Cleaning solvent

You could fit four in each ultrasonic bath on this automated cleaning system I built about 2 years ago. The 10 gallon usonic tanks are on the right, there are 4 heated rinse baths under the black insulation on the right.

Yikes. I bought a year's contract @ $2.59/gal last summer; the last delivery would have been $3.15 without the contract, but that was back in the fall. The delivered cash price here in ME is $4.23 today. I better make sure the tank is full when the contract runs out in May.

I'm a big fan of mineral spirits, which are commonly sold as paint thinner. They are virtually the same thing as kerosene (I haven't actually checked which one is cheaper). I typically get parts as clean as I can with mineral spirits, and then finish the job with brake cleaner spray. You will want to wear nitrile gloves for this.

Not familiar with that, but the HF # 95563 has a fairly large tank. Might just have to do half submerged at a time.

"Mineral spirits," common paint thinner, is also known as Stoddard Solvent. It's moderately active, somewhat less so than gasoline. A Coleman employee once told me that this is what they used to sell as "white gasoline," but I don't know that for a fact.

-- Ed Huntress

Simple Green has been outlawed for use on aircraft by the Army and the California Fire fighters. I seems that corrosion caused by Simple Green caused failures in aircraft parts. There is a New concoction called Extreme Simple Green that has been approved. I will only use Simple Green on the concrete floor and then rinse it off completely.

Stu

Interesting. SG is one of the recommended cleaners for SCUBA regulators and components.

SG attacks aluminum and some other metals if in contact for an extended time. Same for Purple Cleaner AKA Super Clean.

But SG works real well for cleaning aluminum. You just have to rinse it as soon as your are done. It would probably also do a good job on a carb, but again, clean it out thoroughly.

I hadn't heard it called Stoddard Solvent before -- my dad used to just call it "solvent", and when I went looking for it nobody knew what I was talking about!

I had heard Coleman white gas was indeed gasoline, but without additives (especially no lead).

Ah, my memory let me down. It was naptha that he told me was "white gas," not Stoddard Solvent.

I see that this is the generally understood meaning from various Web sources.

-- Ed Huntress

Definitely different stuff. Coleman fuel, or White Gas is Naptha. A WHOLE LOT more flamable and volatile than Varsol or Stoddard Solvent.

Ouch. One wonders what the hydrogen fill-up would cost.

Naptha is a brand name for soap. Naphtha is the petroleum product.

Coleman fuel is indeed like gasoline in weight and volatility, not kerosene. Roughly hexane in my estimate, and very aliphatic and clean of aromatic hydrocarbons and sulfur. Next to no heavy stuff that leaves a residue. Wipe it on glass and see. Excellent cleaner if you observe proper cautions; I use it in a quart Sure-Shot every day.

Naphtha is a non-specific term, but the "VM&P" (varnish makers' and painters') naphtha is like Coleman fuel, as is necessary for making a fast- drying and low-residue paint solvent.

I'm kicking myself for not stocking up on Coleman fuel when the store shelves had it for $2/gallon when gas first spiked over $3 a few years back. With the packaging and handling, Coleman fuel is typically about twice the gasoline price, and the retail lag is something to be finessed.

Yep, because they contain LYE (NaOH, caustic soda), which is so effective a degreaser. They dull aluminum pretty much on contact, and over time much worse.

I bet you are thinking of "Fels-Naptha" soap. It's not naptha. You can check the MSDS.

Pete Stanaitis

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Inquire at Home Depot or Lowes before commenting further.

See

Show a little manly probity, and discontinue your jackal-jabber. Nobody takes it seriously other than to perhaps log you as a fool.

Oh, geez, there you go again. Despite your delusions, WD-40 is not kerosene, and neither is anything they sell in the paint aisle at big box stores.

Shop, hell, we used the boss's wife's machine when she wasn't home. Big-time hell to pay that day she came home early. It got loud; I left.

For the record, don't use her "good scissors" to cut anything at all. Half Greek, half Cherokee. All temper. But FANTASTIC cook.

Any autoparts store has cleaning solvents in 2 to 5 gal. buckets for parts cleaning.

Roger