Solvents

[Alistair D]

A recent post by Yorkie suggested that methylated spirits was an excellent solvent for shellac sometimes used on IF transformers.
I would like to know what solvents are recommended for different tasks.
I regularly use white spirit to remove sticky label and masking tape residue. Can anyone suggest other solvents and their applications?

Al

[Skywave]

I am a proponent of acetone. Yes, I am well aware that you have to be very careful with this stuff since many plastics are readily attacked by it - but not all are. So always try a little on a test sample / obscured piece first. However, acetone can be remarkably efficient at removing all sorts of grime and muckite from many a surface: it is a remarkably powerful chemical. Always use a clean cotton cloth and change the contact surface of it regularly.
Caution: Always have a good supply of fresh air in the environment where you are working and no naked flames there either.

I haven't yet tried caustic soda in the workshop. But I do know that it is remarkably efficient for shifting grease from dirty grease-laden utensils in the kitchen. But be very careful when using it on aluminium: there is a powerful reaction and the resulting fumes are very unpleasant and are harmful if breathed in in sufficient quantities. Always wash of the cleaned article afterwards with copious amounts of cold water.
Caution: Always add the caustic soda to a wet surface, never the other war round. That way you avoid splashes of undiluted caustic soda on your face, clothes, etc. Always have a good supply of fresh air through the room you are working in. Always wear rubber gloves on your hands and eye-protection. Caustic soda readily attacks all organic compounds: that includes many items of clothing, the human body and all parts of it!

Al.

Afterthought edit. If used carefully, acetone can be remarkable effective at cleaning dirty 'white' mains cables.

Al.

[pwdrive]

Hello Al, you raised a good point about mixing caustic soda, it also makes a mush of most paint brushes if using a brush to apply it with, it sure cleans though, it makes new pine look like stripped pine once dry and wax polished.

Lawrence.

[Skywave]

Yes, Lawrence ~ what caustic soda does to paint brushes ~ like you, I found out the hard way too! :s However, I do have a couple of nylon brushes that should be O.K. for such a job: I'm yet to put them to the test.

And then there's always good old IPA : Isopropyl alcohol. Fairly safe on many substances, but again, always check on a spare sample first.

Years ago, when I was employed in the I.T. industry, I used to swear by trichloroethylene as a reasonably powerful cleaner, but then it became unobtainable and was replaced by the much more volatile and less powerful trichlorotriflouroethane. Even that seems to be no longer available from the 'usual sources' now.

Al.

[Joe]

My general purpose solvent of choice is kerosene. As I have oil-fired central heating it's readily available and is better than white spirit for cleaning paint brushes.

It can be used for making wax polish and isn't too inflammable. It needs some sort of wick to burn and if you drop a fag-end into a dish of it it'll produce a bit of smoke and then go out.

Besides that, oxygenating cleaning crystals are good. 'Vanish Oxy-Action' is the famous, and expensive, one but I use the stuff from PoundLand. I used this to clean a filthy computer keyboard a few months ago. I dropped the key-tops into a bowl of it and before I had chance to stir them around, as I'd intended to, all the dirt had lifted off and the water looked like something out of a shell-hole.

- Joe

[Andrewausfa]

I tend to stick with meths and any brand of foaming bathroom cleaner to clean dirt chassis. And I'm doing a really disgusting one at the moment.

If I want anything stronger then I'd probably use cellulose thinner on metal, avoiding anything meltable!

Andrew

[Yorkie]

I don't think anyone has mentioned cellulose thinners, which has its uses, with the obvious precations where plastics are concerned. I'm pleased that no-one has mentioned WD40, an over-hyped over-rated product about which all sorts of claims are made, not least as a penetrating oil to free rusted bolts, stock grub screws etc, but even as a pain reliever for arthritiis! As its name implies, it was primarily made for water displacement, (allegedly for the US space program and the shuttle) and (as the story goes), was the 40th recipe. Like most people, I have a few cans here and there for such things as oiling squeaky hinges, but I'm not a great fan of it and I wouldn't go anywhere near a radio with it. I use Plus Gas as a penetrating oil - it has low surface tension and viscosity and is used extensively in the automotive trade. For de-greasing radio chassis and such like, I use brake/clutch cleaner aerosols. They're very effective and the liquid quickly evaporates, and unlike WD40, doesn't leave any residue.

Nail varnish remover is often effective in loosening stuck cores in coils.

As to WD40 and water displacement - remember 'Damp Start' used for spraying on damp plug leads and distributor caps when car engines wouldn't start? (Maybe they still seel it?). I've still got a can on the garage shelf, and it's just dawned on me that the last time I can recall using it was 1968! At the time we lived in Nottingham, and I had a Ford Escort which used to act up in damp weather. As I progressed through my career until retirement in 1994, this can has followed us to Spalding, Grimsby, Mansfield, Sheffield and Hull, where it's been on the garage shelf for 20 years!

It's my impression that cars these days are much better designed and protected under the bonnet, so maybe damp ignition leads are a thing of the past? We've driven through torrential rain many times, but the top of the engines never seem to have any damp, nor do they if left outdoors overnight. My car is a diesel anyway, so plug leads don't enter into it, but my wife's Panda starts first flick, even when left for two weeks in winter in airport car parks.

[Skywave]

Nail varnish remover is often effective in loosening stuck cores in coils.

Agreed; nail varnish remover is usually just water-diluted acetone with added ingredients: glycerine and denatonium benzoate.

Al.