Penetrating oils
 

I cannot vouch for this but found it interesting.


"Machinist's Workshop magazine actually tested penetrants for break
out torque on rusted nuts. Significant results! They arranged a subjective
test of all the popular penetrants with the control being the torque
required to remove the nut from a "scientifically rusted" environment.

Penetrating oil ..... Average load

None ..................... 516 pounds

WD-40 .................. 238 pounds

PB Blaster ..............214 pounds

Liquid Wrench ...... 127 pounds

Kano Kroil ............ 106 pounds

ATF-Acetone mix... 53 pounds

The ATF-Acetone mix was a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic
transmission fluid and acetone.

Note the "home brew" was better than any commercial product in this
one particular test. A local machinist group mixed up a batch and all now
use it with equally good results. Note also that "Liquid Wrench" is about as
good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price"

Anziani

That's very informative. I have been using Kroil and was not aware that LW was so close. I've also been using ATF-neat-for years but have never tried mixing it with acetone.

I wonder what effects (if any) the ATF-acetone mix will have on a regular plastic spray bottle? I've been pondering what to do with this old ATF I have laying around.......

I use straight ATF
 

A few drops of ATF (no dilution) works wonders - and it stays in place very well.

Different topic - Getting a rubber hose of such on a connection - Isopropyl alcohol is a great lubricant for rubber, and it drys up afterward - leaving no residue

ATF usage in bushes
 

Interesting. I've never tried alcohol because spit works so well. I'm sure it's of no concern in such small quantities, but alcohol does tend to dry out rubber by dissolving out the emollients used to keep it soft. That's why back in the day we used to clean tape deck capstans with alcohol, but the pinch roller was always cleaned with water or spit. Repeated cleanings with alcohol always made the rollers smooth and hard and lacking in grip.

You betcha. ATF is a great lube for bushings. So is motor oil.

Depends on what your spray bottle is made of.

In practice, acetone is routinely stored in LDPE wash bottles in the lab, in fact they are sold as "acetone wash bottles" and come labelled thusly.

Yep, even tastes great on a salad and for slickin' yor hair back to get you noticed by the wimmin!

How much of an odor would the ATF+acetone mix have? Would you pass out using it in a small space?
I've got some stuff that GM used to use but is no longer available that they would not let them use indoors. It has xylene in it.

It's not too bad, just like nail polish remover. Now Xylene is some nasty, nasty stuff.... A good way to dissolve your liver. MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) is also some horrible stuff but not as nasty as Xylene. Birth defects, yada yada.....

I was doing a brake job for a friend, on his wifes 04 Explorer {worst brakes I had ever seen} anyway, the rear were APITA disk drum for E-brake thing so the driver side took some ten minutes worth of 3lb sledging to come off with W-D left the passanger side for today, I was a the store getting some brake fluid and cleaner saw the Blaster stuff grabbed it cuz it was cheep! The stuff worked GREAT!!! soaked it down let it sit 2 min two bangs with the hammer came right off!!! +1 for BLASTER!!!!!!!!

It will be a lot stronger than nail polish remover since a good part of that is water. Acetone is *not* so toxic like the above mentioned solvents but you will still need ventilation. It's also very volatile and flammable.

In HVAC work, I've always used 20w non detergent motor oil from a zoom spout, on fan motor sleeve bearings (manufacturers recom).
WD-40 works well as a bug/pest deterent on gate opener, pump, and A/C condenser relays, and as a metal protector.
I find Teflon based lubricants like Tri-Flow, and Slick 50 One lube are the best combination to break 'em loose and get it spinning,;) in one can.

Acetone can, and will, damage many types of plastics.

This is one of those recurring threads - I'm not necessarily disputing the study but one time I tried to find the source magazine, and I failed to find "Machinist Workshop" magazine, "Machinist" or anything similar with a report like this.

You would think that with all the car-related boards on the net someone would have chased this down and reached the source, but I couldn't find it.

Rgds,
Chris W.

Another +1 for PB Blaster...I have found it to work much better at getting things loose than any of the other penetrants, though I haven't used ATF+acetone. It smells nice too.

I did some research on the ATF + Acetone mix. This particular "study" is posted on a bunch of other car related message boards. But everyone is like oooh, that's a good idea! Didn't seem like anyone actually tried it...

This is my first post to this forum. I thought it would be about my recently acquired 1989 420SEL, but apparently, not yet. The car is great and while I have a few issues with it, I thought I'd chime in on this one.

I own a motorcycle salvage business. While I no longer do the "dirty work", I certainly used to. I have a "Dismemberment Technician" to handle that for me. We handle everything from fresh corpses to bikes that have been sitting on the the Oregon Coast for 20 years. Over the years, we have tried every commercial product including PB Blaster, Liquid Wrench, Kroil, etc. WD40 is not even in the same catagory, as it was designed to be a water displacer (hence the "WD"). It does work well when sanding aluminum prior to polishing. We have also tried the acetone/ATF mixture, Coca Cola, molasses and water, fresh squeezed monkey spleen fluid and whatever else was put forth on the internet. By far, in my own personal experience, Kroil is the winner. We go through a couple cases a year and it's worth every penny. It's more money that PB Blaster, but lasts 3 times as long.
A hot torch is also a close second, but you can't always use it where an open flame might ignite the children.

Anyway, my 2 cents. You got what you paid for it.

Oh, by the way, I also own a 21 year old Mercedes...........