Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
  • Mineral spirits in park tool chain cleaner?
  • yohandsome
    Free Member

    Good idea or use something else?

    greyspoke
    Free Member

    I tried it with White Spirit and it worked, stopped because of the smell and faff with cleaning the thing after. I suppose a distilled version like camping stove (petrol like vapour pressure) or lamp (diesel like vapour pressure) fuel would get round the smell, but be expensive. Fire risk as well. Water-soluble or miscible stuff is convenienter. I currently use Citrus degreaser and water 50:50, followed by water x2.

    bigrich
    Full Member

    petrol is nature’s degreaser

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    granny_ring
    Full Member

    From memory nothing works as well as Parks stuff but not spending that much on getting more of it lol.
    I use degreaser in it when I use it. Usually take chain off and put in 1L milk container with degreaser and shake baby shake. Better job than the chain cleaner.

    fazzini
    Full Member

    Used to use a chain cleaner. Don’t bother anymore too much faff. If a chain needs real attention its as per @granny_ring method and No Nonsense degreaser from Screwfix.

    tall_martin
    Full Member

    I use paraffin. I’m not sure if it is the same as mineral spirits.

    My family had a huge bin of it for cleaning lorry bits when we had a haulage firm.

    30 seconds in the cleaner removes a month of commuting grime.

    I’m too lazy to remove a chain to clean it.

    Rockhopper
    Free Member

    I use Swarfega drive and patio cleaner. Dead cheap from screwfix but don’t soak parts in it or it’ll take the anodizing off.

    https://www.screwfix.com/p/swarfega-patio-driveway-cleaner-5ltr/85114

    13thfloormonk
    Full Member

    I tried White Spirits in a chain cleaner, cleaned amazingly but splatters a white spirit/oil mix all over your frame/surroundings, which you then need to clean off (not being water soluble of course).

    Unless I was doing it wrong it seemed like a really really messy way to clean the chain. At least degreaser is water soluble and the stuff I use is also biodegradable so I feel less bad about hosing it off and straight down the drain!

    That said, I’ve got a white spririt pot which I use more often, break chain, dunk, shake around, soak etc. then take out. Only do this if preparing chain for a new lube or something.

    breninbeener
    Full Member

    I use virosol which is an alkaline floor cleaner and degreaser.

    It comes from a local cleaning company, about £7 per 5l. It lasts ages in a chain cleaner. Easy to wash off and you can use it as a vehicle alloy wheel cleaner as its high pH

    Ian

    easily
    Free Member

    Someone put a video up a couple of weeks ago that had a recipe for chain cleaner – it was one part baking soda, one part washing up liquid, two parts water.
    I tried it in my chain cleaner and thought it worked great.

    ac282
    Full Member

    If you put mineral sprits in a chain cleaner how are you rinsing it off? Rinsing it down the drain is not a great idea.

    reggiegasket
    Free Member

    paraffin here too. It’s about £7 for 5 litres, I think.

    argee
    Full Member

    Trichloroethylene, preferably in a vapour tank, anything else is just a substitute.

    smiffy
    Full Member

    Easy to wash off and you can use it as a vehicle alloy wheel cleaner as its high pH

    Don’t you want low pH to clean alloy? the ones you buy specifically for that job are acid, as alkali dissolves aluminium.

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

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