The Stovebolt Forums Forums The Front Office The Greasy Spoon Brake Cleaner

Seems like I’m always out of this stuff when I need it. Thinking about buying it by the case. I’m not picky about brand or anything. Anyone found the best place to do this at the best price?

The house brand sold by Auto Zone seems to work as well as any of the brake cleaners I've used and the price is usually pretty reasonable. Be careful about using any type of brake cleaner in a hot environment like near the exhaust manifold on a running engine or near a torch flame. It can produce some extremely toxic fumes in those situations.

Have you considered using a refillable solvent sprayer? The initial cost is higher, but you can use any of several types of degreasers in this type of a spray can and buy the solvent a gallon or more at a time.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234284466583?

Mineral spirits, lacquer thinner, or alcohol can be purchased in gallon cans at the paint department at Walmart, and any of them work well in a refillable sprayer.

Jerry

What do you use it for to go through that much .I am with Jerry that stuff is one of the most hazard stuff that you can use .

You could go a hazard step above with carb cleaner or F.I. cleaner. Or get some really nasty stuff in nitromethane. Used to be an industrial cleaner before the race car guys found it.

I miss the days of putting my hands in the parts cleaner tank and after five minutes, they would be feeling what I can best describe as buzzing. These days the stuff is weak or water based. But that old stuff cleaned like nobodies business. And I'll probably pay for it with nerve system damage in my later years.

I don’t go through tons of brake cleaner. But I never seem to have it when I need it.

When I was a kid my dad was into working on radio and tv electronics, I also has a model train and slot cars. He would send me down to the corner drug store to get a quart of Carbon tetrachloride, that stuff was great for cleaning brass, silver, electrical contacts. It was banned and labeled as being a #1 high risk carcinogen. We also played with mercury in our bare hands, soaked our hands in leaded gasoline while cleaning parts, man I miss the good ol days. I always said I have a substance abuse problem but it's never been smoking, drinking, injecting.

Try Menards, if you have one in your area. They seem to be more reasonable the auto parts stores.

John

I can remember when Carbon Tet was sold as fire extinguisher fluid for the old hand pumped brass canister extinguishers. The fumes that stuff gave off when sprayed on a fire were epic! It worked by displacing oxygen and smothering the flames, just like CO2 does in more modern ones.
Jerry

It was used in the Dry Cleaning business. That’s how the feds found the lethality of the stuff. Many in the business died from exposure to it before it was banned.

It was also great for tapping threads in steel or stainless mixed with cutting oil. But it would gum up in aluminum and you could break a tap.

Don