Just read another thread mentioning brake cleaner and then a huge array of other solvents for cleaning stuff.
You only really need two solvents, brake cleaner for EVERYTHING, and celly thinners for anything that brake cleaner won't work on.
Brake cleaner is AMAZING stuff, and no, it's not acetone, still don't know what it actually is in fact, but it pretty much cleans anything
you don't want off anything you do want! It doesn't attack any plastic that I have tried it on yet, or rubber either, and yet it cleans
pretty much anything nasty off in secs.
Best is it's only £9 for a gallon, so pretty cheap too.
Just a thought, as it seems many are unfamiliar with the magic that is Deb "Stop Quick"
I found that it also degreases your fingers very well - I recommend gloves, as skin doesn't like being degreased!
very true, skin does go a bit crusty after lots of contact! gloves a good idea!
Stings if you get any in your eyes too!
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
I found that it also degreases your fingers very well - I recommend gloves, as skin doesn't like being degreased!
My contact was entirely accidental - I would never recommend it for hand cleaning! 
DJ
Brake cleaner is superb stuff. A bloke i work with cleans evrything with it. Hands, face everything. Some of the aerosol ones smell nice too!!
AFAIK its a mixture of acid (hence bad in eyes) and a degreaser...
Chris
Cleans owt!!!
My grp bath (as in in the bathroom!) had some horrid stains, think it was my bro's hairwax stuff or something, anyhoo, no amount of
"cif" and that crap would shift it, but one wipe with brake cleaner and it was gleaming.
Old stickers, tank tape etc etc, all come off with a little wipe
Best place to buy in bulk?
Agreed- it's fantastic stuff.
I have it in aerosol form- cans that are made by Loctite. It's high pressure too so just blasts stuff off. Cans don't last long though...
Interested you can by it for £9 per gallon!!! 
Cheers,
James
Our local Pound Land has it in aerosols for guess what - £1 a tin!
At work we buy it in 5gall barrels and have pump up spray guns for it. Works much better than aerosol and is cheaper. Currently we are buying from
the ford dealer I think.
BTW it is full of very nasty things from carcinogens to things that shut down your liver/kidneys. Best to avoid inhalation of it. Not to mention
the fact that it is designed to remove oil from anything. Including your skin so expect dry/cracked skin if you use it on your hands. I now wear
gloves at work mostly because of that stuff cracking my knuckles to the point of bleeding. Also have an old chemical burn that gets agitated
everytime its exposed to just the fumes of brake clean 
Its also delicious on the rocks with tonic or ginger ale.
Cheers,
Bob
brakes int sell it, about £8+vat/gal when i got mine. don't know if they'd post it though.
i'd think pages/partco someone big parts suppliers should do it too. halfords stuff smells of lemons, and is about £1.80 on trade for 500ml in
aerosol cans.
it'll get sikaflex off your hands and anywhere it wasn't meant to go too.
tom
[Edited on 6/2/06 by indykid]
sounds about right indykid from brakes int.
I get mine form local parts shop, Central Auto Supplies (CAS) in Hinckley, got a gallon today in fact (well, 5 litres to be all euro correct!) and it
was 9 pound something for the can and free sprayer.
Spent another £80 odd on other shite too but hey ho!
We buy crates of Wurth brake cleaner at work. use it for pretty much everything including opening up ECUs (melts heat conductive glue) and cleaning PCBs and solder joints.
Was once told by a Wynn's rep that some brake cleaners if used as carbcleaner when the engine is running give out mustard gas as used in WW1 . be careful if using this way.
quote:
Originally posted by rusty nuts
Was once told by a Wynn's rep that some brake cleaners if used as carbcleaner when the engine is running give out mustard gas as used in WW1 . be careful if using this way.
) If I remember my college days correctly, Mustard gas / Phosgene
is cooperous acetilide (speeling) which is why copper fittings should
never be used on acetylene cylinders, brass only.
It is a long long time ago though.
Yup, I know, I'm an anorak. 
Paul G
Hi all,
most likely that you could get mustard gas out the back having heated brake cleaner, as its bis-(2-chloroethyl) sulfide, which can be made be heating
some of the stuff thats likely to be in brake cleaner - like sulphuric acid! It will blister your skin, attack your eyes and if inhaled enough will
blister the inside of your lungs!!!
Phosgene on the other hand is carbonyl chloride, COCl2. This is made by combining carbon monoxide and chlorine gas - such as you might get from
hydrochloric acid heated up (which is also likely to be in brake cleaner!). Phosgene breaks down in your lungs into carbon dioxide and hydrochloric
acid - which is obviously also a bad thing!!
Basically don't heat up things that you don't fully understand and then breathe them in!
Chris
PS part of my job is the treatment of chemical weapon injuries!
A long while back my father-in-law designed the ore handling plant at Mond nickel refinery, Clydach (up the Swansea valley), Basically, the nickel
ore is heated up in a vast rotary kiln, treated in various ways, then condensed as nickel metal. The gas that flows around is nickel carbonile,
which is very close in danger and effect to WW1 gas - and it's right in the middle of a small town - I don't like Clydach, but I
wouldn't wish a gas leak on them!
Brake cleaner is PERK.....Perchloroethylene.
If it was acidic it would eat up components. Bad liability.
Here's one companies COSHH form for a generic brake cleaner:
http://www.pro-align.co.uk/aboutus/hands/coshh/COSHH-05-25%20-%20Rev%201%20-%2025%20Apr%2005%20-%20Stop%20Quick%20(Deb).pdf
PERK actually falls into the same category of organic solvents as trichloroethylene and dichloroethylene (just different amounts of chlorine, yes if
you heat it up enough you will get chlorine gas, which is very very nasty. If you get the right conditions you can get a gas very similar (not the
same as though) to mustard gas which is otherwise known as thioether, 2,2 '-dichlorodiethyl sulfide, (ClCH2CH2 ) 2S)).
All of the chloroethylene solvents are known to cause nerve damage in cases of long term or repeated contact and they are known to cause dermatitis as
well.
All organic solvents used in degreasers exert a narcotic effect at high concentrations and can be fatal in very high doses (usually occurring
industrially when people enter solvent tanks to clean them out)
David
[Edited on 20/2/06 by flak monkey]
Yeah , have to agree with the solvent tank business. A guy died in Cambridge at an electro plating company a few years ago cleaning out a tank. Petrol can be almost as bad, once had a car over a pit that leaked petrol , got into pit to clean it up and woke up in A & E. Just be careful out there!
On that note, the HSE quote a very nasty accident where a mechanic was draining some petrol from the tank of a car over a pit, into a bucket.
A spark from a faulty inspection lamp fired off the petrol vapour that was sitting in the pit and the mechanic was unable to exit the pit as the car
was parked over it, consequently he was burnt to death in there, to the horror of several members of the public present at the time.
Not nice.
That's because petrol fumes are heavier than air. It happened to my neighbour's son 30 years ago, not fatally thankfully but he was badly disfigured and had years of skin grafts. Alan was in a pit and a spark set the fumes alight, he got out of the pit and ran for the door and no-one could catch him to put him out till he fell down.