This may not solve everything but it's what I use.

I have an old collander and a rattle can of brake or carb/throttle body
cleaner from an auto parts store. I just squirt off the small parts in the
collander. Call it a poor mans parts cleaner. It's a pretty agressive
solvent so be careful what you use it on. The collander can also be used to
soak parts in a can of solvent.

For polish, why not use a fiber polishing wheel charged with some brass
polish. Comet copper and stainless cleaner from the kitchen also works on
some metals.

Bill Daniels


"Ron Wanttaja" wrote in message
...
(Original question was about how to clean a thick layer of grease and dirt
off
some old turnbuckles with minimum manual effort.)

Just as an update to folks...I ran one turnbuckle through the dishwasher.
Did
well at taking off the surface crud, but it didn't really shine up the
metal.

Going to try the rock-polisher next. My wife has a small one, with
buckshot-sized media for cleaning metal for jewelry work. Think the media
is
too large, so I might try (unused) kitty litter.

Ron Wanttaja