I just got this email from a friend, what do you think?
Penetrating Oils
Machinist's Workshop MagT recently published some information on various penetrating oils that I found very interesting. Some of you might appreciate this. The magazine reports they tested penetrates for break out torque on rusted nuts.
They are below, as forwarded by an ex-student and professional machinist. They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrates with the control being the torque required to remove the nut from a "scientifically rusted" environment.
*Penetrating oils ........... Average torque load to loosen*
The ATF-Acetone mix is a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone. Note this "home brew" released bolts better than any commercial product in this one particular test.
Our local machinist group mixed up a batch and we all now use it with equally good results.
Note also that "Liquid Wrench" is almost as good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price.
Steve from Godwin-Singer says that ATF-Acetone mix is best, but you can also use ATF and lacquer thinner in a 50-50 mix. *ATF=Automatic Transmission Fluid
I just got this email from a friend, what do you think?
Penetrating Oils
Machinist's Workshop MagT recently published some information on various penetrating oils that I found very interesting. Some of you might appreciate this. The magazine reports they tested penetrates for break out torque on rusted nuts.
They are below, as forwarded by an ex-student and professional machinist. They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrates with the control being the torque required to remove the nut from a "scientifically rusted" environment.
*Penetrating oils ........... Average torque load to loosen*
The ATF-Acetone mix is a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone. Note this "home brew" released bolts better than any commercial product in this one particular test.
Our local machinist group mixed up a batch and we all now use it with equally good results.
Note also that "Liquid Wrench" is almost as good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price.
Steve from Godwin-Singer says that ATF-Acetone mix is best, but you can also use ATF and lacquer thinner in a 50-50 mix. *ATF=Automatic Transmission Fluid
I have done a lot of comparison tests like this over the years with paint products and unless they did a bunch of tests there is no way it they could say it's the best. It may very well be I have no reason to doubt it, other than I have seen how someone will do something like this and it is hard to be honest with yourself and give something a REAL test against a standard. If these guys only tested it once for instance, it means nothing. It takes a number of tests to come up with an average. So it certainly isn't carved in stone that ATF is the best as far as I am concerned.
I am sold on PB since the first time I was talked into a can of it while at a parts store for something totally unrelated. This old counter guy was talking to a customer as I walked up to cash out. He was telling the customer how good the PB was, etc. I decided to try it myself, having not had any especially good results from much of anything else through the years.
One of the first times I used it was on a buddy's Pontiac T/A radiator support. I sprayed a stuck, rusted bolt (battery acid) and walked away. I came back and the bolt turned so easily that I almost hurt myself when I put my weight on the wrench to turn the bolt. I accused the guy of loosening it and not telling me, there was that much of a difference. Using it in the years since then, I know it was no fluke.
My only complaint is the nozzle doesn't take a straw, I always have to root around for an old spray tip w/a straw to replace the PB tip with.
But I've never tried acetone/ATF. I have noticed that acetone eventually screws up spray bottles, though. Maybe mixed w/ATF it wouldn't be so bad. Acetone also evaporated VERY quickly, so if it didn't penetrate within a short time, it's going to be gone leaving just ATF.
The commercial product that has worked best for me is Mouse Milk, second best for me was the Krano Labs product. However I have both acetone and ATF in the shop so I'm going to mix some up and try it.
PB has been my favorite for a long time but have a buddy that say's Royal Purple's spray penetrating oil is has it beat now. I personally have never tried it.
I keep a can of PB Blaster on the work bench but will try the ATF/ Acetone mix. I am getting ready to pull the front clip and doors off of the 64 to start body work. 49 year old rusty bolts ought to be a good test.
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