Nuts and Bolts

[willy]

Anyon know of a slick way to get a BUNCH (like 10 coffee cans full) of nuts, bolts, studs, and washers clean with minimal labor?

[Richard]

a plastic bead blaster would do the trick.
we have one at work and it cleans rust and dirt off in no time, if you could find someone that had a blaster you could use
you would need to put a handful in a cup that had lots of holes in it. this would let the plastic media blast threw the cup with the nuts and bolts in it & as you blasted you would shake and turn the parts so that everythings gets blasted. blow off the excess dust and blast another cup full till you had them all clean
hope this helps , this is the fastest way I know of


.............. Richard

[fabricator]

What is it that needs to be cleaned off; grease,rust,etc?

[ctrhenry]

soak them in diesel,

[Rubiconmike]

Ya or keraseen.

[Flyingpig]

Buy new ones?

[willy]

Buy new ones?

That would work for the most part I usually do buy new ones - thats why I have 10 can full of used ones - guess I'm too cheap to throw some stuff away
Most of the ones I want to clean are either rusty or caked with grease. there are some engine bolts, although I usually throw away stock stuff and replace with ARP bolts - those get cleaned by hand. Some of the engine bolts I keep for a cheap claimer motor. There are a bunch of body bolts for fenders and such that I would like to clean that are rusty and have paint on them.

[Paul Seaman]

a parts tumbler is really slick with a small amount of dish detergent and water it shakes it rubs off the grit until the parts are clean. The one I I have seen looked like a minature concrete mixer and it shook like an ultrasonic scrubber.

Very cool by the way.



Good Thread

[willy]

a parts tumbler is really slick with a small amount of dish detergent and water it shakes it rubs off the grit until the parts are clean. The one I I have seen looked like a minature concrete mixer and it shook like an ultrasonic scrubber.

Very cool by the way.



Good Thread

Any idea where I could find one of those - sounds like that might be the ticket. Thanks for your Help!

[Bodybagger]

Use this machine with this abrasive media in it.

It works wonders on screws and bolts. Smoothly cleans oxidized metal. Only problems are that it doesn't really clean the internal threads and it won't clean grease. If they have dried grease, wash them in kerosene first.

Really cleans external threads good.

I suppose if you were really brave, you could use this media along with quart of kerosene, but that sounds like begging for a fire.

[Chuck U&R]

Throw 'em all in a cement mixer.
Add a couple gallons of water, some of that green cleaner and a shovel or two
of gravel.
Drink beer.
Check progress after each beer or two.

[willy]

Use this machine with this abrasive media in it.

It works wonders on screws and bolts. Smoothly cleans oxidized metal. Only problems are that it doesn't really clean the internal threads and it won't clean grease. If they have dried grease, wash them in kerosene first.

Really cleans external threads good.

I suppose if you were really brave, you could use this media along with quart of kerosene, but that sounds like begging for a fire.

Thanks for the info - I'll try one of those out.

[willy]

Throw 'em all in a cement mixer.
Add a couple gallons of water, some of that green cleaner and a shovel or two
of gravel.
Drink beer.
Check progress after each beer or two.

I must say I like the way you think

[CWB]

get a 5 gallon bucket of hydrochloric acid to dunk them in. the acid will dissolve any non-metal it touches so be careful of getting it on yourself, but overnight in that stuff will eat away paint, grease, grime, soft chrome, silicone, all kinds of plastics and even wood if its attached. for small parts i have a small bucket with holes in the bottom to hold them and big parts i just dangle in attached to baling wire. just make sure you rinse with water thoroughly after you pull them out to neutralize the acid, and be careful not to get any on anything non metal you want to keep...including yourself

[willy]

get a 5 gallon bucket of hydrochloric acid to dunk them in. the acid will dissolve any non-metal it touches so be careful of getting it on yourself, but overnight in that stuff will eat away paint, grease, grime, soft chrome, silicone, all kinds of plastics and even wood if its attached. for small parts i have a small bucket with holes in the bottom to hold them and big parts i just dangle in attached to baling wire. just make sure you rinse with water thoroughly after you pull them out to neutralize the acid, and be careful not to get any on anything non metal you want to keep...including yourself

Does that give off any harmfull fumes? Also, how is a guy suppose to dispose of the used acid? Thanks for the reply!