I know part cleaning has been discussed at length in various threads, but I am not finding what I hoped to.

I have stripped (unless the frame and groupset made sense as a whole) about.... 25 road bikes, all good quality bits (Campy, Shimano DA, 600, Ultegra, Ofmega, Mafac, ... you name it.)

I now have to clean them all up, and catalog them. and I am realizing that this is an enormously messy, disruptive (I don't have much space here, much less a true workshop) and time consuming process.

Does anyone have a streamlined system and suggested tools and materials?

Thus far I have:
- stripped, clipped and bagged all the bits.
- I have a small bucket of diesel, next to a small bucket of soapy water, and a bucket of clear water.
- rags for scrubbing and drying.
- extra fine steel wool.
- toothbrushes and dishwashing brushes.
- newspapers for drip drying

I generally have brushing the gunk wih diesel, scrubbing a bit (which seems to desolve but smear the grease around). I then dunk it in soapy water and basically rub the junk off the components.

It's not elegant but it seems to work OK.

does anyone have a better system?

Peter

plain old soapy water probably won't cut it (ha ha). There are water-based formulations designed for degreasing parts- things like Simple Green, Mean Grean, Something-or-other Purple.

If you have some really tough grease, then try Mother's Mag Cleaner- available in auto stores. That comes with a warning- it WILL etch aluminum if you don't thoroughly rinse it off. It will discolor paint as well.

Also, lighter mineral spirits will work better for cutting grease than diesel. That also comes with a potential problem- the vapor pressure will be lower as will the flash point. Basically- you'll be breathing more of the solvent and it's easier to light it on fire.
Even with diesel I would advise working in a well ventilated area (like outside).

The ultimate (well, relatively) will be something like Berryman's Chemtool, carburetor cleaner. Very good at degreasing. Kind of expensive (but you can buy a gallon with a dipping accessory), very flammable.

Rock N' Roll Miracle Red degreaser is great for cleaning chains, chainrings, cassettes, derailleur pulleys, basically anything that is safe to submerge in water. You mix a little bit of the degreaser with water (about 1:4), drop the part in, and it does the rest. All you have to do is let it sit for an hour or so, lightly scrub to remove dirt and gunk that didn't fall to the bottom of the bucket, rinse well with water, and then air dry. There may be more cost effective methods that don't use bicycle specific degreasers, but from my experience this is the best one I've used and a little bit goes a long way.

FWIW, steel wool will scratch off the anodizing on aluminum. Bronze wool and the blue 3M pads will not.

One of the local mechanics @ my LBS recommended of all things, scrubbing bubbles.

I use it as a degreaser combined with a car wash soap & hot water solution. Works pretty well.

I have heard of people like you. We have very different styles. One mantra of mine is, "One thing at a time, start to finish, then clean up."

Let us know when you get a bike put together.

Ultrasonic parts cleaner, the one sold at Harbor Freight for about $60 when it is on sale.

+1 Many of the cleaners (Simple Green, etc), will mess up the anodizing if you are not careful. I use dishwashing soap in my ultrasonic cleaner if part is anodized. I use "Awesome" cleaner (from dollar store), on non-anodized parts.

+1 Avoid abrasives like steel wool.

If your spouse isn't home, pop 'em in the dishwasher.

What you're doing has the advantage of being cheap and pretty effective. The only thing I'd suggest instead of diesel, which stinks to high heaven because it has suphur compounds in it, is proper cleaning solvent such as Varsol. It has a smell but it's not a strong one and it evaporates pretty slowly. It's also excellent at removing grunge when aided with a bit of a scrubb from a regular bristle parts washing brush. From there the wash with water and dish or laundry detergent and the rinse and dry is all you need to get things squeaky clean. Of course steel parts should be lightly oiled after cleaning to avoid rust forming.

Ahh, you have been talking to my wife I see.
You are absolutely correct, I live a horribly distracted, disjointed life.
But the plan is not to rebuild these into anything, not by me anyway. I just thought it might be more efficient to do this in serial batches - all the stripping, all the cleaning, all the photographing, all the cataloging, all the posting... rather than bit by bit.
Furthermore, I figured it was better to get a complete list of all the parts instead of building the list in dribs and drabs.
Might be wrong. We shall see.

though I will take up your challenge and let you know when my Olmo is built back up to ridability.