Machinist’s Workshop MagT 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.
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!
Contributed by Chip Rathbun
