Rusty Bolt Test

[AF1]

*Saw this on another site and thought I would share. Going to get sprayer out now and mix it up!

Results of break out torque on rusted nuts.

penetrating oil average load

none 516 lbs
WD-40 238 lbs
PB Blaster 214 lbs
Liquid Wrench 127 lbs
Kano Kroil 106 lbs
ATF Acetone mix 53 lbs

ATF Acetone mix ia home brew of 50-50 Automatic transmission fluid and acetone.

These were tests done by Machinist"s Workshop magazine

 

[GlenIdaho]

Hi Paul;

Interesting info. Doesn't say much for the value of some of the well known products. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

[john_Bud]

Just remember that acetone is highly flammable. That high rate of evaporation is what transports the atf into the threads, just be careful of the flames and if you tried heat before it may flame up on ya.

 

[Hobo,NC]

Been using ATF, Diesel, and Acetone

40% ATF
40% Diesel
20% Acetone

Works better than anything I have ever used... If I only had one thing I would take the Diesel...

 

[Hayburner]

I've been using the ATF/Acetone mix for awhile now...seems to do much better than store bought brands. Used it today to press a bolt seized in a bushing. By the time I got it out, I could see it had penetrated through the entire bushing. I keep mine in an old contact saline bottle clearly labeled. Works good to squirt a little where needed.

I'll have to try some with a diesel mix and see how it works.

 

[MarkB_MI]

Yes, that "test" has been bouncing around on the net for years and has ended up here many times before. I don't know that this is a hoax, but it's suspicious as hell. Has anyone seen the actual article? All I've ever seen are references to it.

What's the point of mixing acetone with the transmission fluid? Acetone evaporates quickly and is highly flammable. I've seen some posts where guys tried to make this mix and couldn't get the two to mix. Why not just mix ATF with some other solvent that's not so volatile? For that matter, how would straight ATF fair?

How was this test actually done? How can you get consistent "rusty bolts"? Anyone who has ever taken apart rusted equipment knows every fastener is different: One bolt might come right out and the one next to it will snap. The only way I know to create a valid test would be to expose a bunch of fasteners to a corrosive environment; even then you would have a lot of variation. You'd have to do dozens of tests and average them to get a valid result.

Why are the results in pounds? Torque is measured in foot-pounds, not pounds. Really, how did they run this test?

Why, of all the homegrown concoctions did they ONLY choose ATF/acetone? What about straight motor oil? How about wintergreen oil, a very popular homebrew penetrating oil?

I say bogus. Use what you like, but for removing rusted fasteners NOTHING beats the Hot Wrench.

 

[mike delaney]

We use pb blaster at work, and it has suprised me a few times on how well it works. We can't use the homemade mix due to saftey reasons. Mike

 

[36 Coupe]

A fellow who worked blending AFT said it was 20 weight oil,red dye and some seal conditioners.The AFT acetone blend has been used to clean gun barrels.A book I have on boat building warns that acetone will hurt your skin big time.Wintergreen oil is mentioned in old machinery books.A synthetic is used now in MMO.Liquid Wrench was in use before WD40.Kerosene would be better than acetone if you want to home brew penetrating oil.I use Kroil and notice that rust starts mixing with the Kroil as soon as its applied.

 

[john_Bud]

(quoted from post at 05:40:23 12/25/10) Y

What's the point of mixing acetone with the transmission fluid? Acetone evaporates quickly and is highly flammable. I've seen some posts where guys tried to make this mix and couldn't get the two to mix. Why not just mix ATF with some other solvent that's not so volatile? For that matter, how would straight ATF fair?

I'll try to give an answer, but first a question. Have you ever spilled coffee and not noticed until it dried? Try to remember, the spill area would have been a pretty uniform light brown, but the outside edge would have been much darker to the point of being almost black. If you ran your finger over the edge, it would have stood proud of the surface enough to feel. How did that happen? It's the fluid dynamics of transport properties. The higher the rate of evaporation, the FASTER the transport of material to the edge. A stuck nut sprayed with stuff has 2 edges, the outside edge where the stuff drips off and the inside edge where the rusty threads are located. The higher the evaporation rate (up to some point) the more effective the transport of the "other stuff" in the liquid to the edges. We don't care about the outside edge, but the inside edge is critical! Transport the lube there and the nut comes off with less effort.

2nd reason for the acetone is to wet the small cracks. Once an area is wet, it can have the lube transported into it.

 

[Brian Allen]

OK
I'm going to try this when I get back home!
Thanks
Brian

 

[crazylocha]

Reminds me of an experiment in my hydrodynamics/fluid dyn. class.

Professor gave us 10 beakers filled with fluid. Instructions were written on board very clearly-"Find the fluid that had the fastest capillary rise in pipette and report findings. Fastest fluid gets an A, everyone else a D"

Talk about motivation. Prof would only say "Don't blow anything up!" and point to the board while going back to his crossword.

Talk about a flurry in the room. 45 minutes went by and most of were comparing notes and noticing all our times were identical on the substances. hmmmppfffttt. One of my neighbors noticed a very abhorrent time. quarter of time that it should have been, couldn't immediately repeat it. Most of the fluids were heavier oily types, water, and similar. End of class came up and we asked prof if we could hang for little bit and see if we could figure out what problem was. He mumbled and pointed to his unfinished crossword and went back to it. So we plugged away. Nearing the end of the crossword I went back for one more set of examples and grabbed the bottle of alcohol sitting with them to clean out pipettes. Then it hit me. Just for giggles, tried it in the cap tube, and VIOLA! Mutten head had tested the alcohol still in a pipette by mistake. we both recorded it and handed it in at same time. Professor looked up and harummppffeedd at us. Wrote F in classic large red pen on both. We immediately objected because the alcohol was on the table with the rest of the test fluids and it was liquid, as the board stated. He grinned, said Good job, changed them to A-, only because it took us both, but worthy of an A.

Fast forward to end of class finals, Professor hands out the test, tells us to start the test when we wanted and there was an extra credit behind the curtain if we wanted a go at it, take a peek. This guy was notorious for his tests being thoroughly maddeningly difficult. Flipped open test, front page says to read all questions before answering. So I did. Last 2 questions, What is your name, what is the time on the clock on the wall. Turn in your test after answering these two questions only. I did. 2 questions and done, loved it. Extra credit- what day of week was it. Woohoo. (yes I got that right too ) :roll:

That man made it soo much fun to learn how and why capillary fluid motion works like it does and all fluid behaviors have a meaning and a mind of their own.

Thanks JohnB, I haven't thought about that in years. Make a lot of sense why the acetone works so much better than the fish oil based stuff.

 

[john_Bud]

(quoted from post at 22:55:23 12/27/10)
That man made it soo much fun to learn how and why capillary fluid motion works like it does and all fluid behaviors have a meaning and a mind of their own.

Thanks JohnB, I haven't thought about that in years. Make a lot of sense why the acetone works so much better than the fish oil based stuff.

Rrrrrrr (shuddering). I had your prof's evil twisted twin for fluids. I recall when he handed back mid-terms (our first test or even scored home work and after the last drop day) and as I walked up he announced the score "36!" . I'm thinking, ouch! that was out of 200 points plus 20 points extra credit. To quiet the snickering in class he pointed out that I had the high score and the only A out of 35 students. Oh yeah, next score was a 22 and the rest were teens and single digits. Not much joy in mud-ville that day!