I found the ultimate solvent today
 

Liquid propane. :fear:

We had a leaking fitting at work today and I was using my trusty crescent wrench to remove it. When I pulled it out to replace the o-ring some liquid propane poured out on my greasy wrench but it wasn't much so I got the fitting repaired and buttoned up. When I looked down at the wrench, it was the cleanest tool I'd ever seen. All the surfaces were bright, no oil to be found, no residue of any type. It was damn cold though. :rolleyes:

Just thought I'd share.

Great
Now for the explosion of LP explosions from guys cleaning things.
I'll have to try it too.

lets see how it looks in a week

Ha, I suppose that could happen.

That LP was draining into a pit, where it promptly flashed, but I'd like to have seen the residue. Maybe I'll simulate the conditions and see what gets left behind on the floor.

What actually cleaned the wrench, the liquid propane or the ensuing flash fire?

Wait a minute, you're an engineer, why you wrenching? Lol

he means it evaporated stroked

I prefer nitroglycerin or hydrofloric acid

I used to work at a car wash while in school. Great tips. But they had bug cleaner that was just kerosene. Bugs, tar would wipe off smooth. Re wash the area and wax. Showroom shine every time. I did it on my personal vehicle and paint was never hurt. I'm sure leaving it on too long wouldn't be good. I'm no paint expert. Probably terrible to do.

freon works incredibly well as a cleaner also.

So don't a little dish soap and dihydrogen monoxide.

Propane is a byproduct of making gasoline. So why not use gas. Slightly less explosive

R-11 was a great solvent, used to dip copper fittings in it before soldering them in R-22 ac systems, then after work use R-12 to cool beer ....boy am I old

Flash means a phase change from liquid to gas. No fires here.

I took a new position as a district supervisor, now I have to actually do stuff.

Uh not exactly. Propane is a byproduct fron processing field/green natural gas into transmission quality gas. It's typically recovered in the demethanizer tower (on a cryo setup, anyway) and sold off with the NGL stream known as Y-grade. In some instances the operator may set a depropanizer tower to specifically strip the propane component from the gas stream for LP sales, but not always.

Why not gas? Well you could but this wasn't an intentional test, just something I noticed while at work. Also, LP can't exist in atmosphere, it flashes (boils) away because atmospheric. conditions on earth say so. Liquid gasoline does exist on earth. The beauty of the LP is that the hydrocarbon will cut the grease/oil and carry it away from the tool and then completely evaporate, kinda like brake cleaner.

/nerdmode

I'm pretty sure the bug and tar remover that you can buy at the local auto parts store essentially uses kerosene byproducts as its primary ingredient. My brother used to clean asphalt tar off the lower fenders of his car with diesel fuel. Generally it is not strong enough to harm paint, but it will strip off any wax that you had on there.

We should ban that dihydrogen monoxide stuff. Causes rusting and great damage. People die from it. Needs to go.