[Spridgets] Fun with chemicals

[Bill Gilroy]

As the world is getting green I still have a witches brew of stuff in my
garage that will kill you.  Frank would be proud.  I tend to lean toward the
chemicals that fall into the not good for us category.  Last night, the rear
wheel cylinder on my F150 blew a seal and leaked all the brake fluid into
the drum.  By the time I realized what had happened it was quite the mess.
When I was purchasing my supplies to fix the truck, they were out of the CRC
Brakleen (in the red can) that contains Tetrachloroethylene.  So, I had to
purchase the green can Brakleen
<http://www.crcindustries.com/ei/product_detail.aspx?id=05084>  which
contains a combination of Acetone, Heptane, Methanol, and Toluene.   It
seemed to work just as well.  I am not sure which one is better for you
since I am not a chemist.  I was looking at the CRC website today and I
noticed there are 3 different types of Brakleen.

 

Old red can - can't be sold in CA and NJ: Tetrachloroethylene

Green can - can't be sold in CA: Acetone, Heptane, Methanol, and Toluene

New red can - can be sold in all 50 states: Acetone, Carbon dioxide,
3-Methylhexane, Methylcyclohexane, n-Heptane, Cyclohexane

 

Maybe the new red can should be the green can.  I also decide to clean all
the part in a small parts washer that has water and simple green.  They came
out clean.  I still believe in a good set of nitrile gloves and I am still
not sure what products do the least damage :)  But they ones I used last
night worked well.

 

-g