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Re: Parts Cleaners

To: Doug Mitchell <dmitchel@ford.com>
Subject: Re: Parts Cleaners
From: "W. R. Gibbons" <gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu>
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 14:07:25 -0500 (EST)
On Tue, 23 Jan 1996, Doug Mitchell wrote:

> Some time ago, on the British or Triumph groups, someone raised
> the question of a good parts cleaner. I don't know if anyone
> else caught the program "My Classic Car" on cable TNN, but during
> a shop talk segment, the segment host used a crystal drain cleaner
> to clean parts. He put three cups of the drain cleaner in ten gallons
> of water. The parts came out looking quite shiny and clean. You could
> then pour the mixture down the drain and clean them as well.
> 
> He suggested using a piece of coat hanger as a handle so that you could
> drop the items right into the mix. He said that it was useful in cleaning
> both paint and oil off of parts. I don't know about pouring contaminated
> cleaner down the drain, but otherwise I thought that it would be worth
> a try.
> 
> BTW, for those that receive TNN, "My Classic Car" is a new show on
> Sunday afternoon at 3 pm EST. This Sunday is the third show in the pilot
> series. Recommended.

My guess is that some (most? all?) crystal drain cleaners are NaOH.  Cheap
and effective, I suppose.  But you want to be very careful not to splash
it in your eyes.  It isn't all that pleasant to get on your skin, either. 
Warning:  NaOH may react with aluminum parts-- any chemists on the list? 

   Ray Gibbons  Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
                Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
                gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu  (802) 656-8910


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