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RE: Solvents for parts washer

To: battmain@juno.com
Subject: RE: Solvents for parts washer
From: "Lee Daniels, daniels@tamu.edu" <DANIELS@alchem.chem.tamu.edu>
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 1997 13:50:21 -0500
>Is there a solvent that will cut grease well and is also kind to the
>paint in the parts washer?

I get a product at the auto-parts store made by GUNK that is especially
made for mixing with kerosene or varsol for parts washers.  A gallon is
about $15, and I think that's about enough to make 10 or 15 gallons total.
It's made to rinsed off of the parts with water, but it warns about keeping
water out of the mix; this evidently greatly reduces its solvent capacity. 

The much-less-friendly and much-more-flammable but really great solvent for 
cutting grease and other forms of grease and tars is toluene or xylene 
(toluene is sometimes called toluol).  BUT DON'T USE IT IN YOUR PARTS 
WASHER.  Has a very low flash point; good way to turn your shop into a ball 
of fire.  (This is usually what's in carb cleaner.)  But a little toluene 
in a can or on a rag *really* cleans up grease.  Cuts right through 
(Ziebart-type) undercoating, too.

 Lee M. Daniels                 Laboratory for Molecular Structure and Bonding
 daniels@cryogen.com                                      Texas A&M University
 '74 TR6  '77 MGB                                 http://acs.tamu.edu/~lmd1191

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