[Farmall] cleaning solvents...steam clean

[John Wilkens]

Morning Bob!   Several years ago I spent a whopping $50 for an old portable 
oil fired steam cleaner that I use now quite a bit.  I had to weld up some 
cracks in the coils that froze when somebody forgot to drain the system one 
winter.  It works on the water pressure in the hose and steam pressure that 
builds up (not over 175 lbs. psi).  The steam cleaner will remove almost 
any hard grease---if you have all day to wait for it to soften up!  I 
always use my pressure washer (3000 psi) to knock off the bulk of the dirt 
and grease--resorting to scraping the really tough stuff.  Mostly use some 
"pressure washer solvent" with the steam cleaner as a final step before 
painting to remove any oil film.  That's about the only thing the solvent 
is good for in my experience.  I've heard that spraying down a piece of 
equipment with diesel and letting it soak in for several days is effective 
for removing the old baked on grease.  Haven't tried that yet.  Painting a 
tractor would be such a pleasure if someone would just come up with a 
formula to make dirt and grease disappear with the flick of a stick!   One 
thing to mention is if you have a good pressure washer a VERY worthwhile 
assessory is a turbo nozzle.  Really knocks the dirt off fast.  I guess 
they make a high pressure hot water/steam cleaner that would probably word 
great, but that's way beyond my tractor budget!    John Wilkens



At 06:43 AM 08/27/2004, you wrote:
>I have a Steam Jenny that I bought at a sale for
>$12.50 and have been using it a bit and like it.  I is
>not a total repalcement for solvents or oven cleaner
>though.  Mine is oil fired so to use it you have to
>fill it with fuel, plug it in to 110V AC, and hook up
>a water hose.  You can also put soap in the dispensor
>if you like.  My best results have been treating the
>part to be cleaned with the "purple stuff" degreaser
>or oven cleaner then steam it off.  The heat does a
>lot to melt away the grease.  You must be very careful
>when using the steam cleaner.  I quickly learned not
>to spray into blind corners because the hot water
>comes back on me! OUCH! I am working on cleaning up my
>steam engine now and nothing seems to work good on
>that.  It has 99yrs worth of grease that just won't
>come off.  Much of it is steam cylinder oil that is
>meant to withstand high temps though.  Now I'm soaking
>the areas with diesel hoping it will soften the rock
>hard grease.
>
> >
> > I wonder if any ATISers are using hot steam
> > cleaning??
> >
> > Bob Holtzer
>
>
>=====
>Andy Glines
>Evansville, IN
>
>
>
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                    In the wide-open spaces of NE Oregon