Cleaning with Parafin?

Never heard that petrol is illegal to use for cleaning parts in the home shop. ( how could it be stopped) Must be 1000's using it in this country alone.

Probably frowned upon in an industrial setting.

regards

Paraffin worked fine for me back in the '70s when I stripped and rebuilt the engine on my BSA A10. I had all the bits soaking in biscuit tins around the flat. Couldn't understand why they didn't leak - but that being so, why did the landlord go ballistic when he came round for the rent???

I found a 'garage' locally, actually an ex-garage that's still in business repairing cars, that only has two pumps. One is red diesel for contractors and small farmers and better still, the other is kerosene! I was over the moon when I found them, because the kerosene ishalf the price of DERV. I guess that by the time both Jerry cans are empty again, they'll have gone tits up and I'll be back to using full price DERV, because it's cheaper than paraffin or white-spirit.

I do use a few gallons in the greenhouse in late winter, but mostly I cut it with degreaser and use it in the shed.

For anyone in the Coventry area, it's Oxford Road car sales on the Oxford Road in Ryton on Dunsmore, just off the A45 .

Edited By Mark Rand on 13/10/2018 19:56:21

On a side issue, is there a recognised way of getting rid of parafin once it has been used for cleaning? I suppose the same question applies to white spirit as well.

Thanks

Martyn

I put my used white spirit back in the bottles and let the solids settle out then pour off the cleaner stuff into another bottle and use it to soak charcoal or wood for lighting up my various steam boilers. The bottles with the little bit of solids in the bottom go in the bin. Probably some law against that as well, but hey ho, gives me vfm in using the stuff twice.

Paul.

Not obvious what the difference is between paraffin and kerosene. Certainly, Wikipedia doesn't seem to think there is much of one. Kerosene / paraffin are cheaper than diesel because the are not subject to fuel duty, which is almost 50% of the pump price. No point paying fuel duty for parts cleaning.

From what I can tell, Gunk degreasant is just a mixture of light petroleum distillate and a detergent. You could make your own from white spirit, paraffin, diesel etc if you could be bothered. When I use Gunk, I rinse the parts in stinking hot water. That way, any minor residual moisture evaporates from the hot parts.

Murray

Parrafin and Kerosine are just different names for the same thing. White spirit, also known as Stoddart Solvent, is a more refined version. In the USA and Canada it;s called Mineral Sprits. A lot of barbeque lighter fluid is refined or de-odourised kerosine. There are various grades of all of them.

The stories about water in parrafin are old wives tales, based on the fact that parrafin heaters cause lots of condensation. When you burn a hydrocarbon like parrafin, water is created from the oxygen in the air and hydrogen in the fuel. You can dissolve a tiny amount of water in parrafin but it's insignificant, you will get more water condensing onto cold metal than from cleaning with paraffin.

Correct way to dispose of used parrafin etc is to take it to your local recycling center and put with the paint or used oil.

A problem is that if you buy paraffin from your DIY store, you're likely to pay £7 for a four litre bottle. This is dearer than pump diesel. £0.60/litre makes it a bit more reasonable.

I can think of few solvents that are less likely to be able to dissolve any water than paraffin/kerosene. Aliphatic hydrocarbons and water don't tend to want to associate at all.

If I want to dry a small piece of metal that's been in a water based solution, I use several washes of acetone, having had that drummed into me 45 years ago by my O level chemisery teacher, Mr Ryder.

Edited By Mark Rand on 14/10/2018 00:16:26

Greetings,

The main problem with using Kerosene/paraffin is the sulphur content, which causes corrosion, white spirit has a much lower sulphur content. Water is extremely insoluble in it, and would in any case tend to make it cloudy, as well as being visible as droplets at the bottom of the container.

I use white spirit for cleaning with about 10% lubricating oil added (most grades seem to work OK).

Like Paul Kemp, I reuse the white spirit for soaking charcoal for loco lighting up, and get two for the price of one.

Regards

Brian

Paraffin is sold in all supermarkets in France in winter as "Combustible pour poêle à pétrole" at about €20 for a 20 litre plastic bottle. It burns virtually odour free.

So why is it so difficult to get in the U.K?

Russell

I use paraffin to wash some components to remove particles , cutting oil and grease. If you use a paraffin bath and wash in a water bath after, then with a quick blow with an air line, it leaves a slight greasy film of paraffin wax and it stops rust, ready to store or assemble, try it.

David

Only because there's not much call for it. When I was a lad Pink Paraffin, Esso Blue and other brands were sold in large quantities and easily available. Paraffin heaters were common in houses, where they caused fires, condensation and occasional monoxide poisonings. Been almost totally replaced by electric heaters and central heating systems, perhaps more thoroughly here because Britain is less rural than France. At the same time gas cartridges replaced paraffin for camp lighting & cooking, and also in the workshop. Paraffin's main domestic purpose today is heating greenhouses. Unless someone knows different!

Worth mentioning that 'Paraffin' and 'Kerosene' both describe a range of light-hydrocarbon mixtures, that may or may not include additives and contaminants like Sulphur. They're similar mixtures rather than guaranteed identical. If it matters, check the specification. For example, Pink Paraffin and Esso Blue both contain dyes that might stain the item being cleaned if that's a concern. All the green-house paraffin I've bought has been White, which is a good thing for cleaning.

Bunch of other hydrocarbons and mixtures like Petrol, Naptha, Thinners, Benzine, & Toluene also have excellent cleaning properties. They all need careful handling due to being more-or-less highly inflammable explosion risks, carcinogenic and/or toxic.

Rule of thumb, the lighter the hydrocarbon the better it will be at degreasing. Liquid Butane is good stuff, though not very practical. I'm not recommending any of these - the advantage of Kerosene/Paraffin & White Spirit is they do a good job cheap and are relatively safe to handle. Anything heavier than diesel becomes part of the mess.

Dave

The maintenance workshop had a parts washer supplied by SafetyKleen, it seems to be a detergent solution and was very effective, a heater made it very comfortable to use and even bare hands seemed ok for occasional use but probably not recommended at all. The downside seems to be they rent the whole package including disposal of used cleaner and do not supply just the cleaning fluid. If an equivalent is available it is more pleasant to use than solvents. Paraffin seems very expensive now if you can find it, it used to be my first choice for parts cleaning or petrol drained from my bike if in a hurry. Unleaded petrol seems most unpleasant compared to 4 star and I won’t use it now. Cellulose thinners is great on some things but evaporates very quickly, I suppose that is the idea.

Mike

A friend put his engine parts in the dishwasher which was very effective, I haven’t enquired about using ours.

Mike

Petrol, diesel and paraffin are all types of 'naptha' of different average molecular weights.

Their properties blur into each other, along with lighter fuel, white spirit etc.

Is there any difference between white spirit and turps substitute?

Neil

Greetings Neil,

Turps substitute was the early name for white spirit, which came about because the supplies of turpentine, mainly produced from the Baltic area, stopped during WW2.

Regards

Brian

If I remember correctly from when I were a lad, the Pink paraffin was called Aladdin Pink and that there was also a green variety - no idea on the naming of that one.
DaveD

Thanks, I've never been able to detect a difference, but some DIY sheds sell both side by side in identical bottles, sometimes with different prices...

According to Google Fina was Green but regal was 'super green'.

Do you remember: Boom, boom, boom, boom... Esso Blue.

Seems a strange choice of tagline for a flammable fuel?

Turps subs & white spirit do not seem to be the same to me. I have both and have used both for cleaning brushes. White spirit evaporates much more quickly than turps subs, so much so that I can, and have, left uncleaned paint brushes standing in turps subs.

I also have used white spirit for paint thinning, something which turps subs didn't seem too good at.

Wikipedia sort of confirms this.

Peter G. Shaw