90 years of caked on Grease

[milne]

I guess we have all struck this before, or still have a reel sitting there in the " I'll get to it one day "
Well, I had one of them, tucked away, deemed a bit of a lost cause.
Despite the fact, it was a 38 250 yard Long Beach, After all, I already had one and this was an add on from  bloke I bought a couple of other reels from.
Apart from the Green coloured chrome work, when it was cracked open, I had not seen anything like it before.
Normally, I would put it in a container, drown the internals with a WD40 soak for a few days, followed by a Tooth brush scrubbing.
Well, that didn't work, this crud was stuck in place.
So a friend put us on to this new stuff, it's WD40 Degreaser, citrus based..  Now, I have had some experience with a citrus based product before, I use a bloke to dip my vintage Motor bike frames in a citrus based solution, which completely strips all the paint down to bare metal, makes a great job.

So, I gave this New ( to me ) stuff, and I've got to say, it made short work of the years of rock solid baked on grease.  I still had to used the tooth brush, after leaving it for an hour soaking, but Geez I'm sold on the stuff, cuts the time it takes to normally clean out all the old stuff.
A simple rinse off in water afterwards, to neutralise everything, and all's rosy...
As Normal, I should have taken some photo's of the before and after, but wasn't really thinking about this at the time.
only cost about $5.00 for the can and used very little on this reel, so it would probably do at least a dozen or so reels with ease..
Comes out as a foam, then when left, reduces to a milky liquid.....

[milne]

I can show you the out come of the completed reel...

She's a well used one, but I do wonder how much the green stuff played an impact on it's end appearance...
It definitely had been sitting for many a decade before I started tinkering. the handle wouldn't even turn, completely locked up.
I'm getting 20 plus seconds of free spool and with original drags still in, it actually is fully operational now..
I'm chuffed with the end result...

Col

[Reeltyme]

Great looking reel and a big thank you for the tip! I will have to see if I can find and try this stuff!

[Donnyboat]

Thanks Col for the tip, your long beach looks good now, cheers Don.

[Wompus Cat]

There is  something  about these old Reels  that Begs to be Restored to former glory.
Good Job and thanks for the WD Degreaser Tip. I never heard of it.

[mo65]

   Wow, this WD-40 degreaser sounds like something I need to pick up. Thanks for the hot tip brother! The reel looks fantastic. Also...thanks for that new term for me to break out on my mates..."chuffed"!
   Have a great day Col!

[Gfish]

Real nice job and reel. Hope they have some a that new-fangled WD stuff here.
Yup, "chuffed", I like it. Just got done with a Mick Herron novella and picked-up on some other British(would it be?) slang terms.

[milne]

Thanks guys,
      I was quite amazed how good it worked, There was only a small amount left in the corners of the insides of the outer rings which I dealt too with some
  0000 steel wool, which was rock solid, but apart from that, it made that horrible job of first clean up, a wee bit easier. loosens it right up...
But as I said, it still requires a " tooth brushing " after a spray and soak...
It was my least enjoyable first up job  in cleaning up a reel,, so anything that makes that job easier is a Ripper in my eyes.
At $5 a can, I'm heading down to the hardware today to grab a couple of cans...

Stay safe guys

Col

[Bill B]

Cool beans.....question though....how abusive was it to the hands?  Bill

[Brewcrafter]

Thanks for the great tip Col, and that old reel sure cleaned up nice and looks like its ready for many more decades - nothing wrong with showing a little bit of age it just means it's been around and seen action!
I poked around briefly, and while I found a number of WD-40 brand "degreasing/cleaning" products available here in the US, including one product where the can looked VERY similar, there was NO mention of "Citrus" on any of the WD products that I could find - so I wonder if this is an "Oz Only" product (you folks most likely may have more stringent environmental regs than we do here) or if it is the same product, with a different label here in the US?  I second Bill's question - how harsh on the skin?
Thanks again for the tip and photos! - john

[milne]

Hi John/Bill...
                   Citrus acid is really good stuff, as mentioned,  I was in a bit of a dilemma, on my current project, A 75 Triumph T140 M/C... Now, the paint work was fair had it. So, the normal practice was to bead blast the frame, then paint. BUT, these frames actually have the oil tank in the frame, even if you seal up the frame as best as possible, blast grit always gets inside the frame and because that's where the engine oil stays, any grit that gets in there, can cause an absolute havoc with an engine, specially if you've just rebuilt it.  So, a local bloke operates a stripping business near me, instead of the normal caustic solutions they use, some years back, he went to a citric solution. As Mentioned, it completely removed all the paint and grease off my bike frame, including inside the frame where the engine oil is stored, it was a win win for me. Only had to touch up a wee bit of surface rust that was underneath the paint, as the solution doesn't touch rust.  Now, I was blown away with the job it did, but was also amazed when the bloke was telling me, that since he went Citric, it opened up a whole new market,, he now throws timber doors and windows in the solution and as long as its fresh water rinsed afterwards, does not effect the timber one bit,,,,  a bit like rinsing off after using a vinegar solution on our reels.
I was busy working away on the reel without gloves, for over an hour, in fact, I soaked the handle in the solution as well and it never effected it in any way.
I'm picking that standard engine degreaser is more toxic than this stuff in all honesty..
I'll do a test on something and let it sit for a few days, maybe a bit of plastic or similar and see what type of reaction it gets.
It does say on the label, prolonged contact to rubber and paint or powder coating not advised, which is probably why it worked so good on my bike frame.
I felt no effects on my hands after playing around in the stuff for an hour or so, simply rinsed my hands in soap and water afterwards....  Mind you, on my left hand, more specifically my thumb and fore finger look quite smooth, not to much in the way of finger prints left.. But that could be a good thing Yeah           Na, just kidding   
It does smell way better than standard WD40 and the left over stuff in the container, still has that lemon smell...

Col

[Crow]

Stuff looks like something I need !!  Thanks !!