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Dents Be Gone! wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 12:43 pm Cleaning vinegar is 6% acid. Those are $4-ish.

This other super-vinegar stuff is 30% acid and around $20-ish. Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc. commonly carry it.

https://pfharris.com/products/harris-30 ... -128-fl-oz

got it. thnx.
Of course, that's not something I would have bothered to ever investigate - being that I have other stuff that's plenty strong.

I wonder why anyone would choose that stuff over muriatic?
(I don't use muriatic.)

Hmmm. I just know my dad was at Home Depot, and I said, "while you're at it..." He called me from the register and said the two gallons of vinegar added ~$50 to his total. I wonder what he grabbed now...

By the way, after all of that, one of the 4th valve slides is still catching when pushed all the way in, and the 2nd valve slide still pours out green water. The horn plays 500% better, but it's still not as clean as I'd like. Guess it's still going to need a professional cleaning at some point.

Dents Be Gone! wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 12:43 pm Cleaning vinegar is 6% acid. Those are $4-ish.

This other super-vinegar stuff is 30% acid and around $20-ish. Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc. commonly carry it.

https://pfharris.com/products/harris-30 ... -128-fl-oz

Oh, that's probably it!

It's not about the pH, it's about the concentration (molar concentration--something chemists know about that that I haven't thought about in about 40 years and now couldn't explain if I had to). The acetic acid that is vinegar has a low molar concentration, I gather, relative to other acids. such as the common acid used in professional shops, which is chromic acid. Those sorts of acids require really special handling. But even acetic acid sufficientlly concentrated will damage things.

I have bought industrial cleaning vinegar in higher concentrations (45%) and mixed it with water to dilute it. I use 20% for slides and valves, but only for a short time (following by extended rinsing). That also makes a good pickling bath, but if you leave brass in too long you'll see a pinkish color on the surface (acid flux does this, too), which tells me it ate away a bit of the zinc in the brass on the surface. Too long for mere cleaning duties.

For a longer soak, I dilute it down to 5 or 6%. I use a plastic horse feeding trough I bought from Tractor Supply that is big enough to fully submerge all by my largest tubas. I let them soak for a couple of hours in that weak dilution, and then rinse, rinse, rinse.

I've used a baking-soda neutralizer only to kill acid fluxes after soldering.

Rick "whose saliva doesn't leave calcium deposits as much as it does for some people" Denney

BRS wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2023 10:15 am I wasn’t even aware that easily purchased 45% vinegar existed. Apparently, Tractor Supply stocks gallons of 47%, too. Good to know.

>>>If anyone here is using such a product and is on a septic system, how are you handling it after use to not disrupt your tank/field?

I never pour anything that strong down the drain. I dilute it at least down to 5% and then drain it out into my woods. The drain in my shop goes into a dry well (so it's for gray water only) and I dilute everything before it goes down that drain.

That said, photographic stop bath is also acetic acid, and stronger than cooking vinegar by a long shot. I never had any hesitation about pouring that down the drain, along with running water.

Rick "maybe I was screwing up" Denney

Pour it where some concrete truck made a boo-boo in the road...