I am interested in cleaning my roller blade bearings so that are free of sand.I saw a recommended video to wash the open ball bearings in acetone but I need some help understanding how to get my bearings to run their best.I found some nail polish remover and I am planning to wash the bearings in a small bath unless anyone knows if a more pure formula of acetone might be safer.I'm still doing some research and I found some chemists on the internet mentioned balancing the alcohol to water ratio 1:1 with acetone sort of like with mouth washthey also mentioned that methyl acetate and how it might help to filter it out. I'm wondering I'm now interested in seeing how acetone might react with sand (SiO2) but I'm actually thinking it might just dissolve it.What does everyone else think?Is there a better way to clean bearings? (excluding lube)
Absolutely none of the liquids you mention will react with SiO2 or dissolve it. There is nothing that will dissolve SiO2 that won't also dissolve your bearings. The point of the various bits of advice is that the acetone (or whatever organic solvent) will dissolve the lubricant in the bearings which is holding the sand grains there. Whether you use nail polish remover, or acetone (diluted or not) or gasoline or kerosene or maybe even alcohol doesn't much matter. (Although in all cases you need to observe the safety precautions about inhalation and fire hazards, and keep the solvent off of the upper parts of your roller blades.) Your goal is to remove all the oil (or whatever lubricates your bearings) then let the bearings dry completely. Then you should be able to remove any left over sand by brushing it out of the bearings with something like a soft brush or blowing it out with compressed air. After all the sand is removed, you need to re-lubricate your bearings. (I've been assuming all along that your bearings are metal. If they are not, you need to be careful about your choice of solvents, lest you dissolve your bearing too.) I doubt there is anything else you can do to remove sand from your bearings. In the long run it's probably easier to find a place to roller blade where there isn't so much sand.
