Parts cleaner,once again.

1-tonmudder

1-tonmudder

Doin my part to stir the pot.
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Location
Greeneville TN
This has been discussed before but Im looking at solvents again.Ive been using mineral spirits but they have went to $10/gal and Im looking at other options.Leaning heavy toward straight diesel due to price.I was in harbor freight getting a new wheel/tire for my parts dollie and saw these next to the parts washers.Both mix 20/1 w water.I dont think either will clean very good based on the amount of water that will be in them BUT I dont know how much water is typically in the solvent parts washers use.Anybody have any experience w either of these??
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I've used them in a HF parts washer. Unless you heat the water up to near faucet temp, it doesn't do well at all. Plus, once you create a water/grease/cleaner milkshake, you need a better cleaner to clean the mess you made with cleaner.
Now I use K1 in my parts washer. Cost vs effectiveness is good enough.
 
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K1, too, that's all I could afford, & about all I need. I was told 10 - 15 years back, that EPA made the parts cleaner guys / servicers, sell Less lethal chemicals. Since the change, the cleaner solution barely works. Just like carb cleaner, Used to make carburetors look New again. Now you might as well spray brake cleaner. About as strong as it gets.
 
rodney eppes said:
K1, too, that's all I could afford, & about all I need. I was told 10 - 15 years back, that EPA made the parts cleaner guys / servicers, sell Less lethal chemicals. Since the change, the cleaner solution barely works. Just like carb cleaner, Used to make carburetors look New again. Now you might as well spray brake cleaner. About as strong as it gets.
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If you think that’s bad try today’s ether,most of it won’t burn fast enuf to seat a tire. I found an old can under the seat of an old truck I bought. Sprayed the same amount I used of the new stuff and about blew the tire off the wheel.


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CasterTroy said:
Damn I miss actual old school varsol
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My great uncle had three drums of it he got from somewhere that I could have bought and passed on. I wish now I had bought them.


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CasterTroy said:
Damn I miss actual old school varsol
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Having grown up using it in my Dad's shop (plus some others slightly "nicer" than MEK), I wasn't having any water-based junk (has to be heated, creates a mess as @Jody Treadway mentioned, etc.).
Last year @LowmodYJ gave me an old school parts washer and after a bit of research, went with 10 gals of PSC1000 .



Price stings... until you use it. Cleaning is on par with Varsol, low stink/high flash (because my "shop" is 1/2 "guest quarters" and didn't want a stanking potential smoldering 10 gal Molotov in the space). After cleaning, the parts are drip dried over the tub (chunk of wire shelving) and dries with a wipe afterwards (no secondary/tertiary cleaning needed).

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awheelterd said:
Wait what o_O
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If you've ever smelled it, you know what I mean.

Had an uncle (Tommy) that I spent quite a bit of time with as a very young kid (late 70's/early 80's). He was a mechanic at Pilot Freight in Kernersville. He had a parts washer in his personal garage. And a 50 gallon drum of Varsol near it. Always had 3 or 4 shitboxes he was bringing back from the dead. Partsa washer was next to the garage door.

He'd pull an old carb that looked liked it had spent time in the titanic boiler room until about 1982, when it was recovered and he decided he could bring it back. He'd let it soak in the washer...and damned if he didn't have it looking like new.

This was back when you would buy GUNK in a metal can, and it came with a drop basket. I'm not sure if that was also varsol, but it worked just about as well....but on smallish parts.

Even today's best "industrial" greasers can't touch that crap we had in the 70's & 80's...but I'm sure those chemicals attributed to whatever cancer killed uncle Tommy
 
CasterTroy said:
If you've ever smelled it, you know what I mean.

Had an uncle (Tommy) that I spent quite a bit of time with as a very young kid (late 70's/early 80's). He was a mechanic at Pilot Freight in Kernersville. He had a parts washer in his personal garage. And a 50 gallon drum of Varsol near it. Always had 3 or 4 shitboxes he was bringing back from the dead. Partsa washer was next to the garage door.

He'd pull an old carb that looked liked it had spent time in the titanic boiler room until about 1982, when it was recovered and he decided he could bring it back. He'd let it soak in the washer...and damned if he didn't have it looking like new.

This was back when you would buy GUNK in a metal can, and it came with a drop basket. I'm not sure if that was also varsol, but it worked just about as well....but on smallish parts.

Even today's best "industrial" greasers can't touch that crap we had in the 70's & 80's...but I'm sure those chemicals attributed to whatever cancer killed uncle Tommy
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For sure. We had OG varsol in the parts cleaner in hs shop class. Stuff was STRONG! Hence my amendment to your post :lol:. Might have killed a few brain cells cleaning parts in it a few times ha
 
I remember the local Hardware store had a Kerosene & a Varsol tank, with the old hand crank pump on them. The Garage my brother worker at, would clean engines, transmissions, & other Large parts, with Varsol. They had a air hose with a siphon on it, that sucked up the Varsol, which blasted out the spray end! And naturally they had a small part washer too.
 
I bought this Build All std 32 gallon unit at auction this year. It uses a bag strainer before dirty fluid reenters the reservoir, big caterpillar fuel filter after the pump, sand filter ( removed ) and about 10 gallons of water at the bottom of the reservoir to sort the sludge to the bottom out of the level of the diesel fuel. When I bought it, there was milkshake clogging everything. It’s way overkill for what I fool with, but I’ve always wanted something better than carb cleaner and an air hose. If diesel has a higher flash point than kerosene, and the stank is about the same, why go with k1?
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Never tried k1 in it. Bought my parts washer used with some old, nasty, stinking fluid in it. After I cleaned it out I tried the PSC-1000 after reading good reviews about it.
 
rodney eppes said:
Seems Expensive! Is it that much better than K1?
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I’ve never had the need to use anything else. It’s been some really good stuff and I know several that use it.

Edit: This is like comparing different types of anything, some people like this, some like that. It’s more about what you like and fits your budget. Only way to find out what you like is try it out.
 
I've got an old small engine I'm playing around with. It's filthy and needs to be cleaned, buying a parts washer is more than it's worth. Any suggestions on putting something together for a one time use? I've thought about an old rubber maid and mixing it together in that.

Next question, what to do with the leftover solvent when finished. I surely don't just dump it in the woods do I!?! o_O
 
Another vote for psc1000. Can't compare it to anything else homebrew, but it works great. Just as good as the stuff we get at work from our oil distributor, not sure what it is, but they come 4 times a year and swap out the 55 gallon drum of it under the wash basin.

I run my home washer (hf special) through a filter head and a fl1a ford oil filter. When the flow drops off, I change the filter and it's good to go again, keeps the fluid looking clean longer too.
 
I absolutely despise using a parts washer but its a necessary evil.I wont even put one in my garage.Mine is in an old 28 foot trailer I store parts in.
 
The PSC-1000 doesn't have much, if any, odor. I can smell it a little bit when I have the lid open and washing something in the parts washer but when the lid is closed I don't smell anything. I have my parts washer inside my shop with no issues.
 
JoshRountree said:
I've got an old small engine I'm playing around with. It's filthy and needs to be cleaned, buying a parts washer is more than it's worth. Any suggestions on putting something together for a one time use? I've thought about an old rubber maid and mixing it together in that.

Next question, what to do with the leftover solvent when finished. I surely don't just dump it in the woods do I!?! o_O
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Have done "single use" several times (prior to a dedicated washer) with a plastic container ($ General/Family $) large enough to fit the part(s) and work around... diesel/kero and "dispose of" onto the firepit next time it was fired...
 
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