Cleaning Winches

Sailordave · Post by **Sailordave** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 11:02 pm

Okay, I've used Kero, paint thinner and a few other things to clean the grease/gunk off of winches when I've stripped them in the past. I'm curious what other degreasers folks use and if any of you have a favorite water soluble cleaner and if so, how well does it clean?

I've heard some folks like SimpleGreen. ???

preserved_killick · Post by **preserved_killick** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:52 pm

My favorite degreaser is WD40. It's not water soluble, though.

I very much dislike SimpleGreen. I've talked with SimpleGreen salesmen who say you can drink the stuff, although no one ever offered. It's made from organic solvents (2-butoxyethanol) and should be considered toxic in my opinion. It's also very corrosive to aluminum. It's relatively expensive, I don't think it is a very good degreaser and it's not really "green".

-jeff

Hirilondë · Post by **Hirilondë** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 9:01 pm

We have a parts washer in the mechanics' shop. Its a fancy tub with a spray brush and streaming nozzle for the solvent. The solvent is simply glorified mineral spirits.

A paint tray to work in/over, stiff plastic paint brush and plain old mineral spirits works well too.

dougcn · Post by **dougcn** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 10:18 pm

Kerosene in a can that's big enough to hold the largest bearing or gear. Works great.

Sailordave · Post by **Sailordave** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:34 pm

Yeah, I've done all those in the past. Was just hoping to use something a little less FLAMMABLE!

No biggie, soaking in thinner/kero and using a brass bristle brush isn't such a bad way to do this.

Jason K · Post by **Jason K** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 10:58 pm

I used diesel on some very rough winches. That also works very well.

CharlieJ · Post by **CharlieJ** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:05 pm

Diesel, kerosene, mineral spirits- pretty much same deal with any of them. All will work, all are available easily.

By the way #218- lemon juice will clean regular tarnish off of bronze quite nicely. My wife has in the past just cut a lemon in half and used it to polish bronze. Wash it afterwards of course.

forrest · Post by **forrest** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:22 pm

Seeing those nice bronze winches reminded me of my own. I have the same winches except chrome bronze, which at this point loosing much of its chrome...

Is there a good way to remove the rest of the chrome and just have them be bronze?

kendall · Post by **kendall** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:04 pm

forrest wrote: Is there a good way to remove the rest of the chrome and just have them be bronze?

Was going to ask the same question.

The hardware for the Ariel and Triton both are chromed and 'mostly' peeled.
Have been playing with them using a utility knife and razor blade which works for getting most of it off, but it's a slow process, spent an hour on three stantion bases (amazing how long you'll work at something when you're bored!).

Been thinking of setting up a plating, anodizing, or de-rusting tank to see if that would work, but not sure how selective it would be.

Never was much for chrome, I realy like the look of bronze, even if it is a matter of polish or tarnish.

Ken

preserved_killick · Post by **preserved_killick** » Wed Oct 22, 2008 7:15 am

There's a guy who runs a small plating shop in PA who advertises in the back of Wooden Boat magazine (and others I assume). I contacted him and he was willing to de-plate chromed bronze for a very reasonable fee. All the other chrome plating shops I contacted wanted nothing to do with me.

In the end, I ended doing it myself. After experimentation, I found that by using an orbital disk sander with 220 and finer disks I could easily remove the chrome myself. The trick is to hold the sander at an angle of about 35 degrees and just ever-so-gently, lightly feather the edge of the disk onto the chrome. With a little care, I could remove the chrome and very little bronze. For corners I just sanded with emery cloth.

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