degreasing perforated aluminum

[wrl]

Does anyone know a good way to degrease aluminum. My panels are large (54" X 15") if this makes a difference.]



Thanks,
Wes

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

Take them to a self service car wash?

[ashok]

Maybe you can use TCE . Tetra Chloro Ethylene.

[SY]

Use rags dipped in methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). Work in a WELL ventilated area, and away from any sources of sparks or flames (like pilot lights or motors)- MEK is highly flammable and highly volatile.

[mwmkravchenko]

car wash them first. Bill's right.
Try a good scrub with baking soda it works!
I use a water and baking soda paste to clean my sawblades and I've used it as a parts cleaner too.

If you have to go the chemical route STP makes a great degreaser
just don't leave it on to long.

Mark

[Peter Daniel]

Buy a spray degreaser from Auto-Parts store, used for car engine clean up. Take panels to self serve car wash, spray with degreaser, wait 10 min or so and rinse with water.

[Da5id4Vz]

I used to buy 55-gallon drums of 111 triclorofloroethane from a company called Safety Kleen. My use was for cleaning motion picture films. Most of there customers used Safety Kleen brand parts washers for grease removal. You might try contacting them and finding out who in your area has a machine large enough to handle your needs.

http://www.safety-kleen.com/skcda/vi...nel/SKhome.jsp

[SY]

55-gallon drums of 111 triclorofloroethane

IIRC, that stuff is very restricted these days, due to the linking of it with holes in the ozone layer. Too bad, it's an effective solvent. MEK, though flammable, is still the standard solvent used to prep surfaces for finishing. Cuts grease, dries quickly, leaves surfaces clean enough to be anodized, which an aqueous wash won't. And you can get it cheep at any Home Despot.

[Da5id4Vz]

Most good solvents are restricted these days. Ironically percloriform, dry cleaning fluid, is over 100x as bad an ozone depleter as methelclorform, and yet we don’t ban it. The dry cleaning association apparently has a pretty good political lobby.

One of the things I liked about Safety Kleen is that they managed my waste and helped with the regulatory requirements too. I understand that price and availability has almost completely eliminated the use of these solvents in motion picture film handling.

[Peter Daniel]

Originally posted by SY

And you can get it cheep at any Home Despot.

Under what name? I don't remember seeing it locally.