Alright.. I know one of you is tangled up with this somehow! https://www.foxnews.com/us/cooking-grease-theft-now-75-million-a-year-industry-report
Now that I'm familiar with the smell of various cooking oils, I do notice it when I'm behind a vehicle burning it. There was a large flatbed truck that was blowing large amounts of white smoke instead of the usual black. The smoke smelled of burning canola oil and as I looked closer at the mostly empty bed, right up against the cabin were 10 identical gold coloured, beat up dented drums labelled "cooking oil". Spilt canola oil seems to dry out like a lacquer to me and I suspect that burning it in a diesel engine is going to gum up the rings and allow sump oil to blow by and create white smoke. To make biodiesel you're supposed to break up the triglyceride veg oil with caustic soda to get waste glycerine and the lighter oils to burn in your engine. Right now alternative fuels are back in fashion so it may take a while for the novelty to wear off and for engines to get destroyed before cooking oil is more available.
Not me! My local drive in says it's OK for him to save grease for me so long as he doesn't pour it in their container. Prices are up and down. Not long ago they were charging him to pick up. Local mechanic still has to pay for motor oil pickup so he is glad for me to come get as much as I want. He has eight or ten 55 gallon drums he stores it in. Their charge is per trip, not per gallon they pick up. But I do like the cooking oil smell out of the furnace, I only catch an occasional whiff of it. The cooking oil also has a higher cloud point and will stop up the filter in cool weather.
With fuel prices on the rise, this doesnt surprise me one bit. I only run the black goo and Jet-A. Storing it in the shed doesnt attract creepy crawlies.
Does Jet-A make a decent (chain) cleaning solvent? (After filtering, it goes into the (furnace) fuel tank, of course, there to mingle with wastemotor oil, diesel fuel, etc...
I'm currently using Charcoal Lighter fluid, which is supposedly a deodorized kerosene. It tends to cost 3-5 dollars per quart. As the chain needs cleaning prior to relubing (at 70-100 mile/110-160km intervals) I go through a quart in a few months. I'm trying to save money (to get foundry equipment, among other things.)
Saving $5 in a few months does not seem like a highly beneficial target for pinching pennies. That said, heating kerosene or any jet fuel would be a great alternative. However have you tried diesel? I use diesel in my parts cleaning tank and it does a great job. Or 50/50 kerosene/diesel.
I think you'll find the diesel will wash off dirt while not cleaning lubrication out of the rollers as a good solvent may.
If you want it REALLY clean, Avgas works wonders! Again, not recommended unless you want every bit of grease removed from your chain. With the high price of a quality chain, I'd stick with the specialty products. Penny wise, pound foolish sorta thing.
I've used 100LL Avgas, it does a great job on the grease and oil, one thing I really like about it is that unlike Mogas, doesn't leave any residual odour but if leave some on your part to air dry, it does sometimes leave behind a tiny bit of white powdery residue, lead from the fuel maybe?
I think you're right, it's probably lead. It's the best parts cleaner on earth. Cheap too and flammable as all hell! Buyer beware.
VERY similar to Avgas but available lead-free is high octane racing fuel, it does an amazing job too but unfortunately it costs at least twice as much as 100LL
I cant say much about heavy cleaning because I dont do much of it. But I have to do lighter cleaning and lubricating with some frequency. Some of my equipment includes small machines like stapler heads that have a lot of sliding parts that have to be cleaned and oiled yet cant be oily. Heavier lubricant causes grime buildup which eventually gets on the work and too much light oil will get on the work as well which ruins it. So it's kind of a double edge sword. That's where kerosene comes in. I can dismantle the machine, clean the parts as necessary in kerosene and wipe clean and dry. Then get a little bit of kerosene on my fingers and just reassemble the machine. The handling involved in reassembly coats all of the parts leaving them with just the right amount of lubricant. Pete
I'd sure try a silicone spray which doesn't collect dirt for staplers. Much less frequent cleaning and I've had it last a long time on the tool.
Silicone lubricant is a fairly persistent lubricant, photocopiers used it in their hot fuser rollers to stop paper sticking to the rollers and if it got on the rubber paper feed rollers it was nightmare to clean off. Entire automotive spray paint lines have been shut down after the vending machine tech used it on a drink vending machine and it started contaminating everything around it so the paint would get a texture and pinholes from being unable to wet the panels. I had trouble washing the thick slimy substance off my hands for days and used to wonder that people put the stuff in their body for implants, with dire problems if it leaked.
