Effective and Inexpensive Homemade Penetrating Oil-Better than PB Blaster and Kroil

[cerviarborist]

It's been awhile since I last posted, but I thought this might come in handy for some of you.

For background, I live in Florida, and last year Hurricane Helene put about five feet of bay saltwater in my house. Naturally I was away doing storm recovery work at the time, and didn't get home until a few weeks afterward. Lots of my tools and equipment became extremely corroded and frozen tight in the aftermath. Kroil has always been my go-to product to loosen rust-locked components, but it's pretty expensive and I was going to be using a lot. Being the cheapskate I am, I decided to see whether there was a decent home-brew version, and I found an article in Machinst's Workshop, which compared WD-40, PB Blaster, Liquid Wrench, Kano-Kroil, and a homemade 50/50 mix of Acetone and Automatic Transmission Fluid. The homemade solution proved twice as effective as the closest commercial product (Kroil). I'll attach a link to the article.

Machinist's Workshop Penetrating Oils - Test - RX8Club.com

Series I Tech Garage - Machinist's Workshop Penetrating Oils - Test - I was sent this on another forum and found that it was very interesting informative about liquids used to break free rusted/seized bolts. I have attached the original PDF, but am quoting it in post content here as well...

www.rx8club.com

I whipped up a batch, using synthetic Amalie which was clearance priced at Auto Zone for about $2, along with a pint of 100% Acetone from CVS, which was about another $2. An additional $6 for a hand pump oiler from Harbor Freight and I went to work. I mixed the fluids in a glass jar with a metal lid and then decanted a couple ounces at a time into the oiler. It does like to separate, so I've been shaking the jar before decanting to the oiler, and periodically shaking the oiler as I go. I've got to say, the stuff works remarkably well!


Later, I'm going to use a couple large plastic trash cans to set up a chelation tank using citric acid and washing soda, and a low voltage electrolysis tank to try to remove rust from corroded steel items.

Cheers!

 

[flushcut]

Six pack cardboard or Kleenex box cardboard is a good sorce of gasket material when storing acetone. I like using baby food jars after the rubber gasket melts out.

 

[Bart_]

On the odd occasion I use DeOxit D5 as its solvent carrying corrosion eater. Primary use is corrosion of electrical contacts but it can wick in and reduce the corrosion expansion pressure by eating a bit. However $$

Machinist equipment restoration - I think they use vinegar or something similar. Wet towel or soak

 

[Tom Dunlap]

The convenience of buying PB Blaster and occasionally Kroil on the shelf keeps me a fan

Granted I’m not dealing with flood damage

Have you gotten to setting up a battery charger electrolysis setup?

 

[ghostice]

This sounds like a good idea - gotta try it out. But just remember acetone spotted on to the corner of a rag is one thing, but acetone in any volume is really flammable (including clothes or rags) and it evaporates at room temp like skunk and can fill low spots or enclosed areas and light off with one spark. A painter used lacquer thinner and acetone to clean spray equipment - he blew the windows out of a basement with the overpressure wave when it lit off. He lived but woke up fast.

 

[cerviarborist]

It’s definitely for outdoor, or at least very well ventilated applications.

I think the acetone simply thins the ATF and allows it to creep better into the spots that are corroded and locked.

I apply it to the tool or part outside and let it stay outside overnight before I bring it inside.

 

[Bart_]

Derail but DeOxit followed by dielectric grease is magic for green or white powder contact corrosion situations. Turrns to clean metal. Citric acid is likely what I was trying to refer to.

If you are doing a lot of electrolysis and maybe want to anodise too I suggest a benchtop dc power supply with amps and volts readout to tune your setup. It also allows you to run voltage controlled or current controlled or a mix. Can't recall what electrolysis prefers. I anodised my 2nd RW red

edit - did some reading. stackexchange said 1 mA/ sq cm and beware stainless or chrome so you don't end up with Erin Brokovitch hexavalent action. also maybe use carbon electrodes and coat hangers as wires

 

[TreeCo]

I've been using homemade since I first read the study several years ago.

I still ring some off though.

 

[cerviarborist]

The convenience of buying PB Blaster and occasionally Kroil on the shelf keeps me a fan

Granted I’m not dealing with flood damage

Have you gotten to setting up a battery charger electrolysis setup?

I made a rinkydink electrolysis tank from a 27 gallon tote. I filled it with 15 gallons of water with 1 cup of washing soda mixed in. a piece of coat hanger served as the negative connection to the piece of steel being treated. On the positive side I used an old crank handle from a load-handler that I'd discarded years ago. I found that connecting the trickle charger to a 12 volt automobile battery, and then running jumper cables from the battery to the anode and cathode contacts in the tank, gave the best results. . It's not the fastest process, but it works surprisingly well. I made sure to degrease items to be treated as well as possible and to hit them with a brass brush and a garden hose afterward, before a final cleaning with dish detergent and water, followed by a hit with a heat gun to keep flash rust from forming.

I treated a 3/8" x 18" x18" pizza steel, an old rusted Craftsman bench vise, a corroded old box end wrench, and as a finale, a Silky Hayauchi blade. I was especially happy with how the saw blade worked out.

My best results were achieved over a 48 hour soak in the tank, but since there is only about 5 minutes of work involved to connect the pieces being treated, it really is a "set it, and forget it" operation.