cosmoline, best way to remove it???

[john davey]

Title says it all, What is used to get this goop off of my lathe? Thanks, John...

[Trevor Rice]

WD-40 and plenty of paper towels.

[Roger Chandler]

Mineral Spirits work really well.......especially if you use a synthetic scrubber pad along with it....think Scotchbrite......[green] then wipe off with a little mineral spirits on a paper towel.........works great!

Good luck!

[Steve Jenkins]

I think kerosene works better than minspers and is cheaper than wd40

[Scott Hackler]

I always use acetone.

[Alan Trout]

Naptha is what I used when I was in the machine tool business. Just wear gloves. Tends to dry out your skin pretty bad.

[Ben Darrah]

All these work well. But remember if you use a solvent, you will need to reapply a rust preventative such as boeshield or woodworker lube, especially if you are turning wet wood.

[Harry Robinette]

Kerosene works great we used it in the military to remove the cosmoline off of everything. I mean everything I don't care if it was moved down the street it was first coated in cosmoline. The kerosene also doesn't bother any finishes the military uses.

[philip labre]

Citrol by Schaefer works great at cleaning equipment. Excellent degreaser and won't harm paint.

[Sam Whit]

Hair dryer or heat gun. No joke. Cosmoline melts at a Low temp.

[Greg Just]

Caution - almost everyone is recommending a flammable liquid to clean your lathe. Be real careful with the rags as you don't want to cause a fire by spontaneous combustion. Lay them out flat so they can dry before disposing....Just my 2 cents

[Greg Ladd]

To expand on what Ben stated: I cleaned some cosmoline off just yesterday with a rag sprayed with Boeshield; cleaned off the cosmoline and left a thin layer of rust protectant/lubricant behind.

Greg

[Jacob Muldowney]

I just got done removing about 15 pounds from a surplus rifle last week. I found Break Free Power Blast to work amazingly well. Best I have found. You can buy it just about any place that has a sporting goods department. Including walmart.

[Bill White]

Napalm! :)
Bill

[Tim Browne]

Let's not forget good old fashioned brake cleaner. I found it to be much faster than both acetone and mineral spirits.

[Sid Matheny]

Spray brake cleaner works best for me.

Sid

[Jason Roehl]

Caution - almost everyone is recommending a flammable liquid to clean your lathe. Be real careful with the rags as you don't want to cause a fire by spontaneous combustion. Lay them out flat so they can dry before disposing....Just my 2 cents

The solvents being recommended are all petroleum solvents, for the most part, which simply evaporates, actually cooling any rags/cloths containing them. The danger is in drying oils, which oxidize as the solvent in them evaporates--an exothermic reaction that leads to fire.

[David C. Roseman]

I'd go with mineral spirits or kerosene, and either wear cheap nitrile gloves or be sure to slather on plenty of hand cream after you're done. I would caution against acetone, naptha, brake cleaner, or any other "hot" solvent. Big risk that they will dull the enamel finish on the painted areas of the equipment.

David

[Michael Mahan]

Turpentine works well , is cheap , not as bad in the odor factor as other products listed above

[Stan Calow]

Simple Green.

[Michael Mahan]

Simple Green is water based & I think using a water based product on Cast Iron is not anything I want to do with my expensive machines .
Buy Everyone has their own process , YMMV

[Greg Just]

I have a personal friend that lost a house and dog because he didn't dispose of rags properly. Better to be safe than sorry.

[john davey]

Wow, thanks, I guess there are many ways to do this....John

[Jason Roehl]

I have a personal friend that lost a house and dog because he didn't dispose of rags properly. Better to be safe than sorry.

Sorry about your friend's house and dog, but those rags had tung oil, danish oil, boiled linseed oil or a stain that contained one of those on them. Not evaporative solvents like mineral spirits, naptha, kerosene, acetone, etc. Do a test with some rags in metal cans out in your driveway. You'll definitely get a result from one and not the other. There are a lot of guys on this forum who have way over-wired their shops at great expense to be "better safe than sorry". I prefer to think through what I'm doing than to always do something one way. What if you wiped up some pure sodium metal (okay, not likely to have that around) that had been stored in kerosene and then disposed of it in a can of water out of habit as is recommended for rags with drying oils on them?

[Michael Mahan]

I look at the solvent rags like I do the reactive oil rags & treat them all as a outside in a metal can .
I at least spread all cloths , rag , paper towels out to dry , evaporate , cure away from the house & any thing that can lead to a combustion in a safety is best protocol .
I feel there are no mistakes to be made when all are handled the same way .
there many finishing , treatment , restore products that the ingredients are real fuzzy on what is actually in the product .