Best chemical cleaner for old mechanical junk?
 

Any suggestions for a good homemade total immersion type chemical
cleaner/degreaser for antique mechanical restoration project? The hot
degreaser tanks used by automotive engine rebuilders comes to mind, but last
time I checked, the chemicals were only available in 55-gallon drums, and
work best when hot. How about a 5-gallon tank, for example? Maybe some kind
of witches brew I could mix myself? Dave

Go down to the sprawl mart and get a gallon or two of the castrol
superclean or wally worlds generic version

Hot lye or even concetrated Tide will take grease, oil, and paint off
quite nicely. A lot of these cleaners are just strong alkline products.

David Anderson wrote:
Any suggestions for a good homemade total immersion type chemical
cleaner/degreaser for antique mechanical restoration project? The hot
degreaser tanks used by automotive engine rebuilders comes to mind, but last
time I checked, the chemicals were only available in 55-gallon drums, and
work best when hot. How about a 5-gallon tank, for example? Maybe some kind
of witches brew I could mix myself? Dave

I will have to agree "purple power" or the "Castrol superclean" will work
EXCELLENT. It will remove paint so be careful. I have used gallons of the
stuff to clean just about anything. Just the other day I had a black grease
stain on some new bright white shorts they wnet through the wash and dry and
the stain was there. the wive me the standard crap about, well you know, I
Used some purple power gave it o good scrube, stuck it in the washer (wife
not knowing this was in her machine) and they came out like new.
wrote in message
ups.com...
Go down to the sprawl mart and get a gallon or two of the castrol
superclean or wally worlds generic version

"David Anderson" wrote in message
. ..
Any suggestions for a good homemade total immersion type chemical
cleaner/degreaser for antique mechanical restoration project? The hot
degreaser tanks used by automotive engine rebuilders comes to mind, but
last time I checked, the chemicals were only available in 55-gallon drums,
and work best when hot. How about a 5-gallon tank, for example? Maybe
some kind of witches brew I could mix myself? Dave

Powdered automatic dishwasher detergent like "Cascade" in hot, hot water!

Have to agree -- we had several heavily stained sections of carpet (10 years of
kids) and nothing would touch it. I tried purple Castrol diluted 16:1 and
scrubbed it with clean white rags and then the carpet machine with purple
Castrol in it, followed by 2 clean water rinse cycles, and dang if it didn't
come pretty clean. I was amazed.

But to clean most metal parts I use Cascade dishwashing detergent, a strong hot
solution preferably boiled. It will take off paint and grease but it's much more
friendly and safe to work with than lye and much cheaper than TSP, although
those two will work fine too. In my parts washer I use mineral spirits aka
Stoddard solvent aka paint thinner.

GWE

Waynemak wrote:
I will have to agree "purple power" or the "Castrol superclean" will work
EXCELLENT. It will remove paint so be careful. I have used gallons of the
stuff to clean just about anything. Just the other day I had a black grease
stain on some new bright white shorts they wnet through the wash and dry and
the stain was there. the wive me the standard crap about, well you know, I
Used some purple power gave it o good scrube, stuck it in the washer (wife
not knowing this was in her machine) and they came out like new.
wrote in message
ups.com...

Go down to the sprawl mart and get a gallon or two of the castrol
superclean or wally worlds generic version

"David Anderson" wrote in message
. ..
Any suggestions for a good homemade total immersion type chemical
cleaner/degreaser for antique mechanical restoration project? The hot
degreaser tanks used by automotive engine rebuilders comes to mind, but
last time I checked, the chemicals were only available in 55-gallon drums,
and work best when hot. How about a 5-gallon tank, for example? Maybe
some kind of witches brew I could mix myself? Dave

Just pour a half-gallon of "liquid drain cleaner" in a 5 gallon plastic
bucket and add a couple gallons warm water.
As others have said, all the heavy cleaners and hot tanks use caustic lye
solutions, with maybe some surfactant.

Need to read the label on the drain cleaner first, some of the ones here
in the UK are strong sulphuric acid which may not do your parts much good.

bw wrote:

"David Anderson" wrote in message
...

Any suggestions for a good homemade total immersion type chemical
cleaner/degreaser for antique mechanical restoration project? The hot
degreaser tanks used by automotive engine rebuilders comes to mind, but
last time I checked, the chemicals were only available in 55-gallon drums,
and work best when hot. How about a 5-gallon tank, for example? Maybe
some kind of witches brew I could mix myself? Dave


Just pour a half-gallon of "liquid drain cleaner" in a 5 gallon plastic
bucket and add a couple gallons warm water.
As others have said, all the heavy cleaners and hot tanks use caustic lye
solutions, with maybe some surfactant.

Waynemak wrote:
I will have to agree "purple power" or the "Castrol superclean" will work
EXCELLENT. It will remove paint so be careful. I have used gallons of the
stuff to clean just about anything.

It will attack aluminum and potmetal if left to soak. Clean and rinse.

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 20:17:42 -0700, Grant Erwin
wrote:

Have to agree -- we had several heavily stained sections of carpet (10 years of
kids) and nothing would touch it. I tried purple Castrol diluted 16:1 and
scrubbed it with clean white rags and then the carpet machine with purple
Castrol in it, followed by 2 clean water rinse cycles, and dang if it didn't
come pretty clean. I was amazed.

But to clean most metal parts I use Cascade dishwashing detergent, a strong hot
solution preferably boiled. It will take off paint and grease but it's much more
friendly and safe to work with than lye and much cheaper than TSP, although
those two will work fine too. In my parts washer I use mineral spirits aka
Stoddard solvent aka paint thinner.

GWE
Grant,
Another benefit of Cascade is that it does not encourage rust. BTW, I
used to work with a chemist who told me that Cascade had more buffers
than Electrosol and because of this Electrosol made a good etchant for
aluminum prior to painting. I've never tried it though.
ERS
Waynemak wrote:
I will have to agree "purple power" or the "Castrol superclean" will work
EXCELLENT. It will remove paint so be careful. I have used gallons of the
stuff to clean just about anything. Just the other day I had a black grease
stain on some new bright white shorts they wnet through the wash and dry and
the stain was there. the wive me the standard crap about, well you know, I
Used some purple power gave it o good scrube, stuck it in the washer (wife
not knowing this was in her machine) and they came out like new.
wrote in message
ups.com...

Go down to the sprawl mart and get a gallon or two of the castrol
superclean or wally worlds generic version

David Anderson wrote:
Any suggestions for a good homemade total immersion type chemical
cleaner/degreaser for antique mechanical restoration project? The hot
degreaser tanks used by automotive engine rebuilders comes to mind, but last
time I checked, the chemicals were only available in 55-gallon drums, and
work best when hot. How about a 5-gallon tank, for example? Maybe some kind
of witches brew I could mix myself? Dave


What metals are you dealing with? That may have an effect on what you
use to clean and not dissolve them..

John

bw wrote:

Just pour a half-gallon of "liquid drain cleaner" in a 5 gallon plastic
bucket and add a couple gallons warm water.
As others have said, all the heavy cleaners and hot tanks use caustic lye
solutions, with maybe some surfactant.

By the way that purple Castrol has -- you guessed it -- lye as one of its
ingredients.

GWE

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
| bw wrote:
|
| Just pour a half-gallon of "liquid drain cleaner" in a 5 gallon plastic
| bucket and add a couple gallons warm water.
| As others have said, all the heavy cleaners and hot tanks use caustic
lye
| solutions, with maybe some surfactant.
|
| By the way that purple Castrol has -- you guessed it -- lye as one of its
| ingredients.
|
| GWE

Which is why that stuff burns on my numerous bodily holes and leaks! I
never knew what the active ingredient was, it just worked great. Useful to
know, I guess.
I use it thinned for a general purpose kitchen cleaner, so much so that
SWMBO finally quit buying that expensive stuff. Small victories. Works
great on everything. I did use it once to help clean [part of a filthy RV,
which wasn't wise as it faded the paint. Oops!
For carb bodies and other aluminum parts, I rinse the parts in really
hot water to heat them up. Spray the part and let is sit for awhile.
Coffee cans work fine for settling tanks as I can reuse the runoff liquid.
Scrub a bit again while soaking, and then rinse sparkling clean.
Just wish it came in 5 gallon buckets!

bw wrote:
Just pour a half-gallon of "liquid drain cleaner" in a 5 gallon plastic
bucket and add a couple gallons warm water....

Knowing it was "just lye", I once used dry/crystals Drano to make paint
remover and had a horrible mess. It was a while ago, so I don't
remember details. I do remember that there was something else besides
lye in the Drano and that something left an awful mess. Bob

In article ,
Bob Engelhardt wrote:

bw wrote:
Just pour a half-gallon of "liquid drain cleaner" in a 5 gallon plastic
bucket and add a couple gallons warm water....

Knowing it was "just lye", I once used dry/crystals Drano to make paint
remover and had a horrible mess. It was a while ago, so I don't
remember details. I do remember that there was something else besides
lye in the Drano and that something left an awful mess. Bob

Drano contains sodium sulfite and aluminum flakes in addition to lye, if
memory serves. The aluminum is eaten by the lye, raising the
temperature to boiling.

One can buy straight lye in some grocery stores (in the soap & cleaners
isle), especially in rural areas.

Joe Gwinn

David Anderson wrote:

Any suggestions for a good homemade total immersion type chemical
cleaner/degreaser for antique mechanical restoration project? The hot
degreaser tanks used by automotive engine rebuilders comes to mind, but last
time I checked, the chemicals were only available in 55-gallon drums, and
work best when hot. How about a 5-gallon tank, for example? Maybe some kind
of witches brew I could mix myself? Dave



FYI, standard industrial "floor stripper" is both purple and essentially
the same as the branded Castrol stuff, afaik. The usual USA "wholesale
clubs" SAMS and BJs both used to sell the "floor stripper" in gal and 5
gal pails... or else go to a wholsale floor finish supply place.

Half a step milder than that is "Mean Green" or "somethingorother
Thunder" sold in stores like Family Dollar here on the USA East Coast...
both work very nicely on grease and oil, etc...

_-_-bear