Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

I'm amateur tinkerer and i wonder if it's safe to leave a pallet fork in gassoline? Can it melt shellac or not?

Thanks in advance for all answers:)

Posted

The safest thing to use is Ronsonol lighter fluid. Best to have a small screw top container as it evaporates very fast. You could leave watch parts that have shellac on them for days in the fluid and nothing will come to harm. That is what I always used. When the parts are clean put the part on a piece of wrapping tissue and use your bench air blower to remove any residue.

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Posted

Hi  as recommended  lighter fuel or Isopropyl alchohol, But there is no reason to leave parts soaking unless they are very dirty and even then it better to clean the part several times than leave it soaking.  Gasolene will clean parts but the fumes and its inflamability  are an inherent danger.

  • Like 1
Posted
3 hours ago, Przemek said:

I'm amateur tinkerer and i wonder if it's safe to leave a pallet fork in gassoline?

There is a better choice than gasoline, or lighter fluid, as neither of these are horological products, are not recommended by any manufacture. That is "petroleum ether", it may have different names in different countires, and is available online, at pharmacies, or chemicals shops. please check wikipedia or search this forum to learn more about it.

  • Like 1
Posted

In the UK I think is was named benzine. If so I would be careful. It was used a lot many years ago in the letterpress printing industry and it was banned because it was found to have carcinogenic properties. 

Posted
14 minutes ago, clockboy said:

In the UK I think is was named benzine. If so I would be careful. It was used a lot many years ago in the letterpress printing industry and it was banned because it was found to have carcinogenic properties. 

Naptha???

Posted
4 hours ago, jdm said:

There is a better choice than gasoline, or lighter fluid, as neither of these are horological products, are not recommended by any manufacture. That is "petroleum ether", it may have different names in different countires, and is available online, at pharmacies, or chemicals shops. please check wikipedia or search this forum to learn more about it.

That's exactly what i was talking about, in Poland it is called Benzyna ekstrakcyjna and google translated it to "extraction gassoline", yet wikipedia says different name for "benzyna ekstrakcyjna" is "eter naftowy" which is "petroleum ether" you wrote about :)

 

Thank you all for your answers!

Posted
4 hours ago, jdm said:

There is a better choice than gasoline, or lighter fluid, as neither of these are horological products, are not recommended by any manufacture. That is "petroleum ether", it may have different names in different countires, and is available online, at pharmacies, or chemicals shops. please check wikipedia or search this forum to learn more about it.

    yes,  wikpedia.  that is what a graduate chemist would do.

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, clockboy said:

In the UK I think is was named benzine. If so I would be careful. It was used a lot many years ago in the letterpress printing industry and it was banned because it was found to have carcinogenic properties. 

We have had this discussion so many times but it still happens every time the word is mentioned. You are referring to benzene, that is  a common mistake for English speakers. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzene

Not to be confused with Benzine.

Edited by jdm
  • Like 2
Posted
19 hours ago, jdrichard said:

Again, what about naphtha?

That is just a less refined "petroleum ether" above. Leave a drop evaporate on a clean glass, if it leaves no residue then it will be fine.

  • Like 1
Posted
That is just a less refined "petroleum ether" above. Leave a drop evaporate on a clean glass, if it leaves no residue then it will be fine.

Thanks jdm. I usually use lighter fluid, but I do have a full canister of naphtha


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Posted

The original question relates to use of gasoline (petrol) and whether or not it will dissolve/soften shellac. A good question.

Not mentioned is the use of stoddards, which is the lion share of some expensive proprietary watch and clock cleaning solutions. Stoddards is fine with shellac.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Posted

gasoline has no place for watch cleaning.  it can be used for paint thinner with enamel,   it can be used as a first clean on a clock mvt., (the clock will run when submerged in gasoline).  then wash it off with a garden hose. AND don't smoke around gasoline.    vin

Posted

I know some very old books mention using gasoline for cleaning, but these were written when gasoline was a very different animal regarding additives (and folks were a little more carefree about safety). I think something like Coleman fuel is close to old timey gasoline; camp stoves that are made to run Coleman fuel will have problems with gasoline (except models made for both), mainly due to clogging issues. When I needed Coleman fuel here for my old U.S. made stove the old man at the chemist shop said to use regular benzine, which I have on hand in the workshop for---- cleaning parts. Works great.

Posted
gasoline has no place for watch cleaning.  it can be used for paint thinner with enamel,   it can be used as a first clean on a clock mvt., (the clock will run when submerged in gasoline).  then wash it off with a garden hose. AND don't smoke around gasoline.    vin

Are you sure gasoline is water soluble? I don’t think it can be washed off, it’s a product of oil and therefore immiscible with water. Please tell me if I’m wrong.

Regards
Deggsie


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Posted
41 minutes ago, Deggsie said:


Are you sure gasoline is water soluble? I don’t think it can be washed off, it’s a product of oil and therefore immiscible with water. Please tell me if I’m wrong.

Our long time member vinn3, in its normal layman approach to anything, didn't say that gasoline is water solubile. He said that one can wash it off from objects spraying water. While that is true, the applicability of his statement in the horology I leave to anyone to judge. 

Posted

Just got this from google. 

Gasoline is not soluble in water. Gasoline is a complex mixture of non-polar compounds such as long chained hydrocarbons etc. Water is a polar molecule. ... As a result, the gasoline molecules cannot enter water and form a solution.

Posted

Hi all. Sorry I didn’t mean to try and make anyone’s statement look wrong, I was merely curious, as to be honest I’d never personally tried it. I think what was meant is that the majority of the gasoline can be hosed off.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Posted
3 hours ago, Deggsie said:


Are you sure gasoline is water soluble? I don’t think it can be washed off, it’s a product of oil and therefore immiscible with water. Please tell me if I’m wrong.

Regards
Deggsie


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

     gasoline evaporates  from brass.   right?     vin

Posted
a lot of things have changed since 1945.     espesally the formula for gasoline,   get a newer manule.   vin

I’m not a chemical engineer, but..... I would say what you say is True, however the fundamental hydrocarbon in gasoline (which provides the cleaning) has still not changed. You are correct that there will be changes such as additives and of course the octane rating will be higher nowadays (which I think means it ignites at a lower temperature).

If you can get hold of WF Pro, I bet it’s very close to the formula in the old book.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Posted
IMG_0468.thumb.jpg.527419d34a4fa23f340e04858f50edd2.jpg
IMG_0469.thumb.jpg.416a6eaba2641de13c9b4bda1a6d93ee.jpg

Lighter fluid is the best, most available and cheap; and leaves no stains and does not weaken the shellac. Btw, I 2 copies of the same manual.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • What you’re saying is that if the entire coil is lifted or tilted either up or down it is due to a slight twist in the spring? Usually next to the stud?  I’ve chased this before and in one instance the spring came out of the stud and I had to reinstall it and secure it in place.  Do you find that the angle (not twist) the spring leaves the stud not only affects how it centers in the regulator pins but also the coil spacing? This could be caused by a distortion in the spring as it grabs and release the pins. I find turning the stud counter clockwise opens the coils 180 degrees away from it. So do I adjust the stud in relation to the regulator pins or to the coil spacing?  I also find that unless I remove the balance from the cock I can’t see the slight distortions in the spring. In my picture the distorted spring looked fine when installed. Do you use Alex’s technique of sliding the regulator arm up and down the curve to find distortions or can you visually see them?   
    • So if anybody overrides what i say, listen to them haha. I'm not an expert but i've just been in this boat a dozen times as i used to mess up hairsprings bad, but the good part of that was that i got to learn how to fix them.  What made my life SO much easier was learning how to adjust the hairsprings with the balance installed on a disassembled mainplate, unless it's a very serious problem or on an inner coil you can't get to i would recommend trying this in part because the spring will mostly ALWAYS look flat when the balance wheel is not installed on the cock. Install the balance wheel back in the cock and the cock with the cap jewels in the mainplate, with it installed even the most imperceptible twist will be pretty obvious. Just make sure the balance jewels are also installed. In these movements, if 99% of the time any twist or problems gonna be around the terminal curve, twists often near the stud, especially if you've been removing their awfully designed studs from the balance cock. If there's a reliable way to install those things without introducing a minor twist to them i haven't found it. they're an awful design. INstall the balance on you mainplate WITH your capstones/chatones and look sideways across the balance under magnification. Look for the highest or lowest spot of the now not flat hairspring. 180 degrees from that high or low spot is where your twist will be. You have to be VERY careful with twists as the tiniest over or under twist brings it out of flat. If the area i have to untwist is near the stud i just use a pair of #5 tweezers or some very sharp fine curved tweezers and gently see which way i twist it corrects the twist, then i hold the very fine point of the tweezers on the hairspring and just gently squeeze and check it and see if it started to correct it, then i rinse and repeat. Tiny adjustments is what you want, don't close them all the way, and dont' introduce a flat spot in them. it's just a little nudge by closing the tweezers on it at an angle. .  If the twist is not near the stud, i grasp the hairspring with some very fine curved tweezers as gently as possible while still holding it then i do that same sorta tweezer squeeze with my #5's. 
    • Has it got the logo on the crown. I think you're best option is going to be to remove the damaged stem and measure it. Edit Do you have the case reference number.
    • Movement is Omega 1012. I bought this from Cousins: 
    • Welcome to the WRT forum.
×
×
  • Create New...