Cutting 65-Year-Old Grease, Oil, Coolant Mixture

[rbattelle]

I'm working on restoring a 1941 bandsaw. The next step is to clean the inside of the saw, which is filled with 65 years of accumulated grease, oil, and probably other nasty stuff that I don't want to know about.



The goo is thick enough that I scraped up a couple pounds of it using a putty knife.



My first instinct is to use hot water, as in a hot water or steam pressure washer. Then today I found out how much it costs to rent one for a few hours: $70 seems a little excessive to me.



Anyone have any other suggestions before I make such an investment?



Ryan

 

[Mike Ellis]

One approach is to use a couple of cans of brake cleaner, the spray will get into the nooks and crannys and flush everthing out. If you have a bunch of goop in there it will end up flowing down and making a big puddle, will need paper towels to sop up the mess. If you use a solvent like this, only do it outside bud because it will make a lot of nasties airborne and you don't want to be breathing the "who knows what" that is caked up inside there.



We had a kid in high school that had a Hemi roadrunner, the engine had been unbelievably abused with like never an oil change - the owner just dumped STP in it when it was low on oil. The car had apparently had a gasket leak at some point and small amounts of water had contaminated the STP, when they tore the engine down and pulled off the oil pan and all the crank was complete buried in a mass of gooey white oil sludge that was about the consistency of fresh caulk - just stretched out in strings when they pulled it out. Amazingly enough the engine was still in good shape, the crank was shiny and slick They cleaned out the pan and all with a brush and I think kerosene, just slopped it on and the sludge dissolved and ran out in disgusting puddles of goo. It worked pretty well cutting the gunk as I recall... .

 

[BFoughty]

You might try Mineral Spirits or Laquer Thinner... . but then again, be outside and get ready for a mess as well as vapor/fumes.

You may want to sit it on an old plastic tarp with the sides rolled up to make a catch basin before you start the project. By doing this you can catch all of the run off and it may be easier to pour into some type of container.

A parts brush would work as well as a spray bottle.

 

[Hoefler]

All good suggestions. But the most effective and fastest cutting is gasoline. I know , I know, but, if you are careful, do it outside, and NO SMOKING!!!! Scrape out all that you can, if you can soak it, it will clean itself in a very short time. I have soaked large packed bearings and had them clean in an hour. Gasoline is very corrosive to any lubricating product, maybe the worst. I only use it in extreme cases.

 

[PToombs]

How big is it? Can you get it in the truck, or on a trailer? Carwash! Spray on degreaser, then wash off.

 

[rbattelle]

How big is it? Can you get it in the truck, or on a trailer? Carwash! Spray on degreaser, then wash off.

That is an excellent idea! However, it's 75" tall and weighs over 300 lb. Not practical to get in the bed of the truck. And the cost to rent a trailer would work it out to about the same cost as renting the hot tank pressure washer.



Great idea, though. I just wish I could use it.



Ryan

 

[PToombs]

Know anybody with a pressure washer? Have them bring it over!

 

[rbattelle]

Know anybody with a pressure washer? Have them bring it over!

My neighbor has one and he'd let me borrow it no problem. But my thought is that a cold water pressure washer is just going to push the grease around rather than liquefying it and washing it away.



Ironically, it dawned on my yesterday that if I had saved the water heater I threw away a few months back I could've use it to make my own hot pressure washer!



Ryan

 

[PToombs]

Hook the washer to the drain on your hot water heater. That'll give you some heat.

 

[rbattelle]

Hook the washer to the drain on your hot water heater. That'll give you some heat.

I thought about that too, but considered 2 problems. First, usually the water is used to cool the pump. I'd hate to overheat and ruin the pump on my neighbor's washer.



Second, I'm not sure the flow rate would be sufficient, and the flow would come from the bottom of the tank (where the coldest water is). Within a couple minutes the water would be lukewarm at best.



Ryan

 

[JStrasser]

Try the pressure washer with Simple Green concentrate drawn through the soap injector. I also agree that smaller areas would respond to with brake cleaner aerosol.



Good luck,

John

 

[Philip]

Oven cleaner. Its made for baked on grease on stoves.



It washes off. It will remove any paint that might be left on the machine.



I have cleaned many engines with it. Then just repaint as needed.

 

[rbattelle]

Oven cleaner. Its made for baked on grease on stoves.

Good idea! I think I'll give it a shot...



Ryan

 

[SMorneau]

i would remove as much as I could mechanically with a putty knife or whatever. In my experience other methods could just redistribute the mess and make cleanup even bigger. When you are done with that try some things to see what is the best solvent for the grease. I would try mineral spirits (which is pretty much the same as parts washing solvent), Simple green, brake cleaner, acetone, and what ever else I could find. If you use gasoline and you do go up in flames every last person who sees the story on the news is going to think you are a total dumb f___



That old equipment is not worth messing with anyway. How about you ship it to me and go buy yourself a nice new machine from China

 

[rbattelle]

I'm not going to try gasoline. Or kerosene. Too dangerous for my blood.



Acetone isn't real effective at removing this stuff. Simple green isn't very effective either. Brake cleaner is "decent".



It's really nasty stuff.



Ryan

 

[SMorneau]

Maybe you could loosen it up by soaking it with old motor oil. Or maybe try some ATF that has a lot of detergents.



Just a thougth.

 

[Nate]

Scrape off the worst of the junk with a putty knife, then bring it to the quarter wash and spend $15-$20 and clean it.



Done that many times with axle housings, transmissions, etc before I bought a pressure washer.

 

[BSmalley]

Ryan,

Go to your local Walmart and buy a gallon container of Super Clean in the purple jug. In my experience that stuff will take anything off. Get a cheap spray bottle and spray the superclean on full strength, let it set then rinse using the pressure washer (cold water will work fine) You might want to get a couple of spray bottles as I've found that the superclean is strong enough to destroy the spray mechanism relatively quick.

Bill

 

[Nate]

Yeah no joke! I've had the bottom of 2 or 3 spray bottles get melted through from Super Clean. They it took the paint right off the metal shelf too!

 

[rbattelle]

Go to your local Walmart and buy a gallon container of Super Clean in the purple jug.

I've heard good things about this stuff from others too.



This project's going to have to wait until the weather gets above 32°.

It was 15 here today.



Ryan