I’ve got one of those big red 20-gallon parts washers. You know the one. I mostly clean bicyle parts, and most bicycle lubricants are not petroleum-based. They’re usually plant or wax-based. The idea is that a water-based degreaser, like Simple Green, should have no problem cleaning the stuff. My experience is that Simple Green is much better at rusting my parts washer than it is at actually washing parts. It never really got my bike parts clean, and now I’m left with a very rusty old parts washer.

I plan on refurbishing this machine, which is a fair amount of effort, but that puts me right back at square one; An imperfect system, susceptible to rust, with a solvent that doesn’t really clean anything.

I’m considering moving to a petroleum-based solvent of some kind, like diesel. Or getting five gallons of that Saf-T-Clean stuff, assuming it’s still available.

My main concerns are:

1. Fire hazard.
2. The fumes shouldn’t give me cancer or kill too many brain cells.
3. It actually cleans parts.

What solvent are you using in your parts washer?