Bobbo wrote:
An oil as a degreasing agent? Grease is just oil mixed in with a soap to make it firm.
No.
It's a bit more complicated than this but if you break a barrel of crude down, it comes in a variety of components that run from very thin and easily evaporated (ie: naptha) to very thick to the point of being almost rock hard (ie: asphalt)
In between are a wide variety of products of varying viscosity and evaporability.
By mixing a thinner product with a thicker product, it will soften or even liquefy the thicker product. It's technically not allowed but paving crews would often have a bucket of diesel and they would dip their shovels in it occasionally as it would dissolve the asphalt off their tools.
So yes, a petroleum products can be used to degrease. The problem with WD-40 in this application is it doesn't evaporate completely, so the remaining thicker products left after evaporation tend to catch and trap dust and grit.
