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What do you use/what’s your setup look like?

I have a 100-gallon plastic horse trough that I fill and empty with whatever I need to use. I generally only use grocery store food-strength white vinegar these days, having had too many issues with disposal and storage of *real* chemicals. It cleans inside tubes and valves, does not eat tin-lead solder in any way that I have ever seen, removes silver soldering "glass," and removes rust from steel parts. (Since vinegar can lead to hydrogen embrittlement in HHS and spring steel if you leave it in the vinegar for too long, don't ever use it on rusty engine, driveline, or suspension hardware for a vehicle.)

I used to use Barkeepers Friend to clean subassemblies after soldering, but but found that the oxalic acid leaves a residue that prevents further soldering. Regardless of how much flux you apply, the stuff will not flow over a joint if you have ever used oxalic acid on it and not based it with a baking soda scrub. It just won't. Or it never would for me. I have to make a baking soda paste and scrub the parts with that. By the time I was done, the result was not worth the extra work. BF really makes bare brass look great, though. But never again.

I used to use chromic and muriatic acids, but hated working with them in my home. At the music store in a place properly set up for working with and storing the stuff: fantastic.

I don't own an ultrasonic tank. I don't own a heated tank. No one has yet died because of this. I hope to maintain that record for as long as possible.

What is dilution of vinegar you use... It's 5% out of the bottle.. hour much do you cut it further?

I use Heinz white vinegar straight, which is weak enough.

Been toying with the idea of stronger stuff here, but seems like a bad plan with a kiddo about.

I also use vinegar, specifically "cleaning" vinegar, but muriatic acid is fairly inexpensive and likely much quicker. I just don't know about storing it and handling it. Not anything I'd like to delve into right now, just curious what folks do. I've heard of some people using trash cans.

Home Depot usually sells gasketed, air-tight containers made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), which is the most commonly used material to store any of the hydrochloric acids long-term. But run-off and disposal are issues. I would avoid it if water system-safe vinegar is adequate.

gocsick wrote: Wed Sep 03, 2025 8:01 pm What is dilution of vinegar you use... It's 5% out of the bottle.. hour much do you cut it further?

If you want to maybe up the cleaning power and lower the cost look at glacial acetic acid. ~100% pure, I used to buy it to use in the darkroom for $12 a gallon. 19 gallons of water mixed in would get you 20 gallons of vinegar at a fraction of the cost.

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