gasoline as a cleaner

[Dan Schultz]

BOOM!

[Rex Roeges]

This is actually a very dangerous practice. In addition to the obvious fire hazard, gasoline can be quite toxic and inhaling vapors may damage your health in fairly short order.

The manifestation of the toxicity is, of course, a statistical phenomena. This means that some people can have contact with gasoline everyday for 40 years and never suffer any health effects. Other people can have relatively little contact and display many kinds of cancer, liver disease, skin lesions, central nervous system disorders, etc. after a relatively few physical encounters. Most people have a tolerance somewhere in between.

If you are at all tempted to use gasoline as a cleaner for your tuba, I urge you to search for "gasoline material safety data sheet" and read about this stuff. When used correctly, gasoline quite literally powers our civilization, but when used improperly, it can be truly dangerous.

While I may not be a very good tuba player, I am a chemical engineer and have seen the consequences of ignoring these types of risks. Please don't take the chance of having a fire or of suffering minor or major health defects just to save a few bucks. Use the right kind of cleaner for the job, and that cleaner is never gasoline.

Now, quit reading and go practice.

Best regards,
Rex

[Tundratubast]

Chad,

Don't use gas, nothing wrong with being a little main stream. Use a standard solvent, and follow directions. Although, the Coleman's idea, sounds interesting. See you in a couple of weeks after I get settle back in the North land.

Dave

P.S. Probably over due for a couple beers and a cigar to catch-up on the local scoop.

[sloan]

Aren't cigars flammable ?

flammable, yes.

volatile, no.

[Tundratubast]

Yes Bloke, possibly flammable, but, I might risk it. Consider it a graduation gift to myself.

[Dan Schultz]

Some people may NOT realize how EXPLOSIVE ( ' can be just about as explosive as gasoline) oven cleaner can be.

IF you are using oven cleaner to strip stubborn lacquer or to clean profoundly tarnished silver plating, DO ~NOT~ try to agitate the action of the oven cleaner by heating up the surface with an open flame...

...KA BOOM !!!!!

Izzat the voice of experience?!

[sloan]

Some people may NOT realize how EXPLOSIVE ( ' can be just about as explosive as gasoline) oven cleaner can be.

IF you are using oven cleaner to strip stubborn lacquer or to clean profoundly tarnished silver plating, DO ~NOT~ try to agitate the action of the oven cleaner by heating up the surface with an open flame...

...KA BOOM !!!!!

Izzat the voice of experience?!

Most folk with this experience no longer have a voice.

[Homerun]

Does oven cleaner even do anything to silver horns?

[Ben]

Caution on Whitegas/Colman fuel. This is MORE volatile than gasoline, and these vapors are just as flamable.

From: http://oehha.ca.gov/public_info/pdf/Col ... 10'03'.pdf" target="_blank
u p t o 2 5% n -hexane, 15% cyclohexane, - hint, hexanes boils not far from body temp... this stuff is just waiting to go up in smoke. It is usually more expensive than gasoline to boot...

just be careful, and educate yourself