Saturday, November 21, 2009
Homemade Magic Erasers recipe?
A while ago, I went through some MSDS sheets and other information to figure out how to make your own windshield washer fluid. Inspired by Dan's comment on Mr. Clean's Magic Erasers, I thought I'd do a bit of digging, not only to see if they contain formaldehyde, but to figure out what they actually are. The Magic Eraser MSDS sheet does state that they don't contain formaldehyde (my attempt at degreasing car parts with them might have been more successful if they did!), but it doesn't state what they actually do contain. A bit more searching, though, turned up that Mr. Clean didn't really try to hide their source for the Magic Eraser material - it's actually melamine foam, made by BASF.
Normally, melamine foam is used as a sound insulation, although it's also used as a fire retardant. At some point, somebody found out that if you cut this sound insulation foam into blocks, you could use it as a very fine grit abrasive. So the way a Magic Eraser cleans is mechanical, not chemical - it's like a polishing cloth or sandpaper. And, predictably, a little searching for "melamine foam" turns up a couple sources where you can buy the stuff cut into blocks for sound insulation use. Predictably, McMaster-Carr sells it. (If that link's broken, start at their main page and search for melamine.) It's worth noting this is a different grade of melamine foam from what Mr. Clean uses, and it would only make sense if you used Magic Erasers by the crate.
Normally, melamine foam is used as a sound insulation, although it's also used as a fire retardant. At some point, somebody found out that if you cut this sound insulation foam into blocks, you could use it as a very fine grit abrasive. So the way a Magic Eraser cleans is mechanical, not chemical - it's like a polishing cloth or sandpaper. And, predictably, a little searching for "melamine foam" turns up a couple sources where you can buy the stuff cut into blocks for sound insulation use. Predictably, McMaster-Carr sells it. (If that link's broken, start at their main page and search for melamine.) It's worth noting this is a different grade of melamine foam from what Mr. Clean uses, and it would only make sense if you used Magic Erasers by the crate.
Labels: Automotive chemicals
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Burried on a warning label
A lot of times, we stop paying attention to warning labels. Too often, they seem to be written by Captain Obvious, stating things that anyone with any common sense would known not to do. Like the infamous story about the warning "Caution: Harmful or fatal if swallowed," on a hammer. But sometimes there's a truly bloodcurdling danger that is not remotely obvious. I ran across a cautionary tale on the Grassroots Motorsports forum, and I wanted to pass it along to my readers.
Don't weld any parts you have just cleaned with brake cleaner. Read the whole story and find out what can happen if you do this.
Don't weld any parts you have just cleaned with brake cleaner. Read the whole story and find out what can happen if you do this.
Labels: Automotive chemicals, Tech Tips
Thursday, May 01, 2008
More on (ic) fuel catalysts
Last month, I wrote up a post on why fuel catalysts won't help your gas mileage. Recently, some talk on the For A Bodies Only forum led me back to one of my favorite repositories of information on gadgets that supposedly increase gas mileage, the EPA's archive of test results where they've evaluated all sorts of gizmos that people claimed would increase mileage, and found few actually did. It's worth noting that most of the successful ones have found their way onto production cars as standard equipment. Well, as it turns out, the EPA has tested a couple of fuel catalysts, like the Vitalizer III, the Optimizer, the Hydro-Catalyst Pre-Combustion Catalyst System and Rolfite. None of them proved to be any more successful than Basko's claim to have made a mileage inproving paint.
Labels: Automotive Awefulness, Automotive chemicals, Gas Mileage
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Toluene, the cheap octane boost
With no fan on the Miata's intercooler, we had a bit of a pinging problem on the dyno at PRI. Jerry wanted to get some race gas, but we had no idea where to find any (OK, so all the race gas makers exhibit at PRI, but we weren't sure they had any for sale at the show). After talking things over with one of the Dynapack representatives who's used this trick himself, we dumped two gallons of toluene in the Miata's tank. This stuff is typically sold at paint stores and is around 114 octane. It costs around $16 a gallon if you're not buying it in industrial quantities, but that's actually cheaper than most auto parts store octane boosters and more effective, too. You don't want to run it straight as this stuff evidently doesn't work too well in cold weather. But it's safe to mix with gasoline, and won't damage your fuel system. In fact, most gasoline has a bit of this stuff in it already.
That's Jerry mixing it into our gas can while Justin watches. Funny thing is, the guys at the Sherwin Williams paint store had never heard of toluene being used that way, and they seemed to be a bit into cars. I just know they'll be talking about the time three crazy guys wandered into their shop and tried to put toluene in a Miata. We didn't try to see if we could capitalize on the extra octane by retuning the car - after all, we had to drive it home to Atlanta.
Labels: Automotive chemicals, PRI, Tech Tips
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Homemade windshield washer fluid - the recipe!
It seems that dozens of people find this blog each week searching for how to make their own windshield washer fluid. Well, I decided to do some digging and see if I could track down an easy to follow recipe. As it turns out, the National Institute of Health keeps MSDS sheets about a lot of household products on line. And most of the time, it appears the active ingredient is simply methanol, as used in Rain-X Ice-X. You can get methanol from an industrial supply house like McMaster-Carr. Currently it's selling for around $16 a gallon plus shipping. A mixture of around 10% methanol and 90% water with a dash of blue food coloring ought to do just fine for even a very icy morning.
The versions with "bug remover" contain a dash of 2-Butoxyethanol. That's going to be a bit harder to track down, but if you're trying to save money by making your own windshield washer fluid, it's something you can leave out anyway.
The whole Household Products Database is useful if you want to try making your own copy of a commercial product. For example, many octane boosters are mostly JP5 jet fuel. And STP Fuel system cleaner is mostly napthalene in kerosene.
The versions with "bug remover" contain a dash of 2-Butoxyethanol. That's going to be a bit harder to track down, but if you're trying to save money by making your own windshield washer fluid, it's something you can leave out anyway.
The whole Household Products Database is useful if you want to try making your own copy of a commercial product. For example, many octane boosters are mostly JP5 jet fuel. And STP Fuel system cleaner is mostly napthalene in kerosene.
Labels: Automotive chemicals
