cdntbone303
ArboristSite Operative
What you all use to get exterior of cylinders clean of sap/grease and all in between cooling fins?
Cylinder cleaning
- Thread starter cdntbone303
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Combination of ultrasonic cleaner and solvent tank is what I use.
Someone was boiling them with a dishwasher pod
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I use a US cleaner with Simple Green Aircraft cleaner. If after that the cylinder has stubborn stains around the exhaust area, I have a cheapo sand blaster filled with very fine glass beads that works extremely well.
SteveSr
Addicted to ArboristSite
Kerosene/diesel will remove 90% of the bar oil and sawdust but won't do much on organic stuff like tree sap. For that use a caustic cleaner like Simple Green. Soaking and heat helps.
Steel bucket with 4 Walmart dishwasher pods and water. Takes a couple hours of boiling and they come out like new
cdntbone303
ArboristSite Operative
I got about 60 cylinders soaking in simple green pro heavy duty and warm water see if that does anything. I know it does wonders on stuff covered in sap like covers and doesn’t damage paint or plastic if water is cold.
cdntbone303
ArboristSite Operative
I will try the boiling water and pods method if this doesn’t work
Regular Great Value pods, not the fancy ones. I know for a fact that the regular ones in the blue box work. Someone tried their more advanced brand and it turned the cylinders gray
cdntbone303
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Hope you get some before and after pics
cdntbone303
ArboristSite Operative
Before
After
After
cdntbone303
ArboristSite Operative
It got rid of a lot of the gunk, but not the staines on bare aluminum. Turn’t it a dark grey the aluminum so these Cascade brand packs are a no go if you don’t want them to turn colour
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Good experiment. Now I'm curious to see the results from the Great Value pods.
Tomos770
ArboristSite Guru
Try with diesel (fuel)....soak it over night....then scratch it with a old toothbrush...?
I follow that with a small brass brush to bring back a little sheen.
The blue Walmart pods take about 3 hours at a simmer to get one like that looking new. The only thing that usually is still black is underneath the exhaust flange.
I think different pods will also help bring back the aluminum color
cdntbone303
ArboristSite Operative
Im going to check in store. In Canada I only see the green walmart pods on their website. I tried a good 2-3 hour soak in simple green pro hd. Didn’t come out looking like new but did take off majorly of sap fried to fins. They are now clean but stained. Exaust ports still full of carbon
The aviation paint remover used to work really good on aluminum to clean/shine it up after the bulk of the grease/oil/carbon was removed using diesel/purple power. Just spray it on and let it sit for 3-4 minutes then rinse off, do not get paint remover on the liner. Simple green aviation aluminum cleaner works pretty good at brightening the aluminum used with a parts brush. I'll bet that lye/soda ash is the active cleaning agent in those cheaper tablets, I'd also assume any of the hard tablets should be the same formula.
Straight Mean Green or LA’s Totally Awesome in the ultrasonic will clean them like new also. Needs to be hot and takes several hours
