What do you all use in the solution for your parts cleaner? The stuff I have doesn't even begin to do anything.

Mineral Spirits works for me.

Mineral Spirits, Used it for years and it works as good as anything I have ever tried. I tried that "orange" safety solvent but was disappointed with it even if it does smell better. If you spend a lot of time over the washer, or even a short time actually, you really should wear a paint respirator and definitely wear chemical resistant gloves. It does not take long at all to lose your sense of smell and even taste when breathing Mineral spirits, or most any other solvent, and it takes years for it to return to normal if it ever does. Seems like there is a problem with everything we want to do but unfortunately it's true.

Survey Says..... Mineral spirits.


In a while, Chet

__________________
It's not what you take with you when you leave, it's what you leave behind you when you go.

I generally use mineral spirits, but Varsol works well if you can get it for a good price.

Mineral spirits, and if you let it sit long enough,
all the crud settles out and you can pour off the clear spirits
that's clean as new.

The best cleaner I have used is a solvent called Novasol but that stuff may be hard to find and is quite hazardous to use. It does work really good but chemical gloves plus face and eye protection is a MUST not just a good idea. It will clean some serious crud but it will also cause some serious chemical burns if improperly used, it can be safely used but it is not something you would want to get careless with. If anyone wants to use this type of solvent it might be found at some industrial supply stores.

Okay folks, I have a 20 gal. parts washer that was given to me, where can I get Varsol or mineral spirits in large quanities? Keep in mind I'm out in the "boonies" and dont get to the village often . thanks in advance.

Mineral spirits should be easy to find, most any hardware store, paint store or even Wall-Mart has it. If you want it delivered you might try Tractor Supply or Northern Tool (they should have Varsol or similar) and they can UPS it to you.

my 20GL parts cleaner holds 12 gallons. I bought parts cleaner at a local farm /tractor store, it works good but was $29 or $35 a 5 gal can. I might try mineral sperits next time. but mineral spirits comes in 5gal buckets, I think even at wal mart.

Has anyone bought mineral spirits lately?
If not-be prepared for sticker shock

Yep just like pulling up to the gas pump anything that has to do with petroleum is going to be pricey!

Mineral spirits here.

Stoddard Solvent (fuzzy memory right now... insufficient caffeine ingestion this AM) is recommended for parts washers, but it's nothing more than mineral spirits with an additive to raise the flash point. I think this is what Safety Clean uses or did use.

I made my parts washer out of a 55 gal drum cut in half and a 20 gal drum for the spirits. Near the top of the 20 gal drum I welded in some tabs to support a metal screen on top of which I threw some old rags to help filter out the bigger chunks. Periodically I throw the dirty rags out on the driveway to dry out and then toss.

About a year ago, the chemical manufactures decided to create a new product called Paint Thinner that was not 100% mineral spirits. They then offered two products; Mineral Spirits and Paint Thinner, the thinner having an oily residue compared to spirits. It was a shot at trying to jack the price of spirits. It apparently didn't work as I see paint thinner is back to being 100% spirits, but still spendy.

Actually the companies are not to blame on this one as it was not so much a price scheme (not that they are not guilty of doing that! ) but was a mandate from the EPA to meet air polution regulations for paint thinners. That oily residue does not evaporate but will still thin the paint somewhat thus there will be less solvent evaporated into the atmosphere, at least that's the idea. With paints that are required to use a mineral spirit based thinner it is better to use the 100% spirits and leave the "thinner" on the shelf, you will save a few bucks and get a better product.

I don't know this from personal experience,
BUT

another forum that I lurk at suggests Simple Green as something to try.

From all I can tell, it's non toxic. I've read quite a few good reports.

ford2go