Penetrating Oil Mix

Just after the ratio mix for the ATF penetrating oil for rusty bolts
Many Thanks
Jim

Looks like vegetable oil is better than ATF.

WD 40 lubricating spray may have some low-cost, do-it-yourself competition: vegetable oil and acetone. A mixture of vegetable oil with 10 percent acetone, the active ingredient in nail polish remover and some paint thinners, works as well to free rusted bolts as WD 40. And it costs about one-tenth of the price. Add more acetone, up to 30 percent, and the mixture works even better than WD 40 and still costs about one quarter the price of the commercial spray.

That’s good news for people in rural developing areas where commercial lubricating sprays can be expensive, and vegetable oils are easy to find and even possible to make.

Engineering students at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Penn., made the discovery. They conducted side-by-side comparison tests of vegetable oil mixtures, WD-40 and automatic transmission fluid.

The impetus for their research was a collaboration between two key E4C members: Pat Delany, who is proving to be an idea factory at E4C, had the idea, and Alex Moseson, a professor of engineering at Drexel who develops technologies appropriate for emerging economies.

Moseson’s students tested Delany’s hunch that the vegetable mixture may work as well as the commercial spray, and they determined optimum formulas for performance and cost.

The test
The students placed 3/4” and 1-1/8” nuts and bolts in salt and sulfuric acid solutions for one week to rust. Then they applied penetrating oil mixtures and tested the bolts with a torque wrench.

Results
Vegetable oil with five percent acetone works as wells as automatic transmission fluid with five percent acetone (used ATF is sometimes substituted for penetrating oil in resource-poor areas). Increasing the acetone content to 10 to 30 percent boosts the mixture’s performance. At that concentration, you can free the seized bolt using less than half of the force that it takes with WD-40.

The bottom line, Moseson tells E4C, is that vegetable oil with 10 percent acetone is more effective at freeing seized bolts than WD-40, it’s as effective as ATF and acetone, and it is more widely available in rural developing areas and kinder to the planet both in manufacture and disposal.

Simple fact I think is if ATF and acetone were so darned good then someone would be selling it in a spray can.

I think the reason is ATF and acetone attack paintwork so only good for restricted jobs while WD40 etc wipes off.

Maybe the vegetable oil trick might solve this problem - marketing opportunity?

Lang

Think U will find acetone is a carrier
it merely mixes and thins the ATF n carries it into the stubborn bit ..... then the acetone evaporates leave n the ATF to lubricate the problem area
probly can use many things th@ R thin n mix with ATF then evaporate n leave the ATF
but acetone & ATF might have the magic KFC 17 herbs n spices ingredients to help git er dun




cya

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I use old sump oil, always got plenty of that.
The carbon deposits must be the magic ingredient.
Clean engine oil V's old sump oil on really rusty excavator bolts, the sump oil wins every time.

I spray diesel on stuff. Seems to work. Maybe not as good as some other things, but good enough most of the time. Penetrates decently.

Jarrod.

Great info, many thanks!
I had remembered for some time about the ATF being mentioned in an old thread,
but forgotten about the acetone!
sounds like the vegetable oil is worth a try too
will keep me tinkering!

Although it’s expensive I find the Inox penetrating oil excellent . It seems to loosen things up well, and it is clean on your hands . Also I often apply heat (warmth) maybe from a hot air gun or a canister style flame torch .
I say this , but I am not doing heavy machinery .

Maybe not on Alloy but plain old water and a little heat works well on Iron products