Best way to clean pine sap off your stuff? (1 Viewer)

[e9999]

In my zeal to protect my stuff from the powers that be, I stored (hid?) a bunch of stuff, mostly metal but also some plastic under some pine trees in a far corner of my place and let it sit there for a long time. Eh, I never claimed to be very smart, right...!
Anyway, now the stuff is covered in pine sap...
I'll need to clean some of it up.
Did a cursory search on the web and the obvious popped up: veggie oil, non-stick spray, WD40, mineral spirits, acetone, and the like. Also some less obvious like alcohol and hand sanitizer. Tried them all with little success, although oddly, the alcohol worked best. Still not good enough. Kinda removes stuff but there is a lot left even with arduous scrubbing. Interestingly, the really dried stuff is comparatively easier to remove by scraping than the gummy stuff, at least at first.

So gotta ask: Do you know of a miracle cleaner for pine sap? If not, what worked best for you? TIA

 

[snobdds]

Well, I use Diesel fuel or Mayonnaise.

I always soak chainsaw chains in Diesel before sharpening. If i get pitch on my hands, i use mayo. Moisturizer as well. Mayo really works good, an old time logger told me this, didn't believe him, but I tried it.

 

[Krondor]

Have you tried GooGone? I found that stuff works to take off most anything.

 

[OTRAMM]

hot water and dish soap does a good job as well.

 

[e9999]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I'm out of Googone but good idea. Should get some again. Will try hot water, not thought of that...

 

[e9999]

well, I made some progress. Finally came up with a reasonable -if not magical unfortunately- approach for dried sap. Best way that I tried so far at least. (That does not require a lot of precious anti-Covid Alcohol...)

First, I scrape off most of the sap droppings with a razor blade (if the surface allows, don't do that on your freshly-painted beloved cruiser, of course). That removes most of it and makes the underlying surface coat reachable.
Then I put some full strength Zep degreaser concentrate on the remaining sap. Let it soak in for a bit, like a minute or so.
A bit of scrubbing with a plastic bristle brush to emulsify the stuff.
A bit of rag rubbing to remove it. (Change rags frequently or you'll smear the stuff some place else.)
And it's mostly or all gone. Not perfect and could be still slightly tacky in places if not spending a lot of time.
But acceptable and does not take inordinately long.

Now, it's still a pain and takes some time, though, so I'm moving all my stuff out from under that tree.

 

[Mauser]

WD-40 and a paper towel.

 

[Mauser]

Well, I use Diesel fuel or Mayonnaise.

I always soak chainsaw chains in Diesel before sharpening. If i get pitch on my hands, i use mayo. Moisturizer as well. Mayo really works good, an old time logger told me this, didn't believe him, but I tried it.

I believe the mayo works because of the oil on it. Straight corn oil works good too.

I use charcoal lighter fluid or gasoline on my bars. Diesel is a better idea though.

 

[e9999]

Not tried gasoline yet, but tried WD40 and various oils incl veggie oil. And mineral spirits. None of that worked as well as the alcohol (and to a lesser extent the Zep) for me. If I dab the sap with isopropyl alcohol and then leave a wet paper towel on top of it for a while to decrease evaporation, it literally wipes right off. But still faster to scrape off most of it first.