Good article in the latest Machinist's Workshop comparing several popular rust penetrator products.

Don't remember which of the commercial products did best..... but a homemade remedy topped them all.

50% acetone and 50% ATF (automatic transmission fluid, no, I don't know which flavor) had something like half of the effort of the next best commercial product, and about 10% of the effort of using nothing at all.

Interesting.....

I have used straight tranny fluid before(due to not having anything else) and found that it worked on nuts and bolts.

There are two bolts on a particular model of car that I must remove frequently. They are exposed to road splash. More often than not, they will snap the head off. Tried WD-40 alone. It helps. Will still have to fight the bolt for it's entire lengh. I learned that if I apply WD-40 and let it soak abit. Then apply oil and wait abit. Bolt comes out much easier!
I suspect the oil follows the penetrant into the threads? Oil alone might work if given much more time to work.

Cheezywan

The best "stuff" I have found to date is "Rust Buster" from O'Reilly's auto store. Spray on, wait a half hour and take the bolt or what-have you off. I've never read the label, but it is "reddish" in color (may have ATF fluid in it). Opps, I'm sorry, you said "home made". Riley

Any idea if this will eat blueing???

Thanks for the tip Mike, I've got some acetone and tranny fluid and lots of rusty bolts on the little hardtop Suzuki Samari I'm working on now. I'm going to make some up in the morning as I've just ran out of the last two spray cans of WD 40.

I'm in the process of doing a spring over conversion and then the little sixty hp 1300 cc four banger and five speed tranny is being replaced with a 4.3 liter Chev fuel injected V-6 and four speed overdrive auto trans.

Hope Santa brought you an impact wrench !

I wonder how that combination will work, if the parts aren't being dunked in it. Acetone is pretty volatile.

Let us know how that works out.

P B Blaster

Thats some of the best rust remover - for getting rusted bolts and nuts loose.

Just that the Acetone in P B Blaster will eat most rubbers and plastics.

Got the magazine out of the truck.

WD 40 was the worst, cutting effort in half approximately, vs. no penetrating oil. It should be noted that any penetrating oil was much better than none.

PB Blaster was second worst.

Liquid Wrench was second best of the commercial products.

Kroil was the best commercial product, but still had twice the effort of the homemade stuff.

It's in the April / May issue of Machinist's Workshop, Voume 20, Number 2.

I agree with them on "WD-40 being the worst". That stuff doesn't seem to do anything real well. I will do alot of things half way though. Kinda like me :) in that regard!

Kroil is good stuff! Is expensive though. The color suggests that it might have something similar to tranny fluid in it? The "smell test" escapes me. Is that accetone?

Cheezywan

You should be able to figure out the ingredients for any of the commercial products from the material data safety sheet or whatever those things are called.

Well I've got a pint mixed up and am putting it in one of the little 3 in 1 oil cans and keep the metal can I mixed it in sealed. I was afraid to put it in a plastic spray bottle. With the acetone I thought it might just eat the bottle up. As I work on my two project vehicles I'll let you know how it works.

I'm currently building a hardtop Suzuki with a 4.3 liter Chev V-6 and the four speed chev overdrive tranny and I've got an old Dodge short wheelbase half ton thats getting a set of 3/4 ton axles and basically the whole drive line from a 2/3 ton pickup. All these rigs are older rigs and lots of rusted bolts. This should be a good test of this home made rust buster.

Can't wait to hear how it works for you, Bob.

Picked up a can of Liquid Wrench for the times that an aerosol spray will be handy. Hard to believe it's less than PB and per the article, twice as effective!

I like Kroil for little parts .... but it's pricey and hurts in the wallet when you have to slather on a bunch.

I like this idea MikeG. I will try it. Must accuire accetone. My post#2 to your thread explains a "two step" process that works for me. I would prefer a "one step", like everyone else.

A mechanic taught me the value of transmission fluid for freeing a stuck nut/bolt years ago. I do not recall if it was Dexron I, II, III, or IIII? May not have been Dexron rated at all?

Tranny fluid is already a "thin, slippery liquid". Perhaps has some accetone in it already?

Mixed 50/50 (like your magizine suggests), may thin it enough to allow it to "wick" into the threads better than the other stuff tested?

Liquid Wrench, WD-40, Panther Piss, Kroil,Slick 50, Nutbuster. I a'm sure I missed several. They all work to some degree!

It is good that someone checked it out.

Thanks for the good thread.

Cheezywan

Good article in the latest Machinist's Workshop comparing several popular rust penetrator products.

Don't remember which of the commercial products did best..... but a homemade remedy topped them all.

50% acetone and 50% ATF (automatic transmission fluid, no, I don't know which flavor) had something like half of the effort of the next best commercial product, and about 10% of the effort of using nothing at all.

Interesting.....

Sounds a whole lot like Ed's Red, doesn't it, Mike? Author's last name wasn't Harris, was it?

Grins,

The Old Guy

Credited to Lloyd Bender. No, I don't know if he's related!

Hope you guys get some good out of this.

I "made" time to work on this one. A "needed" trip to Wal-Mart yielded a quart of acetone to play with.

I already had a quart of Dexron II.

I mixed 50 ml. of each into a glass flask, corked, and mixed.

Looked at it about a 1/2 hour later. I "see"

#1 Pink acetone on top.

#2 A "fuzzy pink line " near the 50 ml. line on my flask.

#3 Dark pink on the bottom.

I have NOT tried this mix on a rusty part as of yet?

All I can say at this time is; "Shake well before using". They do not mix! My good wife has a picture on her camera.

None of this "takes anything away" from the question of "how it works?"

Me thinks that acetone and rubber corks do not mix? Mine has expanded?


Cheezywan

wonder how it would work to loosen lead out of a barrel

The best thing to do w/ penetrant on a bolt is to loosen it some w/ the oil on it & then reverse and tighten it some to help the penetrant wick up into the threads...I also have used 'neculear grade' anti sieze [70% nickle] good from -250F to +2600F. I've used it to keep exhaust pipes from rusting to each other & been able to open the muffler clamps using a hand rachet!

I have not tried the stuff "real world" yet. Can't seem to locate a rusty bolt when I need one.

I now have another batch that is 50/50 acetone/Marvel Myystery Oil. The results "look" similar.

The dividing line between the accetone and tranny fluid and Marvel is not sharp like oil/water. There is near 1/4" of a "pink fuzzy area. I did not see any reaction when they were mixed.

JB. I'm not ready to try it on a gun barrel yet. I haven't seen any reason to believe it would harm one though?

Kampcool. I agree with your technique. "If you can't move them loose, move them tight. Must make them move"! I replaced the muffler on my "76" Olds 3 times and used the same clamps :eek: ! I miss that car! 340cu with a 4 barrel. It weighed more than my current truck!

This thread is about "homemade rust penetrators". I am just posting my results.

I found a use for the stuff. It was "time" for the kid's swingset to "go away"! Rusty fasteners all. Allen head on one end, flat blade on the other? I could not move them on the first try so I put "the stuff" to work while I mowed the grass. Gave it a good shake and used the "dump method" of aplication.
It worked! And it worked well! It all came apart just fine. No broken fasteners. Is about 12 years old sitting in the elements. Kids are done with it. I was tired of mowing around it. Win-win and win!

Cheezywan

50/50 ATF/Acetone is also a great bore cleaner, just keep it off of the stock and painted parts.

You should be able to figure out the ingredients for any of the commercial products from the material data safety sheet or whatever those things are called.

MSDS = material safety data sheet (you were real close!) I worked at an experiment station and we had those durn thing running out our ears and all over the place!:o

a very interesting question

50/50 kero/engine oil is said to be worth a try

Cheers

Mark

Hi MikeG,

Thanks for posting the info on this homebrew penetrant, I`ll certainly have plenty of opportunity to give it a try! There is always something rusty that needs fixing here, lol!

When you state that a certain amount of effort was needed versus another solution were you referring to the force required to extract the fastener or the penetrants ability to wick into the joint, ie; the 50/50 mix wicked and the WD-40 didn`t? Am I making sense? The reason that I ask is because I have always felt that PB works much better than Liquid Wrench, which seems to not work at all most of the time in my experience. I`m trying to decipher what the delta is between my experience and that of your magazine`s tester. It`s probably moot anyway since too many stuck fasteners give a person ample opportunity to try every witch`s brew or trick that we can imagine ;) so they all get equal play.

BTW, I like the wealth of info on your site and the friendliness of the members.

You're welcome.

Keep in mind that it was a single test, limited number of samples, and only sliding force (vs twisting force like on a nut).

It certainly could come out different with a different test scenario.

I verified the observations of immiscibility of acetone and tranny fluid. I recalled the Ed's Red concept of mixing polar and non-polar solvents, and added one part naphthalene and over about 24 hours it all went into solution. So, the formula I have is now, by volume, 1 part Autozone's no-name Dexron II compatible tranny fluid, 1 part acetone, 1 part naphthalene.

did you just use mothballs, or did you use some other form?

Oops! I always do that. It's naptha, not naphthalene. Solvent I bought from Lowes. Don't know why I have a mental block about swapping those two names. I should just remember that naphthalene rhymes with benzene, then I'd recall how the molecule is put together.

Here we are. 33.3% Dexron. 33.3% acetone. 33.3% naptha.
Does it work as well or better than commercial stuff? Is it more economical to mix your own?

Trany fluid by itself is pretty good for fasteners IMO. Motor oil too. Just need to give it some time to "wick" into the rust.

Be patient and persistent.

Cheezywan

Picked up a quart each of Acetone, VM&P Naptha and Walmarts Finest ATF (dexron III compatible I believe), mixed 2 batches, 1st one in a HDPE container (milk jug) and one in glass, the HDPE mix seems a little cloudy, there may have been some residual water or it could be the fact that I put in the ATF, then acetone, then naptha in the HDPE whereas in the glass I put in the ATF, Naptha then acetone, doesn't seem to matter too much, I already loosened a pair of tight needle nose pliers with the cloudy mix, which I put in a plastic spray bottle

Upon further review, I think it may have been the mixing procedure, the 2nd batch shows no seperation but the first batch has cleared up, but there is still a line about a 1/2" down in the mason jar that it is in. I am going to let it set over night and see what happens

I'm not sure I'd leave that stuff in plastic containers....

Not on the dining room table anyway!!!!

I found that lacquer thinner mixed better with dexronIII. I did not test it on rust because it would not be friendly around finished surfaces. Just a thimble full of each in a test tube to see if they would mix?

Old mechanics that I worked with as a youth used tranny fluid all the time. I am not sure if WD-40 even existed then?

It is "cool" to me that you folks are seeking and posting your results on this topic.

Cheezywan

Edit: On a positive note. If it eats plastic(high-tech polymer), it might be a good wad fowling cleaner for shotgun barrels?