I have a tub of nuts and bolts and washers. A grease gun full of Mobile1 marine grade grease was put on top of it and leaked so now all the nuts and bolts are greasy and have collected several months worth of dirt and grime.
I want to soak them in something until clean enough to use. What will work best?
Dawn Dishwashing Liquid always worked well for me.
mineral spirits. you might have to soak and brush them a few times, but it should do it. in fact, if there are any smaller auto shops around on a slow day they might wash them off in their parts cleaning tank for a nominal fee.
TSP aka tri sodium phosphate.
It’s an incredibly effective degreaser.
Wipe them down then you might want to start with a good spray of WD-40. WD-40 is a much better solvent and protectant than a lubricant. Then try the detergent if there is still a lot of grime. After the wash hit it with the WD-40 again so they don’t rust.
The EPA may not approve of my technique here. However, car washes have catch basins and means of filtering the recovery water for impurities so they do not go into the sewer system.
I’d consider putting all the hardware in some type of basket and power washing them at a time when there is no line backing up. After cleaning, you need to dry the parts and maybe re-lubricate them with WD-40 or something to protect from rusting.
I would not have time to waste working on individual items.
Better than pouring trichloroethylene over them, from the EPA’s point of view.
The car wash probably drains directly to the sewage treatment plant; a lot of grease there is a bad thing, but the plant should handle a quarter tube of lube grease. So I don’t think there’s really any environmental issue at all with the car wash solution (other than using up fresh water, and the energy to heat it, etc.)
I’ve tried several things to clean grease off stuff and the one that works by far the best is gasoline.
Yep. Any official (read: nanny state) instructions will tell you to never use gasoline for cleaning stuff because you’re going to ignite it and cause a horrendous explosion coupled with a raging inferno of fire. While that is possible if one is careless, it’s also quite possible to avoid that problem if one uses proper procedures and good sense. Effective ventilation and a watchful eye for ignition sources will do the trick. And gasoline does a bang up (:D) job of cleaning off grease.
Car washes around here treat their drain water.
If you can still find them, a carburetor cleaning kit would work. The last time I saw one, it was more or less a strainer basket in a one-gallon paint can filled with solvent, and would work swimmingly for cleaning your bolts.
Of course, it needs to be asked - are the nuts really worth cleaning?