Interesting comparison of products to loosen rusted components

Posted by Peter Packard On 2013/4/30 2:38:11

Machinist's Workshop Mag recently published some information on various penetrating oils that I found very
interesting. Some of you might appreciate this. The magazine reports they tested penetrates for break out
torque on rusted nuts.
They are below, as forwarded by an ex-student and professional machinist.
They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrates with the control being the torque required to
remove the nut from a "scientifically rusted" environment.
*Penetrating oils ........... Average torque load to loosen*
No Oil used ................... 516 pounds
WD-40 ..................... ... 238 pounds
PB Blaster .................... 214 pounds
Liquid Wrench ...............127 pounds
Kano Kroil .................... 106 pounds
ATF*-Acetone mix............53 pounds
The ATF-Acetone mix is a "home brew" mix of 50 - 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone. Note this
"home brew" released bolts better than any commercial product in this one particular test.
Our local machinist group mixed up a batch and we all now use it with equally good results.
Note also that "Liquid Wrench" is almost as good as "Kroil" for about 20% of the price.
Steve from Godwin-Singer says that ATF-Acetone mix is best, but you can also use ATF and lacquer thinner in
a 50-50 mix. *ATF=Automatic Transmission Fluid
This actually works well, power-steering fluid also works as well as trans fluid!
Saw a similar set of test results some years ago. The other interesting modification was the ratio. Slight
variations in the 50 : 50 mix can produce a remarkable difference with different types of corrosion. ie
aluminium corrosion becomes free better with a greater % of Acetone. The other thing to consider are the
nasties contained in ATF. From memory, I think it is very high in lead.
Handle with more care than WD-40 anyway.
Best regards Peter Toet