Tests reveal that a mixture of vegetable oil with 10 percent acetone, found in nail polish remover and paint thinners, works as well to free rusted bolts as WD 40. And it costs about one-tenth of the price.Â
Interesting, but who uses WD-40 to free rusted bolts? I go to PB Blaster if something is so stuck that it feels like it will break. Works great. WD-40 is better for bicycle chains, gears, and cables, and for displacing water. So saying VO and acetone work as well as WD-40 isn’t saying much. Test it against PB Blaster and Liquid Wrench if you want to prove something.
Please tell me what the dashed lines in some of the boxes in your chart signifies. Do they mean that you didn’t try to loosen the fastener for some strange reason? or do they mean that you tried to loosen them and there was no RESISTANCE? or do they mean that you tried to loosen the fastener and and it could not be loosened? Thanks
Remind me not to go to Drexel. Is this why mechanics look at machines and wonder what the hell the engineer was thinking? This is inconclusive and uncontrolled. If you were to test these nut-bolt combinations to determine if there even was a consistent prevailing torque, I could give this some weight. WD has never been the standard for effective penetrating agents, it’s a passable temporary surface protectant and that’s about it, but if you’ve never turned a wrench in your life, and apparently that’s what passes for engineering students now, you use it like it was the gold standard. My Father and grandfather used Liquid Wrench, his father used kerosene, and I use PB Blaster for no other reason than it’s consistently available, as were the others. Penetrant wasn’t designed back when people did jobs with whatever was at hand to be easily replaceable in performance with less-expensive alternatives already at hand, it was designed to be worth the premium by working better, faster.
Thanks for this insight. I think what might be missing in this discussion is that this was a test of materials that are known to be available in developing countries in shops that might not be as well stocked as their developed-world counterparts. The kerosene that your great grandfather used would be worth studying, but you would have to weigh its utility against its cost, especially in places where kerosene is used regularly in cooking and lighting.
Although the article is good, I have to say that I don’t buy penetrating oil by the litre, which makes it a poor comparison. I have a small can of WD40 that I use, which is relatively cheap. It is more hassle and expense to get neat acetone outside of a lab (I spent over a quarter century in one) For something smaller, I would just boil it in oil for a while.
Not very useful, nor very well designed. You need to test all lubricants with all bolt sizes to have useful comparisons. All this test shows is (possibly) the optimal VO and acetone mix. But the ATF and acetone mix, which is a commonly used homemade penetrating oil, is not well represented. The normally used AFT and acetone mix is 50/50. This test would be of some use if various concentrations of AFT and acetone were used, again on all bold sizes.
Only thing I wonder(For practical purposes – mine.) is how long the penetrating oils were allowed to soak into the nuts/bolts, prior to removal?
For those who don’t spend much time at grocery or drug stores, vegetable oil and acetone are available at many, certainly the big ones, of either(Must be cheap, I bought some.). For acetone(Lots of reasons to have a bottle around.), look in the finger nail polish & removal section. Vegetable oil is often in baking needs aisle, or maybe condiments.
I have tried. Loctite, Plus Gas, Freeze, WD 40 , WD 40 SPecialist Blue Works, WD 40, Fast Release specialist , PB Blaster, BG In force, Bilt Hamber Ferrasol, Liquid Wrench, Kano, Lidil own brand, Aldi Own brand, Halfords, Shock Release, 3-in 1, Sea Foam Deep Creep, Wurth Rost Off, Wurth Rost off Ice, Normfest Ultra Crack, but the best is the home brew of 50:50 Acetone and ATF. I am sorry if I my spelling is a bit off, but the vapors of trying all these.
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Interesting, but who uses WD-40 to free rusted bolts? I go to PB Blaster if something is so stuck that it feels like it will break. Works great. WD-40 is better for bicycle chains, gears, and cables, and for displacing water. So saying VO and acetone work as well as WD-40 isn’t saying much. Test it against PB Blaster and Liquid Wrench if you want to prove something.
Please tell me what the dashed lines in some of the boxes in your chart signifies. Do they mean that you didn’t try to loosen the fastener for some strange reason? or do they mean that you tried to loosen them and there was no RESISTANCE? or do they mean that you tried to loosen the fastener and and it could not be loosened? Thanks
Remind me not to go to Drexel. Is this why mechanics look at machines and wonder what the hell the engineer was thinking? This is inconclusive and uncontrolled. If you were to test these nut-bolt combinations to determine if there even was a consistent prevailing torque, I could give this some weight. WD has never been the standard for effective penetrating agents, it’s a passable temporary surface protectant and that’s about it, but if you’ve never turned a wrench in your life, and apparently that’s what passes for engineering students now, you use it like it was the gold standard. My Father and grandfather used Liquid Wrench, his father used kerosene, and I use PB Blaster for no other reason than it’s consistently available, as were the others. Penetrant wasn’t designed back when people did jobs with whatever was at hand to be easily replaceable in performance with less-expensive alternatives already at hand, it was designed to be worth the premium by working better, faster.
Thanks for this insight. I think what might be missing in this discussion is that this was a test of materials that are known to be available in developing countries in shops that might not be as well stocked as their developed-world counterparts. The kerosene that your great grandfather used would be worth studying, but you would have to weigh its utility against its cost, especially in places where kerosene is used regularly in cooking and lighting.
Although the article is good, I have to say that I don’t buy penetrating oil by the litre, which makes it a poor comparison. I have a small can of WD40 that I use, which is relatively cheap. It is more hassle and expense to get neat acetone outside of a lab (I spent over a quarter century in one) For something smaller, I would just boil it in oil for a while.
Not very useful, nor very well designed. You need to test all lubricants with all bolt sizes to have useful comparisons. All this test shows is (possibly) the optimal VO and acetone mix. But the ATF and acetone mix, which is a commonly used homemade penetrating oil, is not well represented. The normally used AFT and acetone mix is 50/50. This test would be of some use if various concentrations of AFT and acetone were used, again on all bold sizes.
Great information! I will try tomorrow.
Only thing I wonder(For practical purposes – mine.) is how long the penetrating oils were allowed to soak into the nuts/bolts, prior to removal?
For those who don’t spend much time at grocery or drug stores, vegetable oil and acetone are available at many, certainly the big ones, of either(Must be cheap, I bought some.). For acetone(Lots of reasons to have a bottle around.), look in the finger nail polish & removal section. Vegetable oil is often in baking needs aisle, or maybe condiments.
I have tried. Loctite, Plus Gas, Freeze, WD 40 , WD 40 SPecialist Blue Works, WD 40, Fast Release specialist , PB Blaster, BG In force, Bilt Hamber Ferrasol, Liquid Wrench, Kano, Lidil own brand, Aldi Own brand, Halfords, Shock Release, 3-in 1, Sea Foam Deep Creep, Wurth Rost Off, Wurth Rost off Ice, Normfest Ultra Crack, but the best is the home brew of 50:50 Acetone and ATF. I am sorry if I my spelling is a bit off, but the vapors of trying all these.
Lo ve your ideas