Acetone and Bearings

[Joe W.]

Came across some articles about cleaning bearings - Acetone was cited as one of the cleaning agents.
Getting ready to inspect my DW, find and (hopefully) eliminate the offending piece causing the racket when running, and re-grease the bearings.

I considered using Acetone or other solvents, but have a memory of reading somewhere saying that you shouldn't ever do that as the solvent would prevent the grease from sticking to the bearings.

2nd and other opinions appreciated.

[OCtoolguy]

3 minutes ago, Joe W. said:

Came across some articles about cleaning bearings - Acetone was cited as one of the cleaning agents.
Getting ready to inspect my DW, find and (hopefully) eliminate the offending piece causing the racket when running, and re-grease the bearings.

I considered using Acetone or other solvents, but have a memory of reading somewhere saying that you shouldn't ever do that as the solvent would prevent the grease from sticking to the bearings.

2nd and other opinions appreciated.

I know for fact that solvent will create a surface coating that prevents grease from sticking where it's needed. I'm not sure about acetone. It evaps so quickly that it might be ok. Try it on an old bearing and see if you can grease the bearing after it's evapped. My shop instructor at GM school said to use only paper toweling to wipe parts down with too. He was deadset against using shop towels/rags to wipe parts with because they leave a certain amount of lint behind that can get into and clog bearings and oil holes. He was a smart cookie so I had to believe what he said.

 

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by OCtoolguy

[kmmcrafts]

I use brake cleaner from the autoparts stores.. buy a few cans as the stuff goes away quick.. evaporates in the air as you spray it, LOL.. If you have a container of WD-40 or maybe kerosene to soak them in first to "loosen up the bulk of it then spray the brake cleaner to finish up and dry the bearings out. I then use compress air to make sure they are dry and clean of dust etc. before repacking the grease. 

One of the auto engine builders in town says to use mineral spirits for cleaning up engine parts.. Not sure how that'd work with bearings.. If I did that I'd at least do a quick spray of brake clean and compressed air to make sure dust etc. is not in them.  

[John B]

I always use petrol to clean bearings.
Mind you, that would be an expensive job now

Edited April 28, 2022 by John B

[John Smith]

I'm with Kevin - I just bought a DW-788 that had been in storage for the past 20 years. The first thing I did was service all of the bearings. #1 soaked them in solvent (acetone or lacquer thinner) then, #2, a burst of Brake Cleaner, and #3, a final burst of CRC Electronics Cleaner which doesn't leave any residue. Then, #4, a burst of air from the air compressor. (canned air will work too) or, just let them air-dry for a few minutes to ensure ALL of the cleaner is gone. Then, pack the needles with your choice of Synthetic grease - not "oil" or WD-40.  (don't just wipe it on with a Q-Tip, but, force the grease into all the cavities). Do that and you will have many years of smooth running.

[OCtoolguy]

1 hour ago, John Smith said:

I'm with Kevin - I just bought a DW-788 that had been in storage for the past 20 years. The first thing I did was service all of the bearings. #1 soaked them in solvent (acetone or lacquer thinner) then, #2, a burst of Brake Cleaner, and #3, a final burst of CRC Electronics Cleaner which doesn't leave any residue. Then, #4, a burst of air from the air compressor. (canned air will work too) or, just let them air-dry for a few minutes to ensure ALL of the cleaner is gone. Then, pack the needles with your choice of Synthetic grease - not "oil" or WD-40.  (don't just wipe it on with a Q-Tip, but, force the grease into all the cavities). Do that and you will have many years of smooth running.

Excellent info. When I referred to "solvent" I was talking about the solvent we used to use in the mechanic shop. I think it may have been refined kerosene. Not sure. I just know that after washing a wheel bearing in it and thoroughly drying it I tried hand packing it and the grease would not adhere to the bearing at all. My instructor at GM Training Center told us to never do that ever. He said the bearing would have to wear that coating off by getting hot before grease would stick again. What you are suggesting might be ok as those solvents are different chemicals. I'll just keep doing it the same way by just wiping as much old grease off as possible and then packing in new synthetic grease.

[tomsteve]

On 7/1/2022 at 11:54 AM, OCtoolguy said:

 I'll just keep doing it the same way by just wiping as much old grease off as possible and then packing in new synthetic grease.

pretty much what i was taught quite some time ago on wheel bearings. 

wipe off the old. put bearing in a rag and give it a shot of air to remove some of the old grease in it( dont let the bearing free spin), then use new grease to push out the old grease in the bearing.

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by tomsteve

[kmmcrafts]

I think that was probably true back in the day.. wheel bearings are a different story because most people doing wheel bearings on a car typically use the "wheel bearing grease" that is designed for wheel bearings.. 

What I mean by back in the day is.. well how many different types of grease was there? Now days we have synthetics and chassis grease, wheel bearing grease, lithium, marine grease.. then you have both dino based and synthetic base in all of these now days.. It's better to clean out ALL grease with something than to "Mix" grease.. some of these grease types if you mix them they'll harden up like a ball of clay dirt on a hot sunny day, LOL.. so that's not good either.. 

Solvents have also changed a great deal over the last 10-20 years.. So has gasoline and diesel.. not sure on kerosene.. but they used to have leaded gas.. then unleaded.. now unleaded or regular is actually a mix of ethanol and gas. 

I guess my point is.. don't mix grease types together.. If you don't know then wash it all out or go get new bearings.. I'm not sure what you should wash them out with.. I've not had any issues with brake cleaners.. you can use mineral spirits or kerosene to get the larger stuff loosened up but finish up with brake cleaner and then blow it off with a air hose.

BTW.. now days most wheel bearings are a sealed bearing and while you can replace just the bearing, but much more convenient to replace the whole hub with bearing, LOL 

[OCtoolguy]

It seems that I recall my shop instructor telling us that if a bearing had been washed, the only way for that bearing to allow greas to adhere to it was to heat the bearing in an over and then soak it in grease. But that was about 59 years ago. The memory is fading.

[kmmcrafts]

8 hours ago, OCtoolguy said:

It seems that I recall my shop instructor telling us that if a bearing had been washed, the only way for that bearing to allow greas to adhere to it was to heat the bearing in an over and then soak it in grease. But that was about 59 years ago. The memory is fading.

I'm sure he is probably right.. we weren't taught to "service" a bearing.. we were taught to throw it away and put a new one on it, LOL.. How times have changed. But that said.. I am a poor kid and had to work with what I had many times.. I've taken sealed wheel bearings and cleaned and packed more grease in them to hopefully gain a few more miles until more money came in for new bearing. One time I didn't have any solvent after work at 1-3 am and no parts stores open so I just wiped and added grease.. this is how I know not to mix grease.. School of hard knocks, LOL Been there done that. If I had the money I'd have bought a new bearing.. spend a whole night working on that bearing only to have it last a month at best.. Been way farther ahead to just borrow the $40 for the bearing.. I'm just a firm believer to not borrow money from anyone.. I've been in a position more than a few times were I rode a bicycle to work for a couple weeks.. 15 mile each way.. work 8-10 hours and ride back home.. you do what you have to do sometimes.. can't say I'm a lazy kid like many are today that look for a reason to not go to work, LOL

 

Back in Auto collision repair school they taught us to bump / pull dents and work the metal.. now they just tell you to toss it out and buy a new panel. Of coarse I understand why.. 1-6 hours labor at $100 per hour to pull a dent or replace it for $40 - 200 plus 1 hour labor.. and now days it's hard to work the tin foil they call metal, LOL.. 

[OCtoolguy]

3 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

I'm sure he is probably right.. we weren't taught to "service" a bearing.. we were taught to throw it away and put a new one on it, LOL.. How times have changed. But that said.. I am a poor kid and had to work with what I had many times.. I've taken sealed wheel bearings and cleaned and packed more grease in them to hopefully gain a few more miles until more money came in for new bearing. One time I didn't have any solvent after work at 1-3 am and no parts stores open so I just wiped and added grease.. this is how I know not to mix grease.. School of hard knocks, LOL Been there done that. If I had the money I'd have bought a new bearing.. spend a whole night working on that bearing only to have it last a month at best.. Been way farther ahead to just borrow the $40 for the bearing.. I'm just a firm believer to not borrow money from anyone.. I've been in a position more than a few times were I rode a bicycle to work for a couple weeks.. 15 mile each way.. work 8-10 hours and ride back home.. you do what you have to do sometimes.. can't say I'm a lazy kid like many are today that look for a reason to not go to work, LOL

 

Back in Auto collision repair school they taught us to bump / pull dents and work the metal.. now they just tell you to toss it out and buy a new panel. Of coarse I understand why.. 1-6 hours labor at $100 per hour to pull a dent or replace it for $40 - 200 plus 1 hour labor.. and now days it's hard to work the tin foil they call metal, LOL.. 

I heard the metals in todays cars are not workable and have to be replaced. The Bic pen started the "throw away" world we now live in.

[Garyrenee]

I come from an aviation mechanic background before I discovered the love for woodworking and all things associated with it. My experience sides with Ray. IMO his advice from years ago is sound and proven.  Just sayin

[kmmcrafts]

Interesting topic.. Makes me wonder what the manufactures use to clean the machining solvent off when making /machining them.. or do they use a special machining solvent to machine the parts.. Maybe they don't use solvents anymore when machining.. I had 4 years of machining school but never took a career in it.. But this was back in the day before CNC machining and higher tech stuff was out there.. we did it the old school way with all the manual cranks to take off x amount etc..  Actually I think they probably did have CNC's back then.. just the schools was teaching old outdated stuff because they was too cheap to buy new and advanced equipment.. now days you pay big money ( college loans ) to learn history.. tech advances way faster than the schools teach it.. which is why I never encourage anyone to go.. If you can pay cash maybe,  but stupid to take a loan out to learn outdated stuff.. LOL

 

Edit: Actually the solvent would probably burn off during the heat treating process after machining the bearings.. hmm.. 

Edited July 19, 2022 by kmmcrafts

[OCtoolguy]

55 minutes ago, kmmcrafts said:

Interesting topic.. Makes me wonder what the manufactures use to clean the machining solvent off when making /machining them.. or do they use a special machining solvent to machine the parts.. Maybe they don't use solvents anymore when machining.. I had 4 years of machining school but never took a career in it.. But this was back in the day before CNC machining and higher tech stuff was out there.. we did it the old school way with all the manual cranks to take off x amount etc..  Actually I think they probably did have CNC's back then.. just the schools was teaching old outdated stuff because they was too cheap to buy new and advanced equipment.. now days you pay big money ( college loans ) to learn history.. tech advances way faster than the schools teach it.. which is why I never encourage anyone to go.. If you can pay cash maybe,  but stupid to take a loan out to learn outdated stuff.. LOL

 

Edit: Actually the solvent would probably burn off during the heat treating process after machining the bearings.. hmm.. 

I'm a firm believer in trade schools. College is for the rich folks. The only reason there are college loans is the government started guaranteeing them. And that drove the tuitions up and then it all started compounding. My eldest son went into the military to get his college paid for.