Part cleaner solutions?
 

hello!

I am wonder what everyone uses in there part cleaners?

I bought some water based stuff from HF, and it does not work much at all, and now it is all moldy and smells pretty bad.. noe I also have to find a way to dispose of it too..

The guy at the parts store said to try Varsol, it is like laquer thinner I think..

So what is a good product to use that can sit in the cleaner for a long time and that is not too dangerous, both flamable and fumes.. that actually works.

And is also reasonable priced.

Thanks
Bruce

kerosene?

Cheap paint thinner works for me

Varsol, used to be an Exxon trade name for a solvent similar to mineral spirits. Not really even close to laquer thinner. In my parts washer I use mineral spirits, some people call it oily paint thinner, works great on oil and grease dedosits. It is combustable, not flamable, so you do have to take the necessary precautions.

For the most parts, water soluable stuff to be used for degreaser probably isn't much. The chlorinated products being the exception here.

Mineral sprirts, stoddard solvent etc. is probably the overall best thing to use in my book. It can be recycled by your local safety-kleen organization if you don't use it up. Varsol is used by a lot of people however I very often use the mineral spirits in my parts cleaner and Wal-Mart often has it on sale her at less than $1.00 per gallon. And its in gallon containers. I have modified my parts cleaner so it can run on as little as two gallons so this is "a good thing."

David Duffield

Thanks for the replies.

I got a 5 gallon container of Mineral spirit at Lowes for just under $12.00

So I will give that a shot, just wanted to see if other people used it.

Bruce

I use what Bruce uses, the 5 gallon cans of mineral spirits from Lowes.

I'll second the kerosene motion. I've had good success with it for a long time.

I have used an orange Citrus degreaser that worked pretty good and was suppose to be biodegradable or enviromentally friendly. When I was done with the waste I just turned it in at a waste collection site.

In general the aqueous cleaner solutions are meant to be heated to work properly...

What about Simple Green? Anyone use that? I have a small parts cleaner awaiting its first fill.

It works, but it’s corrosive to aluminum parts.

isnt berrymans still available? i would make sure there is a hazmat disposal site nearby first. i bet that stuff is the worst for the fishys.

I've been using a degreaser from Castrol that comes in a purple 1-gallon container, but without a parts cleaner. It works very well, and doesn'nt smeel too bad.

I just bought a 40-gallon parts cleaner and it was designed to hold maybe 20 gallons in the tub. So I immediately went to work modifying it to hold 2 gallons in a bucket underneath. There will be very little ponded fluid in the tub, so it will be more usable. I suppose this is what you did, old_porsche? Anybody else buy one of these parts cleaners and agree with me that the design is a joke?

Charlie
Montara, CA
1970 911E
1950 VW

Ok, this is the ultimate cheapie solution -- I picked up 8 liters of Fred Meyer cola to soak my valve covers in. After having tried aircraft-grade paint stripper, every cleaner known to man, combinations of caustic substances, etc., the cola pretty much cleared all the cruddies off overnight. Rinse in hot-soapy, then rinse in hot water afterwards. No nasty fumes, no flammability, no disposal issues (just don't drink it after you soak car parts in it), cheap. Oh, and one of my friends noted that EMT's use the stuff to clean blood off the road surface, too. If they can't get some kind of cola, they use 7-Up, which works just as well.


Dan

"For the most parts, water soluable stuff to be used for degreaser probably isn't much. The chlorinated products being the exception here.

Don't use the chlorinated stuff, most of it causes liver cancer over time.

Yes, "ckissick" the parts cleaners leave some things to be desired. For the most part they hold so much solvent, that by the time the "home mechanic" gets around to using it, its half evaporated.

About the only reasonable thing to do is to drain it after using it and let the solids settle in the storage container.

My washer was one of those old types that has a stainless sink mounted on top of a 90 wt gear lube barrel. It didn't have a pump in it. It had a flexable metal spout mounted in the rear of the sink wall.

I decided to make it easy to change the solvent and not use as much of it. The method was to put a 5 gal plastic bucket in the bottom of the barrel to hold the solvent and pump assembly. That way all I had to do was disconnect the electrics for the pump, lift off the sink and lift out the plastic bucket.

I bought a solvent pump from Grainger and mounted it to the underside of a plastic 5 gal lid. It can be raised or lowered as need be. I assembled some 2 in cpvc pieces to channel the used solvent back into the 5 gal plastic bucket. On the outlet of the sink I mounted a cpvc drain to carry the used solvent into the collector assembly.

I used a length of fuel proof hose attached to the outlet of the pump and used a "Loc-Line" coolent hose system and nozzel to direct the solvent. It's a real nice parts cleaner.

It only takes min of 1.5 gal to work. I can put in probably 3.5 gal if necessary.

I made a mistake and used pump that had a higher delivery rate than was necessary. If I build another parts cleaner, I would use a smaller one.

A really good parts cleaner could be put together by anyone on this list for less than $75. The benefit of this "dry sink" system is that the solvent will not readily evaporate quickly. If you want things to soak in solvent, you simply put a sink stopper in the bottom and pump the sink full.

Good luck,
David Duffield