Nice tip from Jeri – The semiconductor industry has been using freon style solvents for years, a similar process can be used to clean pinball machine parts (and likely other things).
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Interesting. I’ll have to try that. Would the dirt and dust evaporate with it, after it dissolves? It sounded like that’s what she said, but it seems like it would form a precipitant that would be left behind.
I wonder if butane or propane would work as solvents too. They are certainly a lot cheaper, and come out liquid if you dispense them upside-down! Great idea, Jeri! You rock.
Another good but room-temperature solvent for getting grease off delicate parts and even getting dark oil and grease stains out of black shirts is old-school dry cleaning fluid…banned in California, but still available at any auto parts store as electrical contact cleaner. It can also be mixed with wax to adjust its specific gravity all the way down to 1.5 so it sinks in water and you can make your own lava lamps!
Be careful of this stuff, R152a aka difluoroethane when burned creates hydrogen fluoride gas which is pretty toxic and really nasty. I had an accident with a flame and ended up breathing some of it. It created this extreme tingling sensation I would describe it as inhaling liquid sulfuric acid. It was not pretty, I cannot stress this enough be careful with flames around R152a.
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3M i believe adds a bittering agent to the stuff so as she said it deters people from huffing the stuff.
Comment by echoskope — June 4, 2010 @ 9:32 pm
Interesting. I’ll have to try that. Would the dirt and dust evaporate with it, after it dissolves? It sounded like that’s what she said, but it seems like it would form a precipitant that would be left behind.
Comment by Alexander Mills — June 4, 2010 @ 9:35 pm
I wonder if butane or propane would work as solvents too. They are certainly a lot cheaper, and come out liquid if you dispense them upside-down! Great idea, Jeri! You rock.
Another good but room-temperature solvent for getting grease off delicate parts and even getting dark oil and grease stains out of black shirts is old-school dry cleaning fluid…banned in California, but still available at any auto parts store as electrical contact cleaner. It can also be mixed with wax to adjust its specific gravity all the way down to 1.5 so it sinks in water and you can make your own lava lamps!
Comment by TechShop Jim — June 4, 2010 @ 10:31 pm
The dirt isn’t evaporating but it’s probably dissolving into the solvent and being blown away with the force of spray.
Comment by No One — June 5, 2010 @ 12:14 am
echoskope is correct. The awful smell comes from a bittering agent they add to the stuff to keep kids from huffing it.
Comment by Nick — June 5, 2010 @ 12:26 am
Be careful of this stuff, R152a aka difluoroethane when burned creates hydrogen fluoride gas which is pretty toxic and really nasty. I had an accident with a flame and ended up breathing some of it. It created this extreme tingling sensation I would describe it as inhaling liquid sulfuric acid. It was not pretty, I cannot stress this enough be careful with flames around R152a.
Comment by Kubun — June 5, 2010 @ 10:03 am