Stupid question but I clean my bearings with white spirit/mineral spirits and to not waste any I decided to put the white spirit in a jar and re-use it when cleaning the bearing. Is this bad in anyway?
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Don’t do it…Any contaminants that are left in the used mineral oil will be induced back into the next bearing you attempt to clean.
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I’d agree with @KiLbUcK on principal here, but… if you’re really concerned about conservation for any particular reason:
Used mineral spirits in this scenario might be useful for a first wash of responsive bearings packed with heavy oil or grease. Just pour off the used solvent into a clean container first, so that the majority of the settled sediment doesn’t get reintroduced.
Then use fresh solvent for any further cleaning of the same bearing.
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I’ve used mineral spirits a ton and i know it evaporates fast, wouldn’t it just evaporate if you left it in a jar?
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Nah I use rubbing acholol and its fine
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As long as it is sealed, then no.
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If the jar is airtight, it won’t have anywhere to evaporate to. Only issue would be if it degraded the seal, compromising the airtightness (which something like acetone will do). But weaker solvents like alcohol seem to be fine.
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