What do YOU use kerosene for?

According to my Father-ln-Law you can use kerosene for everything. :-)

He cleans tools with it, removes tar with it, removes scuffs on his bumpers with it, takes grass stains off the mower with it......the list goes on. It's kinda like WD40. I'm sure there are folks who rub it on sore joints too.

Refining wise it falls between Gasoline and Lubricating oils on the chart of processing. It's a little cruder than Gas but more refined than your 10W30 Pennzoil.

Oh yeah and it does make starting a fire in the woodstove easier. (NOTE: Even though it burns slower don't over do it here. Remember your eyebrows don't do much but just burn em off once and see how many people notice)

"Bob in Oregon"

I can't answer your questions but want to point out that NOTHING stinks worse than OLD kerosene--as in a lamp.

Long story short, we had a lamp on the mantle for about five years. Thought the (slight) stink was from soil/plants or insulation in old house. Moved. Stink followed. Finally discovered stink coming out of tall lamp chimney. Wife dumped it out onto paper towels to dispose of it. I couldn't breathe. Had to leave the house. Took three days to air out the house.

-Doug

Jet fuel...no, really.

Kerosene can be used in solution with water and applied with newspaper to clean windows (on the outside, of course). As a lubricant for clockworks (non-digital), put some on a feather to oil the spring-driven mechanisms and gears. There are camping lanterns and backpacking stoves that run on kerosene. A bit harder to start, but safer than some other liquid fuels. Somewhat more expensive, however and not quite as available as unleaded gasoline.

#1 diesel fuel.

The BEST material for cleaning packing grease off new tools. Bottom feeders may ignore this advice, since they'll never have packing grease to remove.

-- LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

The FUNNIEST line I've read here in years.

-- LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

I remember as a kid my dad using it "for everything," too.

Cleaning greasy parts is NOT a suprise for me ... using it on rusty tools I'll have to try - that's new to me. I used it quite successfully to get the shipping paste off the cast iron tables of my TS.

-Chris

Bob > I have used kerosene in the past to remove rust from tools. It is also

Don't forget, kerosene is very effective when using it to wash one's = hair.

Kills lice and nits dead.

--=20

PDQ

It would be, WD40 is part kero...

Many old almanacs, etc., tout it as at least an ingredient in many nostrums/elixirs.

I used it for soaking an old carborundum stone I'd bought which was covered in some sort of paste grease, it thouroghly cleaned it. Because of the fumes I let it sit outside on newspaper for a week, which also worked fine.

It won't be a solution. At best it would be an emulsion, but, the real reason for my post...

Clarify where you're putting that oil. Do NOT apply it to the teeth of the gears. At most apply it to the bearings of the gears. Putting it on the teeth assures a gathering of dust and subsequent grinding, er, uh, of teeth.

You are not going to believe this one..

Back on the mid 60's my mother had to go into the hospital to have eye surgery. She remained in the hospital for a couple of weeks and had an elderly lady as a room mate for about 1 week. While visiting my mother a nurse came into the room to prep the elderly lady for her eye surgery and wanted to collect her jewelry and false teeth. The lady looked to be about

kerosene, jet fuel and diesel fuel are *more or less* the same thing. reasonal substitutes for shop tasks like degreasing parts are paint thinner and turpentine. and WD40. the same stuffs are sold as lamp oil, parts degreaser and prolly under a bunch of other labels.

all of the above are fairly oily solvents and can be loosely interchanged. I wouldn't put turpentine in my jet engine or thin paint with WD40, but they will all work fine for unsticking rusty bolts.

Lamps, as you suggest, and for heat: A portable kerosene stove stopped us from freezing during one viscious winter storm. I also happen to have an old Coleman lantern that will work of either white gas or kerosene.

Reason? Cost = Cheap.

Kerosene has so many "uses" because folks used to have it around. It is very similar to mineral spirrits (paint thinner) and can be used in a similar manner. Since mineral spirits is usually cheaper if you don't have a place that sells it in bulk I use that. One not mentioned is mixing it with straight 30w oil as a cleaner preservative for metal. It works better than either one alone.

I am allergic to kerosene. Can not be in a house heated with it.

-Dan V.