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cleaning of rims



 
 
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  #11  
Old June 9th 21, 04:50 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Sir Ridesalot
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Default cleaning of rims

On Wednesday, June 9, 2021 at 11:31:06 a.m. UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 6/9/2021 8:52 AM, William Crowell wrote:
I agree with Andrew: a stronger solvent than mineral spirits or alcohol works much better. Mineral spirits leave a residue. I use either lacquer thinner or automotive pre-paint degreaser, which works the best, IMHO, because it is specially formulated for this. But don't get the lacquer thinner on the sidewalls of your tires; it might do something bad to them; not sure.

I've never tried brake cleaner for cleaning braking surfaces. I should
have thought of that.

But I often use acetone when I want a solvent that cuts most anything.

--
- Frank Krygowski


But will any/all of the suggestions posted in this thread clean off the WAX that the OP was asking about?

Cheers
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  #12  
Old June 9th 21, 06:01 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Jeff Liebermann
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Posts: 4,018
Default cleaning of rims

On Wed, 9 Jun 2021 15:22:43 +0000 (UTC), Ralph Barone
wrote:

Perhaps I’ll move up to brake cleaner or acetone if last night’s scrub fest
hasn’t helped. Do you ever manage to get the rims to the state where
nothing more comes off, or do they just get asymptotically closer to
actually being clean?


I haven't had a reason to try these but I suspect that floor wax
stripper or car wax remover would work:
https://www.google.com/search?q=wax+stripper&tbm=isch
https://www.google.com/search?q=car+wax+remover&tbm=isch
or mix your own:
https://www.tipsbulletin.com/homemade-car-wax-remover/
Looks like it's 70% rubbing alcohol.


--
Jeff Liebermann
PO Box 272
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
  #13  
Old June 9th 21, 06:49 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Jeff Liebermann
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Posts: 4,018
Default cleaning of rims

On Wed, 9 Jun 2021 08:50:43 -0700 (PDT), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

But will any/all of the suggestions posted in this thread clean off the WAX that the OP was asking about?
Cheers


Good question, especially since Ralph didn't mention the brand or type
of wax he used to lubricate the chain. My guess(tm) is that he used a
paraffin derivative wax. Any non-polar solvent will remove such wax.
Acetone, ethanol, gasoline, and such are NOT non-polar solvents. They
won't work very well. Isopropyl alcohol is mostly non-polar and
should work. Toluene, xylene, and n-hexan are all non-polar and
should also work, if you can find them. They're all VoC's and banned
in California.

Ralph: What brand and type of wax are you trying to remove?

Better cycling through chemistry.

--
Jeff Liebermann
PO Box 272
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
  #14  
Old June 9th 21, 08:06 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
SMS
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Posts: 9,477
Default cleaning of rims

On 6/9/2021 10:49 AM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 9 Jun 2021 08:50:43 -0700 (PDT), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

But will any/all of the suggestions posted in this thread clean off the WAX that the OP was asking about?
Cheers


Good question, especially since Ralph didn't mention the brand or type
of wax he used to lubricate the chain. My guess(tm) is that he used a
paraffin derivative wax. Any non-polar solvent will remove such wax.
Acetone, ethanol, gasoline, and such are NOT non-polar solvents. They
won't work very well. Isopropyl alcohol is mostly non-polar and
should work. Toluene, xylene, and n-hexan are all non-polar and
should also work, if you can find them. They're all VoC's and banned
in California.

Ralph: What brand and type of wax are you trying to remove?

Better cycling through chemistry.


Yes, who would have thunk that you need to be an electrical engineer and
a chemical engineer in order to maintain your bicycles.

I guess you could drive up to Reno to pick up some VoC solvents if
really necessary. I can understand the ban on large quantities of these
solvents, for industrial use, but banning the sale of quarts, for
personal use, is a little extreme considering that there is often no
good alternative.

  #15  
Old June 9th 21, 08:37 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Ralph Barone[_4_]
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Posts: 853
Default cleaning of rims

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 9 Jun 2021 08:50:43 -0700 (PDT), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

But will any/all of the suggestions posted in this thread clean off the
WAX that the OP was asking about?
Cheers


Good question, especially since Ralph didn't mention the brand or type
of wax he used to lubricate the chain. My guess(tm) is that he used a
paraffin derivative wax. Any non-polar solvent will remove such wax.
Acetone, ethanol, gasoline, and such are NOT non-polar solvents. They
won't work very well. Isopropyl alcohol is mostly non-polar and
should work. Toluene, xylene, and n-hexan are all non-polar and
should also work, if you can find them. They're all VoC's and banned
in California.

Ralph: What brand and type of wax are you trying to remove?

Better cycling through chemistry.


I’ve been using a standard paraffin wax on my chain.

  #16  
Old June 9th 21, 08:39 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
SMS
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Posts: 9,477
Default cleaning of rims

On 6/9/2021 12:37 PM, Ralph Barone wrote:
Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 9 Jun 2021 08:50:43 -0700 (PDT), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

But will any/all of the suggestions posted in this thread clean off the
WAX that the OP was asking about?
Cheers


Good question, especially since Ralph didn't mention the brand or type
of wax he used to lubricate the chain. My guess(tm) is that he used a
paraffin derivative wax. Any non-polar solvent will remove such wax.
Acetone, ethanol, gasoline, and such are NOT non-polar solvents. They
won't work very well. Isopropyl alcohol is mostly non-polar and
should work. Toluene, xylene, and n-hexan are all non-polar and
should also work, if you can find them. They're all VoC's and banned
in California.

Ralph: What brand and type of wax are you trying to remove?

Better cycling through chemistry.


I’ve been using a standard paraffin wax on my chain.


But what kind of lubricant to you add to the wax in order to lubricate
the chain?

  #17  
Old June 9th 21, 09:00 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Tom Kunich[_4_]
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Posts: 2,196
Default cleaning of rims

On Wednesday, June 9, 2021 at 8:22:48 AM UTC-7, Ralph Barone wrote:
AMuzi wrote:
On 6/9/2021 12:28 AM, Ralph Barone wrote:
The rear canti brakes on my touring bike were being less effective than
before (I was guessing that when I waxed my chain, some stray wax flakes
got onto the rear wheel brake track), so I spent a half hour cleaning my
rims.

1) Is there a best way to do this? I just spun the wheel while I wiped the
brake track with a paper towel dampened with mineral spirits.

2) Do they ever actually come clean? I was at it for a half hour and the
paper towel was still turning black where I was wiping the rim (although
possibly a more silvery black). And does it really matter, or is it just
good enough to take off any chunky bits and grease stains?


Try brake cleaner. Also, open the brake and look at your
pads, they're likely contaminated. Clean those and if
they're deeply gouged pass a file or emery across the surface.

Perhaps I’ll move up to brake cleaner or acetone if last night’s scrub fest
hasn’t helped. Do you ever manage to get the rims to the state where
nothing more comes off, or do they just get asymptotically closer to
actually being clean?

Ralph, unless you have some sort of synthetic oil on the rims normal soap and water on the rims and brake shoes should work as well as anything.

One thing will make the brakes because VERY inefficient - it the braking surfaces on the rim are highly worn, they will bend away from the shoes. You can check this usually by laying a straight edge across the braking surfaces, It there is more than a couple of mm showing REPLACE the wheels. Or have new rims installed. This is a dangerous condition since I watched the entire braking surface of a wheels break off on a guy when he was going downhill. Nice crash - he went off of the road and into a pasture with deep grass and suffered no injuries besides his dignity as we mentioned that again and again on every group ride.
  #18  
Old June 9th 21, 09:03 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Tom Kunich[_4_]
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Posts: 2,196
Default cleaning of rims

On Wednesday, June 9, 2021 at 12:37:16 PM UTC-7, Ralph Barone wrote:
Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 9 Jun 2021 08:50:43 -0700 (PDT), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

But will any/all of the suggestions posted in this thread clean off the
WAX that the OP was asking about?
Cheers


Good question, especially since Ralph didn't mention the brand or type
of wax he used to lubricate the chain. My guess(tm) is that he used a
paraffin derivative wax. Any non-polar solvent will remove such wax.
Acetone, ethanol, gasoline, and such are NOT non-polar solvents. They
won't work very well. Isopropyl alcohol is mostly non-polar and
should work. Toluene, xylene, and n-hexan are all non-polar and
should also work, if you can find them. They're all VoC's and banned
in California.

Ralph: What brand and type of wax are you trying to remove?

Better cycling through chemistry.

I’ve been using a standard paraffin wax on my chain.

It would take and awfully lot of that to effect the braking. The heat on the shoes is normally enough to vaporize wax.
  #19  
Old June 9th 21, 09:23 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Jeff Liebermann
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Posts: 4,018
Default cleaning of rims

On Wed, 9 Jun 2021 19:37:10 +0000 (UTC), Ralph Barone
wrote:

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 9 Jun 2021 08:50:43 -0700 (PDT), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

But will any/all of the suggestions posted in this thread clean off the
WAX that the OP was asking about?
Cheers


Good question, especially since Ralph didn't mention the brand or type
of wax he used to lubricate the chain. My guess(tm) is that he used a
paraffin derivative wax. Any non-polar solvent will remove such wax.
Acetone, ethanol, gasoline, and such are NOT non-polar solvents. They
won't work very well. Isopropyl alcohol is mostly non-polar and
should work. Toluene, xylene, and n-hexan are all non-polar and
should also work, if you can find them. They're all VoC's and banned
in California.

Ralph: What brand and type of wax are you trying to remove?

Better cycling through chemistry.


I’ve been using a standard paraffin wax on my chain.


Well, it's Wikipedia approved for lubricating bicycle chain. See
third bullet point:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraffin_wax#Other_uses

Perhaps an acetone and kerosene mix?
"Paraffin solvents"
https://patents.google.com/patent/US2741596A/en
"We have discovered that a particularly effective solvent can be
prepared by mixing acetone with a light petroleum fraction having a
specific gravity on the order of that of acetone, namely, about 0.78
to 0.81. Petroleum fractions of this kind are commonly known as
kerosene. We find that such a mixture of acetone and kerosene will
dissolve paraffin wax more effectively and rapidly than any other
solvent hitherto known, and that the wax, when so dissolved, will
remain in liquid condition indefinitely.
Neither kerosene nor acetone is an effective solvent by itself.
Kerosene alone acts very slowly and is unsatisfactory, and acetone,
while re-acting with paraffin to some extent, appears to have a
tendency to convert it into a gummy substance. We are unable to
explain the reason why our improved mixture works so efficiently, but
the addition of acetone appears to tremendously speed up the solvent
action of the kerosene, and the kerosene seems to counteract the
tendency of acetone to form a gummy material."


--
Jeff Liebermann
PO Box 272
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
  #20  
Old June 9th 21, 09:54 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Radey Shouman
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Posts: 1,747
Default cleaning of rims

Jeff Liebermann writes:

On Wed, 9 Jun 2021 08:50:43 -0700 (PDT), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

But will any/all of the suggestions posted in this thread clean off
the WAX that the OP was asking about?
Cheers


Good question, especially since Ralph didn't mention the brand or type
of wax he used to lubricate the chain. My guess(tm) is that he used a
paraffin derivative wax. Any non-polar solvent will remove such wax.
Acetone, ethanol, gasoline, and such are NOT non-polar solvents. They
won't work very well. Isopropyl alcohol is mostly non-polar and
should work. Toluene, xylene, and n-hexan are all non-polar and
should also work, if you can find them. They're all VoC's and banned
in California.


(Current) automotive brake cleaner seems to be mostly light alkanes, and
possibly some aromatics. These are non-polar solvents.

Brake cleaner, isopropanol, and acetone all have the advantage of
rapidly and completely evaporating. Mineral spirits might leave more
residue.

https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/mediaw...9lxtD7SSSSSS--

http://downloads.consumables.com/doc...1-9673_SDS.pdf
 




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