My own solvent tank, well sorta…
One of the things I like to do in my shop (garage) is to clean off nasty, dirty, greasy parts. I had looked into getting a solvent tank to put in my garage. But they can cost a pretty penny. They have some home mechanic versions of this that runs about $40-$60…but that’s still out of my broke-butt budget.
So rather than shelling out that kind of cash, I went to Wal-Mart to get some degreaser and a plastic bin. This Orange Degreaser is only about $4.00 for this large container. I found it in the automotive area, near the car wash detergents and Simple Green.
This stuff is pretty strong so I added a bit of water to dilute it, funny thing is, even with water, this stuff was still potent! So I took of Priscilla’s XTR chain and placed it in the solution in the plastic container. I let it sit there for a few minutes. From this picture, the solution is still pretty clear.
Then about 5 minutes into it, it started to show that the degreaser was breaking down the muck on the chain. I then started scrubbing the chain and check out how dark the solution is…
This is after 10 minutes of marinading in the stuff, and a few scrub jobs, now that’ a clean chain!
I’d totally recommend saving a few bucks and buying this degreaser. This stuff is cheaper than what you would find at the shop.
Thanks for the tip, it’s always good to have some kind of solvent tank around… looks like your chain came out nice and clean!
That’s funny, I have the same setup right down to the plastic tub. I’m still working through a jug of the regular Greased Lightning Multipurpose though. Stuff works great. I’ll have to try the Orange Blast when I run out.
$4 for Greased Lightning, count me in!
I have also found that if you put some degreaser in a large gatorade bottle and shake it up with the chain inside it does a great job without much mess.
One note of warning…I’ve worked as a mechanic in a bike shop for years, and when I do overhauls on bikes, I usually prefer to spray the chain with a solvent/degreaser (like White Lightning). When you soak a chain in a degreaser like above, it can eat away at the lubrication between the links themselves, to the point where you can never re-lubricate it. It might look prettier, but you can get chain suck when riding, which no one wants to deal with.
Other than that, though, I use that type of degreaser to clean brakes, derailleurs, cranks, pedals, etc, with no problems, you just need to be sure not to leave them in the solvent too long.
I will definitely make use of this tip. Thanks for posting this!
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