Originally posted by azhayseed
the water soluable degreasers and mineral spirits both eat up my skin if I get any on me.
A year ago I started using biodiesel for solvent in my parts washer. It works good but it is just a bit slower than mineral spirits for heavy buildups. The biodiesel is biodegradable safe enough to drink or so i'm told.
I use biodiesel that I made that didn't quite meet the grade on my quality testing, rather than reprocess it I just throw it in my parts washer when I need to replentish, It costs me less than $1.00/ gallon to make. And it doesn't have that nasty fuel smell.
I was just going to recommend Biodiesel. I work at a Biodiesel plant and I know first hand that it is a good solvent. It is safe to get on your skin (not carsenagenic). When we opened, the news did a story and the reporter stuck his finger in it and licked it off. It does melt rubber and cheap shoes don't last long. It even softens the nitrile coated gloves we get.
Originally posted by Cannibal
As azhayseed mentioned, you can make it yourself, and for $1.00 a gallon, I imagine he must be using free waste veggie oil to do so, a new gallon of veggie or whatever you want costs more than $1.00/gallon, the stuff we use as feed stock is $2.50/gallon, and we buy 3 million gallons at a time.
I do have to argue about the biodegradability though. Yes, it does break down, however one would need to be conscious about where it is disposed of. We have to be careful not to get it into the storm water. As it breaks down, it uses oxygen, which means the fish can't breath. Also, once you clean any petroleum grime from your parts, it's now no longer biodegradable. You could always filter it and dump it into a kerosene or waste oil heater though.
