Cleaning oily parts

[GS1100GZ]

I used to have a parts cleaning sink available to me at previous jobs. I'm retired now and was wondering what people do to clean oily parts at home. What cleaning fluid do you use? What makes a good sink? How do you dispose of old fluid?

Also I remember that either Simple Green or Purple Power would mess up aluminum parts. Can anyone tell me which one it is? Thanks.

[Guest]

I use varsol or kerosene if there are rubber parts like seals to look after. I use a 3 or 5 gallon bucket with a lid, use it until the fluid is hopelessly dirty, then dump the fluid in with my used motor oil and take that all to the local recycle center to dispose of it.


Mark

[Nessism]

Mineral spirits works great. Extra points for odorless. And don't use the low VOC junk. After cleaning pour the dirty fluid into a jug of some sort. The heavy sludge will settle to the bottom so the next time you need to wash something it's easy to pour the clean fluid off the top. Almost limitless recycling.

[chuck hahn]

Single plastic laundry room sink, 5 gallon bucket and a pump. fill bucket with your favorite mix and run a line up to the faucet on the sink. drains back into bucket for recycling to the faucet. May wish to have a filter sock on the drain pipe to strain juice before it goes back into the bucket. Simple green concentrate will allow you to make a stronger mix and its non flammable

[chuck hahn]

harbor freight ones arent that expensive either

[xkaes]

Mineral spirits works great. Extra points for odorless. And don't use the low VOC junk. After cleaning pour the dirty fluid into a jug of some sort. The heavy sludge will settle to the bottom so the next time you need to wash something it's easy to pour the clean fluid off the top. Almost limitless recycling.

Excellent point. A lot of "cleaners" have a lot of life left in them after they have been used -- but that does not mean that they are used up. Today, I need to use some CLR to remove some rust. I have a half gallon of old, very dirty CLR left over from some other jobs. I filter it using a couple of standard coffee filters placed inside a funnel. It gets any fine particles, AKA GRIT, out -- and it's ready for another job. It's easy to tell when it's finally lost it's "punch" because it stops fizzling when applied to a rust spot. Since the stuff isn't exactly cheap, reusing -- over and over -- it makes sense!

[oldGSfan]

I have never had anything oily/grimy the dollar store concentrated degreaser won't remove. I am always amazed how well it works and price is right. I use it full strength mostly and it has done no harm to any of the probably thousands of things I've cleaned.

The yellow colored stuff on the top row here, bonus when they stock the refill bottles but that's sort of rare these days.

http://www.lastotallyawesome.com/products/all-purpose/

[GS1100GZ]

So I gather then that Simple Green and LA's Totally Awesome is safe for aluminum?

[Big T]

Simple Green will discolor aluminum
Simple Green Pro doesnt