old round fart
Well-Known Member
Just got a parts washer from Harbor Frt. Any suggestions on fluid to use?
Parts cleaner
- Thread starter old round fart
- Start date
We use mineral spirits in our parts washer. We buy a 55 gallon drum of it from a chemical supplier. It is a little bit less expensive that way. It can be purchased from any home improvement place or paint store.
Gerry
Well-Known Member
Solvents are NOT good for your skin or others around you. Some of the citrus cleaners work ok, but in the end its down to how good it does the job. If you are using a solvent based fluid occasionally and you keep young uns and family away, wear gloves then go for a 'safety' solvent. Just be careful how you dispose of it.
Mineral spirits tend to be a mixture of many different solvents. They have a cumulative effect on your systems... in other words all the different constituents add together rather than the worst one has the biggest effect ; just thought I would say. Sorry guys but I spend a lot of time on this in years gone by.
Gerry
PS Skin absorption is not a good thing. Contaminated gloves (when the solvent gets inside) is worse that using bare hands... up to 10X more of the nasty gets in to your system. (years in health and safety and being friends with an American guys who specializes in this discipline has taught me the real science behind all this stuff)
Mineral spirits tend to be a mixture of many different solvents. They have a cumulative effect on your systems... in other words all the different constituents add together rather than the worst one has the biggest effect ; just thought I would say. Sorry guys but I spend a lot of time on this in years gone by.
Gerry
PS Skin absorption is not a good thing. Contaminated gloves (when the solvent gets inside) is worse that using bare hands... up to 10X more of the nasty gets in to your system. (years in health and safety and being friends with an American guys who specializes in this discipline has taught me the real science behind all this stuff)
putz
Member
Here is a really good discussion on this subject. They talk about water based cleaners but if in metal container it will rust.
parts washer fluid
parts washer fluid
Keeper
Active Member
Since mine is in my garage and I have bedrooms above, I went for "Safety solvent" it has a higher flashpoint, lower odor, lower evap rate, but a much higher price. Call your local chemical supplier and see what they have.
I tried the "green" stuff when I rebuilt my transmission, halfway through I dumped it and bought the safety solvent.
I tried the "green" stuff when I rebuilt my transmission, halfway through I dumped it and bought the safety solvent.
I took a quick look at that link and advise everyone to stay away from Naptha.
It's nasty stuff that comes from the Benzene Ring. Don't use it. It could probably cause birth defects in tool steel.
It's nasty stuff that comes from the Benzene Ring. Don't use it. It could probably cause birth defects in tool steel.
Corley
New Member
I've always used Paint Thinner (the cheapest hardware variety I can find), because some of it even is labled as "Paint Thinner / Solvent". It works well, and my skin absorbs it so well I can almost taste it, but so far there has been no obit notice in the local paper for me and I'm still waking up every morning...
Funny Story about solvent: When I was a kid, we had a 600 gallon buried gas tank for the tractors, and we'd just pump a half gallon into a big pan and use that to wash parts. My cousin Bub always used paint thinner. You may remember him from my first T ride. Anyway, back in the '50s, he found an old top load dish washer at the local dump, and decided it would make the perfect parts washer. He put 5 gallons of solvent in it, and he removed the pump, so the solvent would stay in it. Then he'd place his parts on the racks, close the lid, and let it run for an hour or so. Those old top loaders basically just had a blade in the bottom that would slosh the water around, and since it didn't know the difference between water and solvent, his would slosh the solvent. Actually, rather vigorously.
After turning it off, he'd open the cover, and vapors would come floating out all over the place. The parts looked nice and clean, but it was really very scary. One day someone commented on the scariness of the thing, so he opened it and stepped back, lit a match and threw it at the vapors. The first few matchs went out before reaching the vapors, but finally one made the flight still lit, and BOOOOM! The fire ball was about 10' around. Of course one would expect the solvent in the dish washer to create an enormous fire, but it didn't burn at all after the explosion. There was just one big flash. I suppose that used up all the Ox2, but for whatever reason, no big fire.
This spured us to try some other explosive ideas, the best of which was when we welded an old Hillman Minx driveshaft tube to a steel plate, welded a spark plug into the side, then dropped in a bit of carbide, some water, and stuffed a rag down it. A hit from a model T coil to light off the spark plug, and there was an enormous bang, and the rag went flying. (Carbide and water produces acetelyne gas.) That worked so well that we decided it needed more projectile, so we tried it with some flashlite batteries on top of the rag, and those went a long long ways. The last try was with a wooden dowel that just fit snuggly into the driveshaft tube, and a really big charge of carbide. That caused the Hillman driveshaft tube to part at the seam for about a foot, and of course the dowel went about 1/8 mile, fortunately it landed in an open field. I say fortunately, because we were aiming at a neighbors house at the time. The good news was that the welds all held, and I did the welding with my then brand new Victor gas outfit. I still have that Victor gas outfit, and use it almost everyday!
Ah the good old days, country boys do have their fun... and oh yeah, quite a bit of that "Tractor gas" did make it into our cars tanks. (Don't tell mom!)
Corley
PS Hillman Minx drive shaft tubes just aren't all that good!
Funny Story about solvent: When I was a kid, we had a 600 gallon buried gas tank for the tractors, and we'd just pump a half gallon into a big pan and use that to wash parts. My cousin Bub always used paint thinner. You may remember him from my first T ride. Anyway, back in the '50s, he found an old top load dish washer at the local dump, and decided it would make the perfect parts washer. He put 5 gallons of solvent in it, and he removed the pump, so the solvent would stay in it. Then he'd place his parts on the racks, close the lid, and let it run for an hour or so. Those old top loaders basically just had a blade in the bottom that would slosh the water around, and since it didn't know the difference between water and solvent, his would slosh the solvent. Actually, rather vigorously.
After turning it off, he'd open the cover, and vapors would come floating out all over the place. The parts looked nice and clean, but it was really very scary. One day someone commented on the scariness of the thing, so he opened it and stepped back, lit a match and threw it at the vapors. The first few matchs went out before reaching the vapors, but finally one made the flight still lit, and BOOOOM! The fire ball was about 10' around. Of course one would expect the solvent in the dish washer to create an enormous fire, but it didn't burn at all after the explosion. There was just one big flash. I suppose that used up all the Ox2, but for whatever reason, no big fire.
This spured us to try some other explosive ideas, the best of which was when we welded an old Hillman Minx driveshaft tube to a steel plate, welded a spark plug into the side, then dropped in a bit of carbide, some water, and stuffed a rag down it. A hit from a model T coil to light off the spark plug, and there was an enormous bang, and the rag went flying. (Carbide and water produces acetelyne gas.) That worked so well that we decided it needed more projectile, so we tried it with some flashlite batteries on top of the rag, and those went a long long ways. The last try was with a wooden dowel that just fit snuggly into the driveshaft tube, and a really big charge of carbide. That caused the Hillman driveshaft tube to part at the seam for about a foot, and of course the dowel went about 1/8 mile, fortunately it landed in an open field. I say fortunately, because we were aiming at a neighbors house at the time. The good news was that the welds all held, and I did the welding with my then brand new Victor gas outfit. I still have that Victor gas outfit, and use it almost everyday!
Ah the good old days, country boys do have their fun... and oh yeah, quite a bit of that "Tractor gas" did make it into our cars tanks. (Don't tell mom!)
Corley
PS Hillman Minx drive shaft tubes just aren't all that good!
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