Gas as cleaning fluid?

My dad used to use Gasoline to soak his der. and chains and
misc bike parts. Is there anything more enviro-freindly?
I was thinking of alcohol or one of the new natural cleaners.

thanks,
les

Zog The Undeniable said:

Les said:

My dad used to use Gasoline to soak his der. and chains and
misc bike parts. Is there anything more enviro-freindly?
I was thinking of alcohol or one of the new natural cleaners.

Diesel fuel is much safer!

Diesel is good for chains, but citrus oil seems to be both green and
highly effective as a degreaser for other parts.

Kinky Cowboy*

*Batteries not included
May contain traces of nuts
Your milage may vary

Les said:

My dad used to use Gasoline to soak his der. and chains and
misc bike parts. Is there anything more enviro-freindly?
I was thinking of alcohol or one of the new natural cleaners.

Paint thinner, settle & reuse.

Les said:

My dad used to use Gasoline to soak his der. and chains and
misc bike parts. Is there anything more enviro-freindly?
I was thinking of alcohol or one of the new natural cleaners.

thanks,
les

Growing up in the oilfield, we did a lot of things with gasoline back
then that I would not do now. I'd never use it casually as a cleaner
because it is too dangerous. It ignites too easily.

Soaking with Simple Green and flushing with water has been recommended
here. How green is that? (Serious question)

"catzz66" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Soaking with Simple Green and flushing with water has been recommended
here. How green is that? (Serious question)

Looks to be pretty green... I couldn't find information on the production of
the product, but disposal looks safe:

"Simple Green® is readily decomposed by naturally occurring microorganisms.
The biological oxygen demand (BOD), as a percentage of the chemical oxygen
demand (COD), after 4, 7, and 11 days was 56%, 60%, and 70%, respectively.
Per OECD Closed Bottle Test, Simple Green® meets OECD and EPA
recommendations for ready biodegradability. In a standard biodegradation
test with soils from three different countries, Butyl Cellosolve reached 50%
degradation in 6 to 23 days, depending upon soil type, and exceeded the rate
of degradation for glucose which was used as a control for comparison."

http://www.simplegreen.com/pdfs/04_msds_simple_green.pdf

--
Scott Ehardt
http://www.scehardt.com

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 05:03:08 -0800, Les <[email hidden]> may have

Quoted message said:

My dad used to use Gasoline to soak his der. and chains and
misc bike parts. Is there anything more enviro-freindly?
I was thinking of alcohol or one of the new natural cleaners.

Gasoline is an extreme fire hazard, and the current formulations have
many nasty skin-absorbable carcinogenic fractions. It's just not safe
to use as cleaning fluid. In general, anything used as a motor or
pressurized lantern fuel is too hazardous to use as a cleaning
solvent.

Mineral spirits, sold commonly in hardware stores as paint thinner
(NOT lacquer thinner, which is much more volatile), is safer, but on a
hot day may still be ignitable; used with appropriate caution, it's
generally not going to be too much of a hazard, but use it outdoors
and away from open flames only. There are high-flash-point cleaning
solvents available from companies like Safety-Kleen which are better,
but the difference for the casual user may not be worth the hassle and
expense of locating them.

Butyl-based degreasing cleaners are effective but may damage paint.
Citrus-based degreasers have the same drawback, but are more
environmentally neutral. Simple Green is neither a butyl-based nor a
cirtus-based cleaner, and is not as effective as either of the other
two[1]. The cheapest widely-available butyl-based cleaner of my
experience is Power Clean sold at Autozone stores across the US.

Alcohols are readily absorbed through the skin, they don't do much
about removing greasy crud, and they also tend to attract water and
leave it behind on the surface as they dry, promoting corrosion.
Ergo, they're not useful for cleaning solvents.

[1] In my experience, Simple Green is simply atrocious; it takes much
more of it to do the same job that a little of any of the others will
do, it smells worse, and it's more expensive. I don't even take the
free samples anymore when they're promoting it.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

Les said:

My dad used to use Gasoline to soak his der. and chains and
misc bike parts. Is there anything more enviro-freindly?
I was thinking of alcohol or one of the new natural cleaners.

Almost everything's more green than gasoline.

I like mineral spirits, AKA paint thinner. Reusable and not as hard on the hands
and lungs, much less volatile.

Ron

"RonSonic" wrote: (clip) much less volatile.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I saw a fire department demo once, where they put a small container of
gasoline at the head of the stairs, in a little "doll house." At the foot
of the stairs they put a lighted candle. The background was black velvet.
You could actually watch the vapors flow down the stairs to the candle, and
then blow the roof off the house.

Another vote for paint thinner. Find a small, powerful magnet and you can remove 3/4 of the crud from chain washings since it is disintegrated chain and attracted to the magnet. Since the other dirt will also settle out, this will help trap the majority of the dirt without filtering it.

Now if you want to filter it, a Mityvac brake bleeder setup can be used. This is a small hand operated vacuum pump with a 100 ml reservoir. Ordinary bath tissue can be folded 4 times and rolled into a "pill" which fits snugly in the tubing. Drawing a vacuum on the reservoir will draw the dirty thinner through the tube and clean thinner goes into the reservoir. Once you have a good vacuum, it does it automatically to the last drop. The filter is dirt cheap and very little thinner is lost.

Leo Lichtman said:

"RonSonic" wrote: (clip) much less volatile.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I saw a fire department demo once, where they put a small container of
gasoline at the head of the stairs, in a little "doll house." At the foot
of the stairs they put a lighted candle. The background was black velvet.
You could actually watch the vapors flow down the stairs to the candle, and
then blow the roof off the house.

Ken and Barbie-cue??

Scott Ehardt said:

"catzz66" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Soaking with Simple Green and flushing with water has been recommended
here. How green is that? (Serious question)

Looks to be pretty green... I couldn't find information on the production of
the product, but disposal looks safe:

"Simple Green® is readily decomposed by naturally occurring microorganisms.
The biological oxygen demand (BOD), as a percentage of the chemical oxygen
demand (COD), after 4, 7, and 11 days was 56%, 60%, and 70%, respectively.
Per OECD Closed Bottle Test, Simple Green® meets OECD and EPA
recommendations for ready biodegradability. In a standard biodegradation
test with soils from three different countries, Butyl Cellosolve reached 50%
degradation in 6 to 23 days, depending upon soil type, and exceeded the rate
of degradation for glucose which was used as a control for comparison."

http://www.simplegreen.com/pdfs/04_msds_simple_green.pdf

I've had good luck with soaking parts in a bowl of warm simple green
(just use hot water to dilute it) and setting it on top of the dryer or
the washer during spin cycle. The adgitation from the washer/dryer does
a decent job of getting gunk out of the hard to reach areas.

Les said:

My dad used to use Gasoline to soak his der. and chains and
misc bike parts.

KA-PLAH!

____
____ , -- - --- -.
((( (( /// // ' \\-\ \ )) ))
/// /// (( _ _ -- \\-- \\\ \)
((( == (( -- (( )) )- ) __ )) )))
(( (( -= (( --- ( _ ) --- )) ))
(( __ (( ()((( \\ / /// )) __ )))
\\_ (( __ | | __ ) _ ))
,| | |
`-._____,-'
`--.___,--'
| |
| ||
| || |
, _, | | |
( (( (((( /,| __| | )))) ))) ) ))
(())) __/ ||( ,, ((//\ ) ))))
---((( ///_.___ _/ ||,,_____,_,,, (|\ \___.....__.. ))--ool
____/ |/______________| \/_/\__
/ \/_/|
/ |___|___|__ || ___
\ |___|___|_ |/\ /__/|
/ | | \/ |__|/

/s

Werehatrack said:

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 05:03:08 -0800, Les <[email hidden]> may have

Quoted message said:

My dad used to use Gasoline to soak his der. and chains and
misc bike parts. Is there anything more enviro-freindly?
I was thinking of alcohol or one of the new natural cleaners.

Gasoline is an extreme fire hazard, and the current formulations have
many nasty skin-absorbable carcinogenic fractions. It's just not

safe

Quoted message said:

to use as cleaning fluid. In general, anything used as a motor or
pressurized lantern fuel is too hazardous to use as a cleaning
solvent.

Mineral spirits, sold commonly in hardware stores as paint thinner
(NOT lacquer thinner, which is much more volatile), is safer, but on

a

Quoted message said:

hot day may still be ignitable; used with appropriate caution, it's
generally not going to be too much of a hazard, but use it outdoors
and away from open flames only. There are high-flash-point cleaning
solvents available from companies like Safety-Kleen which are better,
but the difference for the casual user may not be worth the hassle

and

Quoted message said:

expense of locating them.

Butyl-based degreasing cleaners are effective but may damage paint.
Citrus-based degreasers have the same drawback, but are more
environmentally neutral. Simple Green is neither a butyl-based nor a
cirtus-based cleaner, and is not as effective as either of the other
two[1]. The cheapest widely-available butyl-based cleaner of my
experience is Power Clean sold at Autozone stores across the US.

Alcohols are readily absorbed through the skin, they don't do much
about removing greasy crud, and they also tend to attract water and
leave it behind on the surface as they dry, promoting corrosion.
Ergo, they're not useful for cleaning solvents.

[1] In my experience, Simple Green is simply atrocious; it takes much
more of it to do the same job that a little of any of the others will
do, it smells worse, and it's more expensive. I don't even take the
free samples anymore when they're promoting it.

How about kerosene?

Leo Lichtman said:

"RonSonic" wrote: (clip) much less volatile.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I saw a fire department demo once, where they put a small container of
gasoline at the head of the stairs, in a little "doll house." At the
foot of the stairs they put a lighted candle. The background was
black velvet. You could actually watch the vapors flow down the
stairs to the candle, and then blow the roof off the house.

Bill Baka will steal this story.

Kreskin Bill

Quoted message said:

Les said:

My dad used to use Gasoline to soak his der. and chains and
misc bike parts.

KA-PLAH!

____
____ , -- - --- -.
((( (( /// // ' \\-\ \ )) ))
/// /// (( _ _ -- \\-- \\\ \)
((( == (( -- (( )) )- ) __ )) )))
(( (( -= (( --- ( _ ) --- )) ))
(( __ (( ()((( \\ / /// )) __ )))
\\_ (( __ | | __ ) _ ))
,| | |
`-._____,-'
`--.___,--'
| |
| ||
| || |
, _, | | |
( (( (((( /,| __| | )))) ))) ) ))
(())) __/ ||( ,, ((//\ ) ))))
---((( ///_.___ _/ ||,,_____,_,,, (|\ \___.....__.. ))--ool
____/ |/______________| \/_/\__
/ \/_/|
/ |___|___|__ || ___
\ |___|___|_ |/\ /__/|
/ | | \/ |__|/

/s

The ASCII Atoll?

It's just a tad scary how much that looks like me, when I wore a
"Jew-fro" in the seventh grade. How'd I ever marry.....

An anonymous poster asked:

Quoted message said:

How about kerosene?

Kerosene (paraffin to our British readers) is reasonably safe if you
don't mind the icky smell, but it's not a very effective solvent.
You'll need to do a LOT of scrubbing if kero is your choice.

Sheldon "Citrus For Me" Brown
+----------------------------------------------------------+
| Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get. |
| --Robert A. Heinlein |
+----------------------------------------------------------+
Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts
Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041
http://harriscyclery.com
Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide
http://captainbike.com http://sheldonbrown.com

Quoted message said:

KA-PLAH!

I know several people with horror stories regarding gasoline. One was a
friend of the family who set his carpet on fire trying to get a gasoline
assist in lighting his fireplace. Luckily he did not burn the house down.

Gasoline (and some other solvent) soaked rags can catch fire by
spontaneous combustion. I would stay away from these materials if there
was something else that worked and was more friendly to the environment.

http://www.tvfr.com/Dept/fm/brochures/flammable_liquids.htm

Per Les:

Quoted message said:

My dad used to use Gasoline to soak his der. and chains and
misc bike parts. Is there anything more enviro-freindly?

I'd also think "user-friendly".

Gas is nasty stuff safety-wise.
--
PeteCresswell

kantspel said:

Scott Ehardt said:

"catzz66" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Soaking with Simple Green and flushing with water has been
recommended here. How green is that? (Serious question)

Looks to be pretty green... I couldn't find information on the
production of the product, but disposal looks safe:

"Simple Green® is readily decomposed by naturally occurring
microorganisms. The biological oxygen demand (BOD), as a percentage
of the chemical oxygen demand (COD), after 4, 7, and 11 days was
56%, 60%, and 70%, respectively. Per OECD Closed Bottle Test, Simple
Green® meets OECD and EPA recommendations for ready
biodegradability. In a standard biodegradation test with soils from
three different countries, Butyl Cellosolve reached 50% degradation
in 6 to 23 days, depending upon soil type, and exceeded the rate of
degradation for glucose which was used as a control for comparison."
http://www.simplegreen.com/pdfs/04_msds_simple_green.pdf

I've had good luck with soaking parts in a bowl of warm simple green
(just use hot water to dilute it) and setting it on top of the dryer
or the washer during spin cycle. The adgitation from the
washer/dryer does a decent job of getting gunk out of the hard to
reach areas.

Nice!
--
Phil, Squid-in-Training