I have spent hours researching online and trying off the shelf products and have found nothing that works as good as the original cleaner. Here is a list of properties that the original cleaner had that these other off the shelf products don't:
-Won't continue to corrode metal if the cleaner isn't completely removed.
-If a layer of the cleaner is left on the metal and buffed off later it leaves a protective finish
-Works like magic in taking off rust/oxidation without seeming to harm the surrounding metal
-After cleaning, the protective finish is measured in millionths of an inch only (yes we do measure that small in a gage lab)
That's when I had the idea of pulling the SDS to see what the cleaner was made of. It turns out it uses five ingredients; All of which are easily accessible and cheap. So my question is can I make several gallons of this myself? Here is a list of the composition with weight percentages:
Water - N/A CAS #- 50-70% weight
Silica - 14808-60-7 - 30-35% weight
2 Propanol - 67-63-0 - 2-5% weight
Oxalic Acid - 144-62-7 - 1-3% weight
Ammonia Hydroxide - 1336-21-6 - 2-5% weight
Oleic Acid - 122-80-1 - 2-5% weight
I did find a forum where someone was making something similar, here are the instructions he gave:
Can I follow those same instructions and add the silica dust at the very end as that seems to be the only difference between the two? Any other idea's or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!"1 liter 99% isopopyl alcohol
3 liters distilled water
50g oxalic acid
60g oleic acid
approximately 80g of 24% ammonia
To mix, heat the alcohol until very warm in a big pot, add oxalic and oleic acid and mix well, add the water, the solution goes all cloudy. Add the ammonia, slowly, stirring, until the solution turns clear, that's the right amount of ammonia. It's a rather abrupt change. At this point the ammonia has combined with the oleic acid to form a soap."
