When degreasing becomes depainting
I’ve been slowly chiseling away at the dried ink/grease that cakes by C&P 10x15 Craftsman, using wooden spudgers, steel wool and various solvents. Today I thought I’d give a water-borne degrease a try, and I was amazed at how well it worked. The grease washed off like it was mud. The gear guard for my press was filthy, so I took it off and put it on a sheet of plastic and gave it a good spraying. I let it soak for a while, and when I went to wipe away the grease the paint went with it.
Oops. Lesson learned. The good news is that the paint job on the press was by no means pristine, so there’s not much harm done.
Now I have one clean part on an otherwise filthy press. When I bought the press I thought it was black. Nope, turns out it’s a blue-grey colour.
Keelan, could you share the brand of degreaser? I restore presses and something that not only takes the grease off but takes the paint along for the ride sounds like it might come in handy :p
-kim
kimaboe,
I use “Super Clean” which does what Keelan described. It has sodium hydroxide in it which is a very strong base so gloves are needed. The nice part is that you can get control by how much time you let it soak or sit on the surface. The dirt, grease, and dried ink are the first to soften and come off. Any paint from repainted parts come next, and finally the original paint. I have brought many a press back to original paint and decoration that had been painted over. I’ll be interested to see if it’s the same stuff.
John
I used Krud Kutter it works great.
But, it you use the product on parts that move, wash the product off with rubber alcohol.
It used it, and it did a great job.
I’m using Zep 505, which I transferred to a spray bottle. I am also using gloves!
I also use super clean to clean the plastic trays inside the Ludlow cabinets. Since I am cleaning the mats to with brasso.