Vinegar is great for stripping rust but lye based cleaner (like yellow can of easy off) is what you want for stripping gunk.
Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)
- Thread starter mainewoods
- Start date
Help Support Arborist Forum:
My grandmaw used to make lye soap, I have taken baths with lye soap. I have used oven cleaner to clean grease off engine blocks, no doubt it works, I just dont like the ideal of using lye on something I eat off of.
Lye is very harsh for sure, but it washes off completely with soap and water.
When I pull iron out of my lye tank I need to wash my hands immediately or my skin starts to burn.
I restored a whole chain that was mostly rusted solid with vinegar. Chain works good now and the bar cleaned up great aswell. My guy sharpened it and he couldn't tell it was froze up from rust. Couldn't believe the power vinegar has.
Vinegar is amazing.
Full strength vinegar will actually dissolve cast iron. If you leave a piece in it for a few months it will crumble.
Full strength vinegar will actually dissolve cast iron. If you leave a piece in it for a few months it will crumble.
Lye is sodium hydroxide, and will be cleaned off with water, like many other harsh detergents. There is even food grade lye (!) used in the preservation and preparation of things that people eat!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/trav...fisk) preserved,Sweden, and parts of Finland.
Philbert
We had snow on the ground here since Jan 1, then last week it started to melt down is spots, then is snowed again and it was 10*F and very windy this morning ... and I have Robins in the backyard ... with temps in the teens and complete snow cover!
I don't know what is going on! Maybe they got used to the prior warmer years?
I don't know what is going on! Maybe they got used to the prior warmer years?
For those who haven't had lutefisk (which I am assuming is most of you), it is actually quite tasty! You can dip it in drawn butter or cover it with cream sauce.
Stinks the whole building to high hell when it is being cooked and that is enough to turn many folks off. You just about have to plug your nose.
Out local lutefisk feed (properly pronounced lute-fisk, not luda-fisk) has been cancelled due to covid for the past two winters but I will definitely go when they reopen. They also offer Swedish meatballs and many other Scandinavian foods.
Stinks the whole building to high hell when it is being cooked and that is enough to turn many folks off. You just about have to plug your nose.
Out local lutefisk feed (properly pronounced lute-fisk, not luda-fisk) has been cancelled due to covid for the past two winters but I will definitely go when they reopen. They also offer Swedish meatballs and many other Scandinavian foods.
Just scrounged 2pk of chains off ebay for 1.25$ plus 10$ shipping.
Woodsman_26
ArboristSite Member
Got a new work truck. It should be alot more efficient at hauling since I built this removable firewood box for it.
husqvarna257
ArboristSite Guru
Yea I'll try that I was afraid of the OWB I've seen it eat nails from a skid. I've used it to dispose of Dead birds and a racoon the dog got. Not to mention what it did to 2 old hard drives we had. I got the griddle at a tag sale so when i was scrubbing it I could see letters trying to come up. They did and it was "made in China" oh well.
I was thinking that or sandblasting never knew it changed it altogether.
Nice! Always cool to find a deal.
Todays lye is sodium hydroxide, commonly called caustic soda and is made from a salt. Take a engine block to a machine shop and have it vatted and caustic soda is whats used to clean it. Traditional lye was made from wood ash and was potassium hydroxide. And yes, it is used, I presume both types, in the preservation and preparing of food.
We've had at least one robin pretty much all winter. And they've stuck around occasionally in past winters. Our share of cold and snow as well.
I did that once, when I was down in my rust removal rabbit hole. I believe that oak ashes were preferred (?). But I just took a few scoops from our fireplace insert, mixed it with a random amount of water, and dropped in a greasy chain.
An oil slick formed at the top, but it did not get the chain as clean as the commercial degreaser. I have no idea what the ph or effective concentration of my solution was: just ‘proof of concept’ experimentation.
I also bought a container of ‘Pure Lye’ from the drain cleaning aisle of a local home center. Hard to dissolve the flakes in room temperature water.
Never tried the old ‘Red Devil’ lye that used to be sold at hardware stores.
I spoke to a chemist at ZEP, via their 1-800 consumer help line, and he convinced me that the commercial degreasers are a better choice for chains, because they contain a variety of cleaners, surfactants, etc., for different types of dirt. And they are reasonably affordable. I still prefer the ones that list ‘sodium hydroxide’ on the label.
Philbert
“In Soap Making: Lye is mixed with water to create a lye solution. Lye solution, when mixed with fats and oils, will cause a chemical reaction called saponification (fancy for soap). The result of saponification is beautiful handmade soap.
Food uses of sodium hydroxide include washing or chemical peeling of fruits and vegetables, chocolate and cocoa processing, caramel coloring production, poultry scalding, soft drink processing, and thickening ice cream. Olives are often soaked in sodium hydroxide for softening; Pretzels and German lye rolls are glazed with a sodium hydroxide solution before baking to make them crisp.“
Philbert
Food uses of sodium hydroxide include washing or chemical peeling of fruits and vegetables, chocolate and cocoa processing, caramel coloring production, poultry scalding, soft drink processing, and thickening ice cream. Olives are often soaked in sodium hydroxide for softening; Pretzels and German lye rolls are glazed with a sodium hydroxide solution before baking to make them crisp.“
Philbert
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
I give up. I know once I find out what OWB means I'll slap my head for being stupid but the internet gives "Over the Waist Band" a type of gun holster and "Old White Bastard" meaning me I guess as the best meanings. So what is it.
