Aqueous Parts Washer Detergent - Aluminum Safe

[DouglasJRizzo]

Have you ever tried Awesome from the Dollar Tree? Should probably be diluted for what you are doing, it really is awesome. I found it when looking for something to take the black streaks off the sides of a trailer, not it's the go-to for anything that I don't want to deal with the warmth required for SG Crystal.

There's a Dollar Tree nearby, I'll have to check that out.

 

[Pete Deal]

Probably Simple Green Crystal. It's clear and doesn't smell. I bought it to use in my aqueous parts washer now we use it for everything, machine cleaning, ultrasonic, etc. Needs to be warm to be real effective but does work very well when it is. Doesn't leave residue on aluminum but does take some of the shiny off.

Well if it "takes some of the shiny off" then it's not acceptable. Dishwasher detergent does that.

 

[Mud]

Well if it "takes some of the shiny off" then it's not acceptable. Dishwasher detergent does that.

It does act like strong soap, makes things slippery. Try the Awesome.

 

[Ox]

Well if it "takes some of the shiny off" then it's not acceptable. Dishwasher detergent does that.

Well - how much "shiny" doo you have on your parts when they come out of the vibe?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[dkmc]

I picked up a Snap on pressure wash cabinet from the school bus garage. It has rust issues for sure. I asked them what soap they used in it and they showed me the container which says "Aluminum and Non-ferrous only, do not use with ferrous metals"
Hum......that explains that.

 

[Pete Deal]

Well - how much "shiny" doo you have on your parts when they come out of the vibe?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Well keep in mind the post is about parts washing and has gotten side tracked with tumbling discussion. Some good points made on tumbling but i am still primarily focused on parts washing in this thread.

The parts washed are sometimes tumbled and not shiny but also don’t want them tarnished. Machined parts that get washed I want to look shiny.

 

[Mud]

Machined parts that get washed I want to look shiny.

Maybe the stuff the truck washes use to keep tank trailers shiny? I have no idea what that is.

 

[DDoug]

Maybe the stuff the truck washes use to keep tank trailers shiny? I have no idea what that is.

"Toon Brite" for pontoon boats...I think it has some real nasty stuff in it though.

 

[Ox]

I have been running an outdated product from Progress Chemical - "L393".

Home - Progress Chemical

Customized Products Guaranteed Results Our Products Lab Services Keeping You Running, Without Fail Creators of vibratory finishing compounds and parts washing compounds for the metal parts industries. Progress Chemical offers liquid and powder vibratory finishing compounds and parts washing...

progresschemical.com

The cheat sheet has been taken off their site by now, but I am sure that they have a slightly updated version of the same today.

I got a few drums of it at auction, and have been running it for a few years, and will be for many more to come...

I have it in the worshers as well as the vibe, and I really like it BOTH places!
It doesn't foam up like the vibe fluids that I have had in the past, and my [Fe] parts can come out of the vibe and not need worshed necessarilly. There are a few parts that I leave as is, but most will go through my big worsher just so's they come out hot and will dry quickly. But they won't rust coming out of the vibe if left as is.

So - while it has a really good RI in it for the Fe products, much of what we run through the vibe is alum, and I don't notice any sticky film on those, like I have with other washer soaps in the past, so we ship our large alum parts straight from the vibe once they dry.

Used as a worsher fluid, parts have a great shelf life.
Again - no sticky.

But I cannot say that I have ever considered the effects on a shiny alum surface, but I don't think that it clouds it up.
I honestly can't say that we often have such an application tho ... ???


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[Comatose]

We use Alcojet in ours as well.

 

[Pete Deal]

I wanted to add an update to this post. I contacted Alconox (mfr of various different specialty detergents) and they sent me some samples. They recommended one of their detergents called "Luminox". It's a PH neutral detergent. They also sent me a few samples of some of their other detergents. Anyway, the Luminox does a good job taking off coolant residue and machined Aluminum parts come out untarnished and looking very nice. Buying Alconox detergents is tricky because their products are all named similar names. The first attempt at buying what I wanted I ordered the wrong thing.

This "Luminox" detergent does not do a great job of taking tumbling residue off so I will be working on that problem buy trying some synthetic media as suggested earlier in this post.

 

[Comatose]

We find that a quick rinse immediately when parts come out of the tumbler removes residue easily, and if you allow it to dry then try to take it off it's nearly impossible. A dipping tank of water next to your tumbler may solve the issue.

 

[Pete Deal]

We find that a quick rinse immediately when parts come out of the tumbler removes residue easily, and if you allow it to dry then try to take it off it's nearly impossible. A dipping tank of water next to your tumbler may solve the issue.

I always put the parts from the tumbler right into a bucket of clean water. Sometimes good sometimes not. I suppose it has to do with how clean the water is. I always start with clean water but run for varying amounts of time before changing.

I plan to try synthetic media for various reasons. I understand this rinses better and I think settles out of the water better. Just too busy to get to some of this stuff.

 

[neilho]

Triple water rinse does a much better job for me. The detergent is in the tumbler.

 

[Pete Deal]

Well, I repeat… this post was about a detergent to clean aluminum without tarnishing it. Not tumbling. Original problem solved.

 

[neilho]

Uh, yes, I seem to recall that you mentioned it once before, Pete.

Other people read this too, future folks, other people who don't know, wanderers of the net, whatever. They're part of this, too. My post was addressed more to them and to Comatose - I'm not presuming that it would work for you.

 

[Georgineer]

Washing soda leaves w a whitish residue ..one might check for how much soda is in the mix.

Sorry I'm late to the party - I seem to have missed this thread the first time round. From my reading it appears that most dishwasher tablets & powders contain a very high proportion of washing soda (sodium carbonate, soda ash, probably known by other names as well) because it's cheap and it's good at dealing with grease. Unfortunately it attacks and dissolves aluminium (giving off small quantities of hydrogen gas in the process). I presume that the black discoloration is a layer of alloying elements which don't get dissolved and remain firmly attached to what is left.

I imagine that a washing formulation containing no sodium carbonate would reduce or eliminate the discoloration. A low-foaming synthetic detergent such as Teepol or its US equivalent would be my first approach.

Incidentally, caustic soda (sodium hydroxide, soda lye...) attacks aluminium more vigorously and gives off significant amounts of hydrogen. In the mid-sixties my schoolmate and I were allowed to work unsupervised in the chem. lab one lunchtime (imagine that happening today!) and we filled two balloons with hydrogen from caustic soda and milk bottle tops. We tied labels to them and released them outside. His label was returned a couple of weeks later from about forty miles away. As far as I know, mine is still lying in the North Wales countryside waiting to be found.

George

 

[Pete Deal]

George,
Good info thanks.
The detergent that doesn’t discolor the aluminum is ph neutral. I think the reason the detergent that discolors the aluminum does a better job of cleaning off my tumbling residue off is that detergent actually disolves just a little bit of the aluminum and so takes the residue with it.

 

[F35Machinist]

I used to work in a place that used an industrial version of "Simple Green" - and it worked very well.

I would be curious to see if there is any brand of Simple Green that doesn't immediately tarnish aluminum.

 

[DouglasJRizzo]

@F35Machinist Never had much aluminum in there, it was majority steel and stainless.