How do you clean your bits? (Metal and oily stuff)

[Beanwood]

I have managed over the past 50+ years of cleaning up my bits by various means - but I've never owned a parts washer - I also don't have much room in the garage, with everything else I have - so don't want to introduce something frivolous.

But... I'm about to embark on a rebuild of a rear brake caliper on the bike, and thought now would be an ideal time to start thinking about a better way...

Is a washing up bowl with some paraffin, or diesel, or parts washing fluid and a brush just as good as a benchtop parts washer?
Do I forget that and just use aerosol brake cleaner and brush on everything and wipe it down with rags?
If I get one - will I find myself cleaning all sorts of things, but then need a bigger ultrasonic to finsh things off?
Is this another rabbit hole to go down?...

So - how do you clean your bits?

 

[MattF]

I have managed over the past 50+ years of cleaning up my bits by various means

You don't help your cause, with the above & the thread title.

Depends what you want to clean. Kerosene/paraffin is good for old oil & grease, for example, but the kerosene itself leaves residue behind which you then need to remove. It's good for softening/flushing things like old, hardened grease though.

Simple water & washing up liquid work wonders for many things too.

An ultrasonic is always a handy tool to have in your collection.

 

[badabec]

I either cut the top or side off a 5 litre plastic container. Jizer. Cheap paintbrush.
Brake cleaner is designed to evaporate quickly, no time to work it into dirty bits.

 

[rtcosic]

You don't help your cause, with the above & the thread title.

Please, please edit the title!

 

[Beanwood]

Please, please edit the title!

Is that better?

 

[MattF]

Is that better?

It is.

 

[Guineafowl]

I’ve been eyeing those cheap parts washers - any good? What fluid do you put in them?

 

[ajlelectronics]

Contaminated petrol is my go to, for difficult jobs. Then brake cleaner to rinse.

 

[charlysays]

Bilt hamber surfex HD is pretty good. It's a biodegradable alkali water based degreaser. It can cope with pretty thick grime and grease, both oil based and biological. If the grease is millimetres thick you might need to use a solvent first or just wipe off the worst, then use surfex. The strong surfactants leave stuff ready for paint whereas solvents are smelly and often spread around residues to one degree or another.

 

[Guzrik]

I have one of these

Werkplaats Ontvetterbak 50 cm Breedte - op voorraad - AutoAdriaans

Werkplaats Ontvetterbak 50 cm Breedte - zeer robuust met een draagkracht van 500kg, inclusief benodigdheden, op voorraad - Bestel nu op AutoAdriaans.nl

autoadriaans.nl

I have detergent in it and it lasts me years, which I think is a big benefit over using a bowl.

But that takes up floorspace, maybe this idea?

 

[Gragson]

I’ve been eyeing those cheap parts washers - any good? What fluid do you put in them?

IME they just take up space, even the smaller ones - unless you are doing this stuff day in/out of course, or have loads of spare space for a permanent one of course.

What fluid do you put in them?

And that is the issue, end of day, the cheap ones are just a tub & lid with a motor and a pointy hose., and different cleaning needed different solvent/stuff to be more effective than what I left last in the cleaning tab.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I get tins of brake cleaner from work...bang them on the corner of the vice and aim at the grime

 

[Munkul]

A tub of Jizer and a brush... a proper parts cleaner is great, and we do have one, but ultimately you either need a quick blast off with brake cleaner, or a proper scrub/soak with something that you can then wash off afterwards.
Proper parts cleaners need a ton of fluid to work properly as well.. 40l of jizer all at once is quite expensive. We diluted ours with diesel.

Jizer is water soluble, so you can rinse the parts off with water afterwards, dry them out and you're good to go.

 

[badabec]

Cleaning is reducing the dirt to an acceptable level.

 

[bricol]

I used to design industrial washing plant, so I really miss the opportunity to use our machines.

I tend to use brake cleaner, petrol thinners, acetone, etc for cleaning smaller parts.

When I wanted to make sure all the components for my hemi V8 were clean off contamination for the rebuild, I bought a small parts washer, plus a tea urn and a small 12v sumbersible pump and a 5um filter. Already had some old industrial detergent. Pump heated solution from the tea urn through a parts washing brush, used in the part washer, via the filter. Used the parts washer pump to return solution to the tea urn. Nice clean parts, just had to watch for flash rusting - hot, degreased mild steel and cast iron will rust as fast as you can see it exit the water if the detergent doesn't have suitable anti-rust stuff.

 

[500e]

Never had the bottle to heat our mix
@Munkul do you thin Jizer with diesel.
We return the dirty fluid through an Big Volvo earth mover air filter (someone in the heavy machine trade will have a supply, the fluid lasts for a long time the center of the filter fills with the crap the ones we use are blind filters

 

[Porkypine]

Another vote for Petrol, I've found it gets most things off

 

[Turbo]

I managed for years with a bowl of petrol but its dangerous and stinks the workshop.
Old 2 stroke mix is good because it leaves a film of oil to protect from rusting.

I love my parts washer and I use a strong mix of tfr in mine.

If you are limited for space you could use an old electric chip pan set at minimum and soak your object in hot water plus a dishwasher tablet or laundry powder. Do not use this for aluminium objects.

 

[skotl]

5L of brake cleaner, a wire brush, some nitrile gloves and one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007OVIQQ8

 

[james butler]

on this topic, in the past ive put parts in a jiffy bag half filed with wd40 and placed in a ultrasonic cleaner full of water which seems to work well although allways a little concerned the fluid might reach flash point
is that possible?