Postby Hasbeen » 22 Nov 2011 05:05
An engineering place should have a caustic bath for cleaning up steel & iron bits, & the pressure washer to get all the muck out afterwards. I use one of them if you can find one near by, they usually don't charge much.
At home I have a spot out the back of the shed where I wash engines, including tractors & paddock bashers. This is about a 10 meter by 15 meter area Which is probably only used once or twice a year, but surprisingly, it is hard to tell, where you did it within a month or 2 of doing a car. You can't do this stuff any more in town.
The water based detergent, & the oily muck off these things doesn't inhibit the grass for very long at all. A small petrol spill, of even a cup full, has a bigger, & longer lasting effect.
Around here we have some very voracious termites, [white ants locally], that can destroy a timber house in 12 months if it isn't protected. You have to get suited up in protective gear to use the stuff that protects wood from them.
Many of us have found a mixture of sump oil & kerosene poured down into the soil around the posts is just as good, & less dangerous. There is competition at the local motor garage for their sump oil, as we don't generate enough ourselves.
Hasbeen