was looking for, but I found this before and after. See? (Okay, I might have skipped a step)
I can keep my mill pretty clean, but it's a real challenge to get into and under all the hard-to-reach places on my lathe.
Regards,
Terry
I use mineral spirits. I haven't ever had any problem with it attacking paint. I can't say the same for purple cleaner. I do use the purple stuff for bigger projects when I plan to repaint anyway.
Terry, all three products have the same ingredient (or derivative thereof) in them. I thought I had some before and after pics of a 25 year old fuel tank while cleaning it with oven cleaner (blue can good, yellow can bad), but I couldn't find what I was looking for. I did the undercarriage parts at the same time, but my before and after pics skipped the step where I loaded the parts into my trunk and dropped them off at my neighborhood plating shop. That part was meant to be funny. I know I can be a spaz, so here I am explaining the punch line, which makes me feel like I've failed miserably at humor.
Well, it's funny now.
. You probably didn't need to explain the punch line to guys who understood the humor. I didn't get it, so who's the 'real' spaz here?Thanks for the clarification. Heading to town in the morning, so I'll pick up one of the three and try it on my lathe.
Regards,
Terry
Last lathe 3 lathes i have cleaned up i steam cleaned them, after soaking in simple green then dismantled and gave them a soak in diesel, then wiped down with general purpose thinners, one of them got a hot caustic soda bath came out as bare cast... quite impressive but scary, if you use this method dont take this stuff for granted it is dangerous.
I once put some aluminum stock in a dishwasher to degrease and they came out with a weird purple discoloration. May have been the detergent? Be careful with the dishwasher on aluminum and put through a non needed part first to be sure it will come out right.
Dishwasher detergent is pretty strongly alkaline, and thus not good for aluminum. I've had aluminum (cookware) items that got roughened/etched, some that came out dark grey, etc.
If you're cleaning aluminum in a shop dishwasher, try running the dishwasher without detergent. The hot water and agitation should do a decent initial cleanup. If the dishwasher gets greasy/cruddy from the parts, run it a second time without the parts and with some detergent.
If you're cleaning aluminum in a shop dishwasher, try running the dishwasher without detergent. The hot water and agitation should do a decent initial cleanup. If the dishwasher gets greasy/cruddy from the parts, run it a second time without the parts and with some detergent.
Something to consider with this clean up or other machine clean up is the local manual car wash. Can use the strong power wash wand to blast off debris and they have a degreaser that can be used to get off oil and grease then blasted off again with water.
Just need to be sure the parts are taken apart enough so you don't force water into places that you can't get to to dry out. If needed could bring some WD40 to go over just washed and dried metal parts to prevent flash rust.
Car wash is not always best but good to know it can be a powerful tool to use.
Just need to be sure the parts are taken apart enough so you don't force water into places that you can't get to to dry out. If needed could bring some WD40 to go over just washed and dried metal parts to prevent flash rust.
Car wash is not always best but good to know it can be a powerful tool to use.
