Cleaning oils from metal

[Funkenstein]

Hey all,

Not necessarily for knife making, although would be useful information for the future.

My question is regarding getting machining oils off of aluminum. I am associated with a ministry that is having small crosses made to be stuck to an adhesive dot in a mailer and sent out. They are ordered 100,000 at a time and most have to be cleaned in small batches with a commercial washing machine in order to get them to stick and stay in the mailer. It’s very tedious work.

Does anyone have a good solution for doing large batches? My thought was a cement mixer, but what alcohol or solvent do you recommend?

Thanks

 

[kuraki]

I would use a rotary tumbler with stainless steel pins, and a dish soap water solution. So like a cement mixer. It's how I clean rifle brass, and I have a tumbler that can do about 1,000 cases at a time. A 1 yard cement mixer and 20 lbs of stainless pins would probably do an entire batch if I'm guestimating the size of your cross correctly.

 

[A.McPherson]

Ultrasonic cleaner would work well for that too...