What solvent do you guys use?

[crawdad]

Not quite sure where to post this, but I bought a solvent tank and some "water base" solvent from Northern not too long ago, and I am really put out with the solvent . The solvent came in a 5 gal bucket that you mixed with water (probably the biggest problem) and it want cut any kind of oil or grease. I've been tempted to get some regular petroleum based solvent, but the tank says to use water based only because of the electric pump. Just wondering what you guys are using and how good a job it does? Can anyone recommend a good water based solvent?

[Billla]

I use Castrol Super Clean; I've been told that it's out of production, but NAPA here still carries it.

[crawdad]

Yea, I've used some of that stuff before, it works good, but I'm talking about solvent/degreaser for a 35 gal. parts washer. They don't sell it by the drum do they?

[Billla]

Originally Posted by crawdad

Yea, I've used some of that stuff before, it works good, but I'm talking about solvent/degreaser for a 35 gal. parts washer. They don't sell it by the drum do they?

Drum, I don't think so - I do buy 5 gal. jugs from NAPA for my 20 gal. I use it full strength.

[84 400]

hmm can't help yeah there i know what your talking about but don't own my own parts washer. i used simple green on all my stuff but that is not what you need here gooed luck man

[crawdad]

Originally Posted by Billla

Drum, I don't think so - I do buy 5 gal. jugs from NAPA for my 20 gal. I use it full strength.

5 gallon jugs would work. I'll just buy a bunch of them. I'll check the NAPA store out tomorrow.
This stuff works good, I know, I've used it in the spray bottle before. Still open for any other suggestions on stuff that works good men. I've had to resort to using straight gasoline every now and then, but it is tearing my hands up!

[84 400]

not to mention gas is coasting alot more these days !!! good luck in the hunt. if i was still in school i would of got the brand we used in our parts cleaner it worked great but i have since graduated years ago maybe i can give the techer a call he will know..... good luck on the hunt !

[crawdad]

Originally Posted by 84 400

not to mention gas is coasting alot more these days !!! good luck in the hunt. if i was still in school i would of got the brand we used in our parts cleaner it worked great but i have since graduated years ago maybe i can give the techer a call he will know..... good luck on the hunt !

Appreciate that 84!

[magnethead]

We have a 55 gal parts washer, not sure what solvent we use, but my dad got it from his work in a 55 gal oil style drum. It has an electric pump.

[Mike 85]

Varsoll (sp?) if you can find it.
Saftey-Clean if you got the $$$$
Idiots like me use paint thinner.

[ElGracho]

I went down to the gasoline/chemical distributor and they sold me 10 gallons of solvent specifically for cleaning and degreasing. Its definately petroleum based and something close to the safety kleen we have at work. It was under $20 for each 5 gallon can so it's not too expensive either.

We used to buy castrol super clean for cleaning floors when I was working changing oil. It worked ok for that, but not as well as what we replaced. We were using the safety-kleen floor cleaner that looked like tang until it got wet, then it looked just like anti-freeze. We got rid of it because people kept calling the epa on us saying we were dumping antifreeze even though we weren't.

I would advise AGAINST using Super-Clean in a parts washer. Its caustic and burns your skin pretty bad with prolonged exposure. Gloves should be used no matter what, but I don't really like that stuff for that application. It will probably eat the rubber out of the pump worse than the petroleum based stuff.

[Billla]

Originally Posted by crawdad

I've had to resort to using straight gasoline every now and then, but it is tearing my hands up!

Man, you know you don't want to use gas, right?

[Elsie72]

We used to use Varsol, then add a couple of litres of ATF in. That would keep the pump lubed, and keep from drying things out with straight varsol. We'd use a gallon of water, too. One of the old tech's said that the sediment would settle to the bottom with the water, and extend the life of the solvent.

[Billla]

Originally Posted by ElGracho

I would advise AGAINST using Super-Clean in a parts washer. Its caustic and burns your skin pretty bad with prolonged exposure. Gloves should be used no matter what, but I don't really like that stuff for that application. It will probably eat the rubber out of the pump worse than the petroleum based stuff.

Um, you're saying Super Clean is worse than a petroleum-based solvent? Can't see it. I've had it in my Harbor Freight 20 gal parts cleaner for 5 years...so if it's going to eat the pump it should start sometime soon ;-)

[ElGracho]

Originally Posted by Billla

Um, you're saying Super Clean is worse than a petroleum-based solvent? Can't see it. I've had it in my Harbor Freight 20 gal parts cleaner for 5 years...so if it's going to eat the pump it should start sometime soon ;-)

For rubber yes. If they are worried about petroleum eating seals and recommending a water based product, then they are probably talking about rubber and the caustic in super clean would be worse than the petroleum solvent.

As far as your harbor freight cleaner, I have one of those too. They probably don't use natural rubber in the pump for seals for just these reasons...

Here's a link to the National Institute of Health page on the stuff: http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov...nds&id=3011002

Here's a link to a castrol data sheet: http://www.castrol.com/liveassets/bp...loads/k/kk.pdf The 1-5 % Sodium Hydroxide is what makes it caustic or corrosive (>~7.5 pH). It has a pH of 11-13, that will make it eat natural rubber in a heartbeat.

Most petroleum cleaning solvents (those made to be solvents, not gasoline or paint thinner) are much closer to neutral pH and do not attack rubber.

[Southedisto]

Simple green, if you can find it.