The thread about sand blasting reminded me........
Where would I go about getting some solvent for my parts washer? I figure now would be a good time to get it going so I can clean up all the parts I've pulled off the car.
There's all kinds.. I got some at Northern Tool and Equip. don't know if you have those. This was some green fluid that's supposed to be environmentally friendly. Guess how well it worked...
This summer I went to a local gas station and bought kerosene. I know from past experience that kerosene works really well for cleaning up congealed grease and oil.
I get mine at Lowes or Home Depot in a 5-gallon can from the paint department. Everything from mineral spirits to tolulene. But, I live in the sticks. Save the can for the old, used fluid. I use mineral spirits for parts washing and laquer thinner for cleaning my paint guns. There are more environmentally friendly fluids out there, but I filter and reuse mine and have not used more than 5 gallons in the past 5 years in my 20 gallon parts washer. One of the best X-mas presents I ever got.
I use mineral spirits as well. I also kept the cans. I think I have 15 gallons in my 40 gallon parts washer. I asked about some enviro-friendly stuff (water based) that worked really good and was given a formula by a chemist to take to my local chemical company to have made up. They would only make in a 55 gal. unit and it was going to be very expensive, so I settled for the un-enviro-friendly mineral spirits. But think about this, if the enviro stuff is used, is it still enviro-friendly?
Check with a farm or tractor store if there are any around you or look in the yellow pages for a name brand like Shell,Mobil, ect lubricant distributor and usually they carry solvents. Even NAPA sells solvents. The Exxon version of the low-odor, low-flash solvent is called Varsol; there are other similar products known as "Stoddard solvent".
In California, though, you may be forced to bow to the eco-nazis.