Quote Originally Posted by Mike52 View Post
I've had the following saved for several years, hope it goes along with the subject.

Mike



Some of you might appreciate this. Machinist’s Workshop magazine tested penetrants for break out torque on rusted nuts.

They are below, as forwarded by an ex-student and professional machinist, Bud Baker.

They arranged a subjective test of all the popular penetrants with the control being the torque required to remove the nut from a “scientifically rusted” environment.

*Penetrating oil ….. Average load*

None …………………. 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 was a “home brew” mix of 50 – 50 automatic transmission fluid and acetone. Note the “home brew” was 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 about as good as “Kroil” for about 20% of the price.

Interesting!! I have all 4 of those commercial products. And the way you have them listed is my preference for use as well. Liquid Wrench - the last can I bought is gray colored and stains - which I don't recall from previous cans, but CRS sets in occasionally.

I'll mix up a batch of the ATF/acetone and give that a try - who knows - with Kroil about $10/can and PB Blaster ~$7/can I might even save a few bucks