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Chain Cleaning - Denatured Alcohol (Methylated spirits) in Canada

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Chain Cleaning - Denatured Alcohol (Methylated spirits) in Canada

Old 05-07-20, 10:37 AM
  #26  
Barry2 
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Cleaning

I use Simple Green and a cheapie Ultrasonic tank for all my bike parts.
I pull them as soon as the cleaning cycle is over and dry them.
After that I dry them again and keep them nice a warm.

Simple Green is mixed with water and if you don't get the parts dry.... well you get the picture.

For small parts I fill the Ultrasonic with just water, then place the parts and Simple Green in a ziplock bag.
Toss the bag in the water and the ultrasonic waves go right through the bag to clean the parts.

If you have rubbing alcohol available, rinsing the item once clean is a good idea. Any remaining moisture from the water based cleaning will be displaced by the alcohol and the alcohol will evaporate quicker when left is a warm place.

All the best

Barry
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Old 05-07-20, 12:38 PM
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Originally Posted by Litespud
Rubbing alcohol (70% or 91% isopropanol) isn't great for cleaning chains. I use it all the time for cleaning and degreasing surfaces, but for some reason, when I drop a chain into a jar of rubbing alcohol and shake it up, very little happens (unlike, say, acetone, which turns black in seconds and delivers a significantly cleaner chain). Going with the "like dissolves like" theme, I think rubbing alcohol is just too polar to effectively dissolve chain grease
Yep. Acetone is still a bit too polar to be very effective. Mineral spirits is much more effective. There’s a limit to how much oil you can dissolve in acetone. At some point, there will be a phase separation with acetone. But oil has essentially unlimited solubility in mineral spirits. At some point, you can have more oil than mineral spirits and still be able to dissolve more oil in it.
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Old 05-07-20, 01:01 PM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by cyccommute
I’m not sure I would believe that someone in the 1950s would use gasoline on dishes. The flammable properties of gasoline was well known by the 1950...being burned alive due to crashes of all kinds was a trope in movies even in the 30s. People did silly things in the 50s but I really doubt they were that stupid.
I'd love to agree with this sentiment, but then I see 50s ads
and I'm not so sure.

Btw, I love reading your posts, so thanks! I'm hoping it's because your posts are well informed and well stated, and not just because I happen to agree with them. So, allowing for the possibility that my admiration is motivated by confirmation bias, I say thanks, and keep it up!
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Old 05-07-20, 01:07 PM
  #29  
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Wow, thank you for all the answers. Quite the read through everyone feedback. The key take away points I've gathered is #1 Don't use Petrol (gasoline) and #2 Use Mineral Spirits.

My final question then is should Mineral Spirits be used first followed by a rinse in denatured alcohol (which is essential ethyl/ethanol) or should mineral spirits be the only solvent used in cleaning the chain? I've read somewhere that mineral spirits leaves behind a residue which causes the wax to not adhere as well to the chain which is why it is recommended to use denatured alchol (ethyl/ethanol) which removes the reside left behind by the mineral spirits.
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Old 05-07-20, 01:29 PM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by sc007
Wow, thank you for all the answers. Quite the read through everyone feedback. The key take away points I've gathered is #1 Don't use Petrol (gasoline) and #2 Use Mineral Spirits.

My final question then is should Mineral Spirits be used first followed by a rinse in denatured alcohol (which is essential ethyl/ethanol) or should mineral spirits be the only solvent used in cleaning the chain? I've read somewhere that mineral spirits leaves behind a residue which causes the wax to not adhere as well to the chain which is why it is recommended to use denatured alchol (ethyl/ethanol) which removes the reside left behind by the mineral spirits.
You're not designing a nuclear reactor here, so good enough is good enough. I can't promise that an electron microscope won't reveal the presence of some mineral spirits-related molecules on the surface of the chain after a rinse and dry with mineral spirits, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to stop your wax soak from being effective. I'm not currently waxing my chains, but I have done it in the past, going directly from mineral spirits -> hang up to dry in the AZ heat -> into the wax -> hang up to cool down -> bike and nothing that I ever observed doing this lead me to believe there was any issue at all. I'm perfectly ready to accept my licks when someone who does own an electron microscope chimes in to contradict me.
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Old 05-07-20, 01:49 PM
  #31  
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Some of us don't even clean our chains. I just wipe them off with a rag when the gunk starts getting on my leg and after I lube them which is probably three to five times a year depending on whether riding in rain. Unless you just are obsessed with cleanliness, or have a need to fiddle with things then I can't think of how spending so much time on them is worth it.

I do know all the arguments you people in dry dusty places make that do make some sense to me for the use of waxing, so you don't have to redress that. Any other argument about chain life just isn't there. I think life of your chain is more about how much raw power you can produce than it is how finicky you get with it. I'd be certain that people putting out megawatts of power have shorter chain life than I do.

I seldom replace a worn out chain. Lately it's been component changes that necessitate new chains. The oldest now has 6000 miles on it, but it won't get ridden again as it will have a component change if it ever is to be ridden again. Another has 4000, and the newest only 300.

But if it makes you feel good to do it, then go for it.
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Old 05-07-20, 03:08 PM
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Originally Posted by Iride01
Some of us don't even clean our chains. I just wipe them off with a rag when the gunk starts getting on my leg and after I lube them which is probably three to five times a year depending on whether riding in rain. Unless you just are obsessed with cleanliness, or have a need to fiddle with things then I can't think of how spending so much time on them is worth it.
There's no doubt that in the end it comes down to what people are interested in and what they'll tolerate, and everything in between. There's no best answer, though I'm pretty certain this guy is the one in the twilight zone and not literally every other cyclist on the planet. From all the folks who don't like spending time doing any maintenance to those who obsess over it, there's really no right or wrong answer if they're happy with what they're doing. I'm willing to clean my chain in mineral spirits and relube every ~500 miles or so because I don't mind working on my bike, and dropping a removable chain into mineral spirits, shaking it up, and reinstalling it after it dries does do a good job, gets me my fix of desirable maintenance time, and only adds a few minutes every ~500 miles to the time I spend with my bike. Whether it adds sufficient lifespan to the chain to be "worth it" on a dollars and cents basis is neither known to me, nor particularly relevant. I have been using NFS rather than waxing my chains lately just because the extra steps, while not necessarily major, weren't compelling enough to me, while they are compelling enough to others, and folks like you wouldn't even do what I do, much less go to the wax. It's all good.
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Old 05-07-20, 09:21 PM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by cyccommute
I’m not sure I would believe that someone in the 1950s would use gasoline on dishes.
I am not certain about the decade, it may have been earlier. Its like I see that now before me, except I can't be sure it was gasoline you put in vehicles, may have been something like white gas campers use. Even the commentary given along with those commercials was giving this as an example of naive days, of innocence...
BTW thanks for elucidation on chain cleaning.

@SethAZ how about these dancing cigarette boxes - the small box (or is that a matchbox?) looks like an underage kid.
It starts at 6 minutes in. Tried to copy url at the time in video but it shows the whole thing...

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Old 05-08-20, 06:01 PM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by vane171
@SethAZ how about these dancing cigarette boxes - the small box (or is that a matchbox?) looks like an underage kid.
It starts at 6 minutes in. Tried to copy url at the time in video but it shows the whole thing...
Yeah that was definitely a kid in the match box. Around the 9:00 mark... I need me some of that Lifebuoy soap, lol! Also, someone tell Joe Scarborough he hasn't aged a day.

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Old 05-24-20, 10:06 AM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by DaveSSS
White gas/camp stove fuel evaporates faster.
White gas is more volatile, and forms an explosive vapor/air mixture much easier. Plus its gonna be more hydrocarbons in the atmosphere (if one doesn't care about the atmosphere as an environmental issue, then consider the local atmosphere that you'll be breathing!). While not as bad as gasoline, I'd take pains to only put white gas in my camping stove or Coleman lantern, and use odorless min spirits for degreasing.

I think that OMS is cheaper than Coleman fuel, too. About 13 bucks for a gallon of OMS at Home Depot. Ebay has Coleman fuel listed at over 50 bucks/gallon.
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Old 05-24-20, 10:27 AM
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The last 2 gallons of Crown brand camp stove fuel I bought from Walmart cost $8.50 per gallon, which is far cheaper than Coleman fuel or mineral spirits. I use closed containers so the evaporation amount is trivial. It works far better as the solvent to dissolve wax for my home made liquid wax lube.

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Old 05-24-20, 10:45 AM
  #37  
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As usual people are panicking very dramatically in this thread about something people do every day but when you stop and think it is extremely elaborate prep to use this simple and natural form of lube, which is not suitable for all riders anyway. If you really want a natural lube then use castor oil, it is better than any synthetic lube in most ways and really provides strong lube effect. They used it excessively during ww II from tiger tanks to lady's bicycles as it works in the most extreme environments and is very effective only drawback is it gets gummy over time. However the two stroke motorcycle racers still use it for its superior protection and they put in anti-gumming additives to the mix so it should be perfect for bicycle use.

https://www.amazon.com/Maxima-23964-...000GZV25G&th=1

Last edited by Oneder; 05-24-20 at 10:54 AM.
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