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As it pertains to cleaning and maintaining our machines, what is the difference between those chemicals? Is any one better suited for the cleaning task than the others? Any alternatives that should be considered instead (such as Kerosene)?

heathicus wrote:As it pertains to cleaning and maintaining our machines, what is the difference between those chemicals? Is any one better suited for the cleaning task than the others? Any alternatives that should be considered instead (such as Kerosene)?

Whichever you have a surplus of. Outdoor use is recommended. I like lacquer thinner as a last 'rinse'( Acetone a close second choice!).

I don't know - even though I use all of time from time to time. Right now I have acetone, mineral spirits and denatured alcohol in the shop.

It seems to me that of these alcohol leaves the least residue.

beeg wrote:I wood think that mineral spirits wood be the cheapest and safest to use.

Over the years in a number of occupations I have used a wide range of solvents, some really scary...
For doing Shopsmith work I will vote mineral spirits with beeg...
For something really hard to cut I keep spray cans of carb cleaner. Use outdoors...


.

I love carb cleaner (in the right application), spray on and it seems to take off the gnarliest junk and dries without any apparent residue.

I think the question to be asked is "what are you cleaning?" Each has its own place.

It really depends on what you are cleaning. Back in my chemistry set days the combination of acetone and denatured alcholol was considered the closest thing to a universal solvent. Mineral spirits works great on many paint, dye, grease products. But you must be careful with what will be cleaned off and what will be dissolved. The acetone will damage many plastic products. Alcohol will affect shellac based finishes. So like it says in the instructions (like I read instructions ) try it on a small hidden area first.
Naptha is another great Mineral Spirit type solvent, it flashes off almost immediately; however, it has a low ignition point.
Perhaps because I have a chemistry background I tend to grab an approprate solvent on the first or second try. But all solvents are good, if they are being used on the correct products.

What am I cleaning? Aluminum table surfaces (Shopsmiths, my Craftsman table saw), cast iron (jointer, older SS bandsaw table), etc. When I stored my tools, I put a coat of Johnson's Paste wax on everything cast iron and just left it. No buffing. I don't recall putting anything on the aluminum surfaces. Although I've been using them a little to build shelves and such in the shop, I haven't yet given them a thorough cleaning and re-waxing/buffing.

Talking about JPW (Sc Johnson Paste Wax), I communicated with the company and it is not available in Canada anymore, they never told me why ....
I thought I was going to ask some friends of mine who are in Florida during winter, but I just learn that they travel by plane now and you cannot bring stuff like that on a plane anymore for whatever reasons that we will not go into.
So I will have to order, I guess.

camerio wrote:Talking about JPW (Sc Johnson Paste Wax), I communicated with the company and it is not available in Canada anymore, they never told me why ....
I thought I was going to ask some friends of mine who are in Florida during winter, but I just learn that they travel by plane now and you cannot bring stuff like that on a plane anymore for whatever reasons that we will not go into.
So I will have to order, I guess.

Any reason they cannot 'mail' it to you? Identify it as machine tool preservative/lubricant.