Using Heat to Degrease?

[flippin]

Over the past few months I have been on the hunt for Vidmar/Lista cabinets. I have been pretty successful but I now have the great task of cleaning years of hardened grease on all of the bearings. I have been soaking the drawer carriages in Zep purple degreaser. This process seems to work but my OCD is making me wonder how much hardened grease is still caked to the inside of the bearing race. Given that the degreaser is non-flammable, and all of the parts are metal, would using a low temp torch to heat each bearing help "melt" any residual hardened grease?

Seems like a good idea I think???

Thanks in advance,

-Paul

 

[ItsNemo]

Steam cleaner? Heat gun (rather than open flame)?

 

[theoldwizard1]

I know if you want to "bake" out all the contaminates in a cast iron piece before trying braze it, the typical method is fire up your charcoal BBQ Lid required) and throw the piece right on the coals. Some auxiliary air flow is required.

Or just chuck it right inside of a wood stove for a few hours.

 

[Warrenator]

I would not use flame of any kind, for fear of melting little plastic seals on the bearings, also might damage the paint. If you really want to get in there with heat one of the household steam cleaners would heat it up nicely, and carry away the runny goop with a blast of steam.

Personally I would be using wd-40 and a toothbrush.

 

[nh_yota]

Can they fit in your dishwasher?

 

[johnnyradiant]

Can they fit in your dishwasher?

Do you have a wife? Do you want to continue sharing the bed with her?
Even I would not be bone headed enough to think that using the dishwasher for a parts cleaner would fly. I don't think it would fly with myself either. If there is any grit mixed in with your grease you would be adding wear to your dishwasher seals - getting closer to a leaky dishwasher. List price for the part most likely to leak on my Miele was about $1300 Can. bucks.

 

[BillK]

If it is a petroleum grease I think you need to soak the carriages in a petroleum solvent instead of water base. I know the water base units do good on certain thinkgs but when we get something in the shop that is greasy it goes right in the old school Safety Kleen machine with the petroleum solvent.

 

[malibu101]

Can they fit in your dishwasher?

I know a guy (really it wasn't me) who thought a good way to clean an intake manifold would be to put it through a cycle in the dishwasher.
He said it worked so-so. BUT the inside of the dishwasher was coated with an oil film that didn't wash out.
I think that caused them to get a new dishwasher.

 

[Pathfinders]

Ho do you plan to repack?

 

[EOC_Jason]

You could try soaking in diesel oil...

A hot steam pressure washer would probably do the trick.

I would not use a flame...

 

[greasyfingers01]

On my vidmars I used brake cleaner and worked great. Use a needle on your grease gun to repack them. Don't over think it.

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[flippin]

I have a steam cleaner, thanks for the idea. Still not too worried about heat, bearings are unshielded and the carriages are raw metal (no paint).

Thanks gang for the great idea.

-Paul

 

[matt_i]

I usually use the CRC "natural degreaser" smells orange-ish. It cuts the old hard grease out of there. If the bearings are completely stuck (many are) just keep rolling them back and forth by hand...worst ones sometimes need a chanellock lightly applied to get the motion started. The outer race is hard enough the pliers won't scar the OD. Then I go back with a heavy oil, vactra #4 or I have some vacuoline 1419 which is a tackified (think chainsaw bar oil except not super cheap and non designed for a total-loss system!) The reason I don't like grease unless there's a zerk is it's squashed away from the lubrication problem whereas oil flows to the lubrication problem.

You can also use Starrett M1 which has some kind of solvent base that will appear to cut the original dried grease, but the solvent eventually evaporates over a few days And then you get to do the job over with a different lubricant. Don't ask how I know this! I've done large banks of cabinets storing industrial parts over the years.

 

[OccupantRJ]

If it is a petroleum grease I think you need to soak the carriages in a petroleum solvent instead of water base. I know the water base units do good on certain thinkgs but when we get something in the shop that is greasy it goes right in the old school Safety Kleen machine with the petroleum solvent.

This will do it the best in my opinion. Kerosene will work, and should be available at an oil supply company.

 

[rockettgpw]

Can they fit in your dishwasher?

The responses to this also apply to front loader washers. I snuck 20' of old 1" sisal rope in the S.O.'s machine and not very long after that the pumps and the drum bearings were making horrid noises. Who knew there would be a ton of grit and fibres in that stuff! Yes it was my job to replace all but she never found out the cause

 

[Falcon67]

Call around and find someone with a high pressure steam cleaner - that'll make quick work of it.

 

[nh_yota]

Do you have a wife? Do you want to continue sharing the bed with her?
Even I would not be bone headed enough to think that using the dishwasher for a parts cleaner would fly. I don't think it would fly with myself either. If there is any grit mixed in with your grease you would be adding wear to your dishwasher seals - getting closer to a leaky dishwasher. List price for the part most likely to leak on my Miele was about $1300 Can. bucks.

Nope and nope. I've washed an assortment of things in my dishwasher over the years without issue but I'm not stupid about it. I'm not going to load something caked with grease in there or something that's made out of aluminum, but I've washed various parts of my gas grill and smoker along with other things and I don't see how they're any worse than dirty dishes.

 

[cowboy73]

A toaster oven from the Goodwill could be used to bake the bearings. Do it outside in the yard.

 

[rsanter]

Pressure washer. Some of them you can connect to hot water

Bob

 

[isb cornbinder]

Go to your local paint and body shop supply and buy some gun wash. Soak the offending bearings in this strong solvent. The grease will desolve in minutes. You can then clear the bearings with compressed air.
You can buy a lithium spray grease that goes on Liquide and becomes grease in seconds.
Or, you could just spray what you have with a little WD40 to loosen the grease and not bother with all of the BS
Caution gunwash is very flammable.

 

[6768rogues]

Soak them in lacquer thinner.

 

[kylefitz]

I bought a 16 drawer lista and all the bearings were almost immovable due to oils grease and lack of service. I pulled all of the drawers and trays out to clean them. 50/50 mix of atf and paint thinner in a oil can. Spayed a few trays at a time and let them sit then hit them with a blow gun to blast all the old grease out. Then a few drops of oil in the bearings and they are good as new.

 

[David-L]

I've heard that soaking petrified grease covered parts in simple green heated up in an old crockpot works amazingly well. Haven't tried myself, been looking for a cheap crockpot at yard sales instead of buying a new one.

 

[iajonesy]

Find someone with a HOTSY parts washer or something similar. It uses hot (200 degree) water,strong cleaning agent and high pressure water in an enclosed unit. most engine rebuilding shops have something like this and will do the job for a reasonable fee.

Baking the parts usually only makes the grease harder to remove. Just my thoughts.

Mike

 

[metalmagpie]

Boil them in Cascade dishwashing detergent for an hour or so.

 

[1redTA]

I think that caused them to get a new dishwasher.

Divorce is always tough

 

[sstec]

Ultrasonic cleaner with heater, work great on cleaning everything from bearings to carbs and even dentures. . . . .

 

[isb cornbinder]

If you are going to use heat for degreasing, you had better know what you are doing. On You Tube, John Edwards of Costa Mesa R&D has a specialty unit for heat cleaning. Check it out.

 

[thatguysb]

gasoline cleans grease super quick

 

[isb cornbinder]

My uncle set himself ablaze when he was washing parts with gasoline. The fire killed my
uncle and also consumed the shop and contents. The ignition source was thought to be a spark from static.

 

[cherrybomb]

I think I would try the steam cleaner option

 

[rburke65]

Power washer with hot water....Dawn.

 

[ilovevocs]

Hot water pressure washer, landa, hotsy.... I'm spoiled with owning one.


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[1foxracing]