Topic: Storing wintergreen for a few batches of rubber parts ?

[grcamna2]

fiddy,
it was time for some new carb. boots anyway,right ?

[Grinnin]

Since wintergreen oil and water works so well I'm not sure why I'd want xylene in there at all.

When I need brake cleaner or carb cleaner I sometimes reach for the toxic flammable chemicals.  But I can also do a lot of work -- even on brakes and carbs -- with more benign stuff.  Wintergreen oil clearly releases volatile compounds so it's not totally benign but 2 oz of wintergreen oil mixed with water certainly won't make a photo op like that.

[Bailgang]

Since wintergreen oil and water works so well I'm not sure why I'd want xylene in there at all.

When I need brake cleaner or carb cleaner I sometimes reach for the toxic flammable chemicals.  But I can also do a lot of work -- even on brakes and carbs -- with more benign stuff.  Wintergreen oil clearly releases volatile compounds so it's not totally benign but 2 oz of wintergreen oil mixed with water certainly won't make a photo op like that.

When I first heard of the wintergreen trick years ago and did some research on it the xylene/wintergreen mix was the most commonly used mix that I found at least at that time. I'm not a chemist but from what I've read the xylene which acts as a carrier allowing the wintergreen to penetrate the rubber but then evaporate completely leaving the wintergreen behind to do it's thing. I use a 70% xylene to 30% wintergreen mix, once the part I've soaked has been removed from the mix and allowed to air dry with the xylene long evaporated the part will still have a very strong smell of the wintergreen. Fortunately it's not what I would consider a bad smell, best way for me to describe it is imagine a pack of wrigleys spearmint gum but intensify that smell by at least 10 times. Even after the carb boots I had soaked had dried, installed on the bike and the bike ridden more than a few times I would still smell a hint of that wintergreen in the air in my garage coming from the carb boots for at least a couple of weeks. I've never tried a wintergreen/water mix so I can't say which mix is better but the xylene/wintergreen mix works well for me but obviously using water instead of xylene works too. Take your pick.