Need Water Soluble Degreaser/Cleaner Recommendations

Lye is the cheapest solution it will easily strip grease and paint off steel but will attack aluminum. I like Orange Citrus Cleaner/Degreaser for most cleaning in the shop and around the house, it can be diluted to fit almost any task.
Zep Orange.jpg
 
Greased lightening at Lowes, 5 gallons for maybe 30 bucks.

Use full strength, no odor at all and melts anything oil based.

With a garden sprayer, mix a strong batch of dawn to rinse with.

Makes diesel powered equipment look showroom fresh.

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DiscoDan said:
I just used this Dawn to clean a Putnam gap bed lathe to get ready for painting. I was dumbfounded at how good it worked.
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They use Dawn to clean upo oil spills as well, it is magical stuff, works better than Gojo...
 
I use simple green for pretty much all garage stuff and dawn dish soap for the rest. I don’t use the new dawn spray to cleanup, just the old fashion dish soap. Mix dish soap and vinegar works good as well. Canada is set to ban a whole pile of cleaners, lubricants and other stuff coming up. On the list is breekeclean and wd40 to name a few. The list is extensive so in the new year options for cleaners will change. Just an fyI if your in the great white north.
 
I'll admit to using lye in the shop- a lot, actually. The caustic tank is an old speed shop favorite. Yes dangerous, dissolves tender eyeballs on contact, but not particularly hard to work with safely. Yes, it attacks aluminum, but also makes the best aluminum cleaner for castings that I am aware of. The trick is to run your water cold and not leave your part in the sink while you run to the hardware store for fasteners or whatever. Just watch the part and rinse/neutralize when clean, everything comes out fine. There is no smoke or flame, it's a slow reaction. Just avoid the carp drain cleaner that has zinc pellets in it- that stuff is designed to cook off hot in cast iron pipes, and is impossible to separate. Oven cleaner or pure crystal are still available at the hardware store. And with sodium hydroxide, more is not necessarily better- it's the second most aggressive base on the periodic chart, give it some respect for that.
 
Lye also makes a very nice chemical dye for woods like cherry. A dilute solution of sodium hydroxide in water will be completely clear but when is applied to cherry especially the wood takes on that beautiful, aged colour that cherry is so renowned for. We’ve used it a lot for aging-in new mouldings against 100-plus year old ones. Works very well and doesn’t look artificial like a pigmented stain would. Oddly enough, the solution is called “limewater”.
 
pontiac428 said:
I'll admit to using lye in the shop- a lot, actually. The caustic tank is an old speed shop favorite. Yes dangerous, dissolves tender eyeballs on contact, but not particularly hard to work with safely. Yes, it attacks aluminum, but also makes the best aluminum cleaner for castings that I am aware of. The trick is to run your water cold and not leave your part in the sink while you run to the hardware store for fasteners or whatever. Just watch the part and rinse/neutralize when clean, everything comes out fine. There is no smoke or flame, it's a slow reaction. Just avoid the carp drain cleaner that has zinc pellets in it- that stuff is designed to cook off hot in cast iron pipes, and is impossible to separate. Oven cleaner or pure crystal are still available at the hardware store. And with sodium hydroxide, more is not necessarily better- it's the second most aggressive base on the periodic chart, give it some respect for that.
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I like adding Lye to the mix in an electrolysis tank, it really helps cut through the oil and grease.
 
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