Ok did a clean out of my wash tank and stoddard solvent has become way to expensive and can no lonver be bought in bulk in this area. Best I can find is 5 gal buckes for an astronomical price. So heres the thought. Im gona just use plain old kerosene. I dont think it dissolves stuff as good as mineral spirits solvent but the price for the time being is much better. So I got to thinking what could I add to it to make it cut a little better. Things like gas and acetone are out for the obvious reasons! So setting there at my bench thinking about this and staring me right in the face is a bottle of lucas fuel injector cleaner and a light went on! Thinking maybee adding a botle of lucas or a can of sea foam might do the trick. I know when I treat my fuel with lucas you can really smell it in the fuel. Whats your thoughts on this craziness?
I just use diesel fuel in mine- dump a little from time to time when changing fuel filters. It cuts the grime/ oil and stuff off pretty good. And it doesn't dry my hands out as bad as like acetone.
Varsol is what most of 'em use, some oil dealers should have it at a reasonable price, lessn the gubmint has banned it...
Be cautious when using "varsol" or mineral spirits.. They have a process where they are recycling it.. It doesn't work as good & STINKS to HI HEAVEN.. Just a warning if u think the price is TOO GOOD.. ASK>> if its recycled..
So have a safetykleen portable parts washer and a home made unit I run diesel in both, The non portable one is a 5 gallon bucket beneath a kitchen sink, big spin on hydraulic filter and its powered with a small 110v sump pump that seems to hold up just fine, as least for the past few years. I did have to put a valve on the output to slow it down some, think its a 1/8 hp or something, takes a garden hose direct attach. The pump sits up on a wire mesh shelf about 1/4 of the way up in the bucket. The bucket has a plastic bag liner and there is about a gallon and a half of water in the bottom. I have a couple rare earth magnets suspended below the shelf and just above the water line to grab any fine metallics. The oil gets dirty after use but it seems, sitting for a week, it cleans itself out and all the gunk falls into the water. Cleaning is easy, pump off the oil, tip off the rest and toss the bag in the garbage.
The guys I work with today first can't get used to my aversion of using gloves, and second their jaws just drop in disbelief when I dump my hands in a bucket of diesel to get the grease off. It worked for the two previous generations of my family, I can't see any reason why it still won't.........
It seems like the Lucas fuel cleaner would probably have something it it not so good for you plain #2 diesel works out ok though I dont use my parts washer much mostly simple things like de-greasing bearings
Sounds like most of you guys favor diesel fuel. Is that beacuse of price over kerosene? I kinda like kero because it dosent leave as much of a greasy gilm like diesel that you still have to get off with brake cleaner or something that wont leave a grease film. Of course the dirtier it gets its gona leave grease film no matter what. Scored this today. Should cut down on the need for hand scrubbing in a parts washer by a bunch. Hoping this will make my life much easier!
A jet cabnet like that would be great dosent it use a special soap? What kind of work do you do cant you charge your custermers for cleaning stuff? Nice trailer my buddys are useing old boat trailers to haul their portable tree stands.
To get kerosene, I'd have to load up all my diesel jugs, find somewhere that I can even buy it, and drive there and back to fill up the parts washer. I've got a 500 gal diesel tank at the shop, and we are always changing out fuel filters - I just dump the filter fuel in the parts washer. If I've got something small and really nasty/oily/greasy, I'll often just carry it over by the fuel tank, and splash a 1/2 gallon of diesel in a 5 gal bucket with the part and give it a good going over with a rag and a brush, just to keep the mess out of the parts cleaner. I've also filled a weed sprayer with diesel and sprayed down a leaking 3rd member and frame area or a grease/ dirt covered cylinder and let it soak, before hitting it with a power washer. It really cuts through the 80-90 or grease, and then the power washer can get the rest, otherwise the power washer just likes to smear it around. I'm like nige, I don't mind getting a little diesel on me, the wife however, is not enamored with my "cologne like" scent, that seems to waft around me at times. I'd be interested to know how you get along with the cabinet. I've never used one, but I've talked with shops that have them.
that`ll work
I have to drive 25 miles to buy K1. O Reileys has had a good price on solvent. We use it just for important stuff and tools.
The spray cabinets are nice i worked at dealerships with them , i just scored a parts washer that is supposed to have 10 gallons of water in it then 20 gallons of solvent, i need to order some parts for it to make un cobble it from previous owner but the price was rite.ourfuel and oil supplier has a gas pump at the bulk fueling area that is marked virgin varsol so that will be my solvent choice as i am not found of smelling like diesel and my wife even less .
I do excavating and run dump trucks. There is always something broken and in need of fixing. Washing parts and washing equipment takes a huge part of my time! I am hoping with this jet washer I will gain some time to put to actually turning wrenches! I hired a guy last summer to wash trucks and equipment! He was out the door after I caught him standing on the hood fender to wash windows. How dumb do you gotta be to think that would be ok! The scratches are still on the fender where he spun around after steping up on the fender to get pointed the right way! It was all I could do to keep from ripping him off the hood and stomping him! The boat trailer works great for small loads like that and is far cheaper to run than a pick up. One thing i would do different on a boat trailer conversion is to square the deck off on the front rather than have the boat shaped taper. The one thing I did right which has been great was put a tie down loop fir straps 1 every foot down the sides. They are little piecec for welding on fence poles to tie barbed wire to. They are cheap as can be like .16 apeice!
I usually buy kerosene at hoods. I know Danny's service station in town sells it also. I never did mind having my hands in it or the smell. Thats not even the issue. The only thing i never liked about stoddard solvent was how it dries my skin out. I hate wearing gloves and just feel like i cant do **** with em on. Like i say my only beef with diesel is it leaves a oily film which you still need to rinse with something like brake cleaner. Nothing like brake cleaner fumes in the morning for a good contact high lol!
Whats that virgin varsol cost per gallon? Never heard of it i wonder what it is
Whats a good price? I think its over $100 for five gallons. Thats just crazy to pay $20 a gallon when i used to be able to buy it bulk for under $5 a gallon!
Its mineral spirits varsol is a brand name , its expensive but boss man will be buying it, in just supplying the parts washer and i will have my own lock on the lid so no one can nasty it up , prumary use is gonna be for engine parts we have a crappy tank if people wanna wash of gross stuff, i bought 5 gallons at advance awhile ago with our discount it was 75 bucks
As far as what soap or detegent to use in the washer cabinet im going to have to do somd reasearch. I know in my hotsy pressure washer i have tried all manner of expensive soaps and detergents all claiming to be the best and honestly none of them work any better or as good as just plain old regular tide laundy detergent! And its cheaper by a bunch! Thats probably what I will use!
I used a hot water cleaner like that for years.. its handy.. Servicing it was a PITA tho.. u gotta keep the nozzle jets clear. & watch that water level.. If the level gets to low, it exposes the heating element & starts to smoke.. There should be a catch basket in one of the corners for "big stuff" that gets knocked off.. ..just keep the water level to the very bottom of that basket & you'll be ok.. The soap POWDER we used came in 55 gal. containers from ZEP.. it was actually floor cleaner & was measured in POUNDS to add to the washer.. something like 7 lbs on a fresh start-up.. Put the washer near a water hose.. or within reach of a hose.. cuz you'll be adding water often.. AND.. the parts that come out of it will burn the hide off of you.!!! You'll wanna cool them off before picking them up.. SERIOUSLY.. Good find..
This is interesting to me. Years ago I tried an old dishwasher that was on the junk pile by the shop. We had no hot water but it had its own heater so I filled it with cold, and some powdered dishwasher soap on some old crusty parts. After ages of running it got the water hot, but the parts came out very clean, but with some tremendous barnacles of corrosion I presumed because the detergent was too corrosive. So I never took the idea any further.
Where I worked we had what I recall was a Hotsy wash cabinet. Got it a couple years before upper management decided to farm out 95% of the repair work. When we were still doing most of the engine work in house it worked fine. Not 100% clean on some parts but sure saved a lot of work. Basically just a rotating basket you put parts in and had a U-shaped pipe with spray nozzles and a built in heater. Problem was once we were cut way back on in shop work it went for months at a time and corrosion and settlement of crap did it in.
We called that a jet cleaner/washer. Standard practice for automatic transmission cases. After hot tanking went out of favor, flame cleaner/shot blaster was standard practice for iron engine parts but I would also wash the old IDI pickup heads in them to avoid heating up the iron to the point that the pressed in prechambers fell out. The machine shop guys looked at me funny but they came clean. I think my problem above was not having the correct jet cleaner detergent in the dishwasher. There must be some corrosion inhibitors not present in household dishwasher soap. Whatever detergent is used must be low suds. Ever seen what happens when a dishwasher gets loaded with regular soap?
Yes one thing I have been thinking about is the fact that I am not going to be using this thing every day and it may set for months at a time between use. This creates a couple of problems. Number one being the corrosion issues of something like that setting idle. The second being that I dont want to keep it plugged in just to keep the water hot and ready. I think this would just be to much expense in energy cost. So the problem with shutting it off is that in the winter my shop is not insulated nd only heated when im in it. Damage caused by freezing is a real posibility. I have had a couple of thoughts on what to do to combat these issues. First is to add a 110v imersion heater hooked to a thermocouple that can keep the water at a temp just above freezing. Still an energy drain but not as bad as keeping it at operating temp all the time. Plus it would only be on when temps dip blow 45 to 40 degrees. This solves the freezing issue but not the corrosion issues. So the next thought I had was to drain the machine entirely between uses and long idle times. I am thinking I can pump the solution onto a plastic barrel where if it freezes it just does not matter. I can pump it back into the machine for use. The only ofher problem I can see with this is a large amount of time needed to heat the water. Threre would need to be some pre planning and preperation before use. Kind of a P.I.T.A. but still better that constantly damaging the machine creating more projects which I dont have time for!
The drain and plan sounds like a good idea. What's the inside of the cabinet look like? My thought would be this, go to your big box store and get a pair of 5kw heating elements for a hot water heater, put it near the circulator pump intake. After filling, turn on the circulation pump and apply some good 240v power to the two heating elements, they'll draw about 40 amps combined but maybe 60 on startup. They usually use a standard pipe thread to screw into. I'm suggesting running the pump as well because they're meant to be under pressure and without pressure, the water will just boil on the surface, overheating them. Moving the water will help reduce this problem.
Re draining, I'd drain, blow out with air pressure, and refill with a couple gallons of red RV antifreeze, to keep the bits from corroding. Or build a small heated bit, in the shed, I gots a walmart 1500 watt electric heater, that has a keeps from freezing setting, on da switch... Works great, in the tiny office I have above my shop...
I doubt seriously that it would freeze w/ the cleaning agent in the water ?? & I don't think any damage would happen, given the size of the water container itself ?? but its "yours" & your the one who has to fix it if I'm wrong.. just thinkin outloud.
I wanna say this thing holds about 20 to 25 gal of water. Its a smaller unit. I think a small block chevy block may be about its limit. Still its gona be great for washing brake drums, wheel hubs and shoes on trucks that had wheel seals go out! For the size of my shop its about all I can handle for now. Anyhow the inside of the machine looks real good and not all rusted if thats what you were asking. It should already have 220v heaters on it. I just mentioned the 110v element for a cheap way to keep it above freezing. For quick heat up im wondering if i can figure a way to cycle the solution through a hotsy coil. I also have a couple of diesel fired old webasto units. The only thing that suks with those is they are 24v units.
110v barnyard stock tank heater with its own thermostat?
If you had the space and inclination, get a small junk chest freezer, cut/melt a barrel to fit, put a garden pond pump in the bottom of it, one tube running to your cleaner, close the lid and put a top on it so it's not all wasted floor space. Those 20 gallons in a chest freezer will never freeze in Missouri. DON'T listen to thepumpguy in SOUTH CAROLINA Then again, I don't know how cold it gets in your shop, if you want to keep the washer full and not freezing get a couple of old heat tapes with the thermostats in line in the cord, put the thermostat right against the tank and the tape layed out under the tank and some sheet metal to keep the heat in place.
Well the old casters on this unit were flat spotted and broken out in the hubs so it wouldnt roll. $22 and a trip to harbor frieght I have new casters on it. Rolls like a champ! I am amazed at how some companies take advantge of you if your not smart enough to do some reasearch. First case in point: i was looking at detergent to put in it. A local pressure washer store here sells a powdered product right at about $100 for 40 lbs of it. They say for the amount of water I have I need about 10 lbs of powder in the solution. That $25 every time I change the water and I can only do that 4 times per container. Ok so then I called hotsy and they have a super concentrated liquid detergent in a 5 gal bucket for $68. But heres the thing for the amount of water I have I only need 36 ounces. Thats just a hare over a quart. That means I can change my water 17 times for $4 per change out. I bought the Hotsy soap !!! Second case in point. Cleaning out my tank I noticed my heating element was screwed and couldnt possibly have worked even though the seller said everything works as should! Ok so I resigned myself to my fate and removed the heater element. Called bend pak which is who makes the ranger washer line and thier price for the heating element is $111.87! Thats kind of a big fat ouch! Well setting here looking at this heater i noticed a part number on it. Plug it in to a search engine and its sold by grainger and I can pick one up tommorow for $20.67! Now thats a huge price difference! How can bend pak justify gouging you for that much when it cost a fifth of thier price. Thats just criminal! Im getting so fed up with companies trying to take advantage of me!!!
Just had a thought how about something like this: https://katsblockheater.com/oil-pan-heaters Just stick it to the bottom of the tank and use the Thermo Cube Thermostat that they show to the right of the page to have it only come on when shop temp drops close to 32ºF. Just assuming you are only worried about the water/soap solution freezing. Says they are available in the following sizes 25, 50, 100, 150, 250, 500 watt models.
Yes I dont know that the tank freezing would hurt it its the pump im worried about most. Usually the pump is submerged in the tank but this one is external. If you drain the tank you also have to drain the pump to get it all.
Surely if the water was warm from a tank heater, the intake line would keep the pump warm enough to keep it from freezing? We used to keep a pressure washer in iowa, in a homemade oversized doghouse built inside a unheated building. Insulated the inside of the little shack with foam board, and hung a heat lamp in it, and it never froze.
You forget one thing. My luck suks! I just cant afford to take chances. On my hotsy pressure washer i have a tank with antifreezein it. After in done i flip the valves and run it till green comes out the hose. That way i know for certain it wont freeze! When i go to use it i just flip the valves and run the antifreeze back into the tank till its clear and not green. Its so easy and 100 percent fool proof. Gona be a little harder to do something with the spray wash cabinet due to the volume needed.
Is there enough space to somehow get a shutoff valve in each line so that you could isolate the pump from the tank then drain the pump housing from that hex plug at the bottom..?
Maybe if needed remount the pump a couple inches further back to make room for the valves and install a ball valve in the port at the bottom of the pump?
Getting back to the homemade cleaning solution.. Anybody ever watch the video's about the HF parts washer tanks.?? 1 guy buys his solution in 5-10 gal pails.. I don't remember the name of it tho.. gonna go back & watch. The video is something about> Hacks to the HF parts washer tank.. Where he takes the whole thing & mounts it to a furniture dollie & adds an additional scotchbrite pad scrubber/strainer..
That was pretty much my plan to put a pipe and ball valve in tbe pump drain port just like you say. Then also gona put a ball valve on the tank drain. I can lif the whole unit up and dump it in a plastic barrel. May even make a metal barrel one with anotjer imersion heater so I can pre heat it or thaw it out for use. Nice thing about a metal one is i can put a ball valve on it and use tje forklift again to dump it in the machine. No pumping needed lol! I think id rather it rust out a metal barrel tjan rust out the machine so complete removal to me would be ideal for long term setting idle
I had to start cleaning EGR coolers and valves on our Dodges so I purchased a ultrasonic cleaner for 500 bucks off ebay and filled it with straight purple power and it makes your parts look like new after couple 30 minute cycles!!!
You might wanna get a replacement anode, from a HW tank, and install it in the tank. Might keep some parts from corroding...
I'm wondering if an anode should be sourced from the local marina?
The BIGGEST PITA was leaving the parts sit in the washer after its done.. 1-2 days.. The soap would dry on the parts & was almost impossible to get off + rust.. not so much the rust, but the soap drying.. suk'd big time.. Lemme tell ya, u only do that once or twice.!!! & RE-running it didn't help AT ALL. {I don't know why} IF you rinse it/them off w/ clean water there isn't any problems.. but if u let them sit in that tank w/ the heater going, your in for a day of scrubbing. MY process was> washer, rinse, blow dry,... varsol, blow dry, wire wheel, varsol again, blow dry. If u varsol your parts LAST & give it a quick blow dry, u can let the parts sit for an extended period of time without them rusting.. I'm not talkin about BONE dry.. just a quickie to keep it from dripping as your carrying the parts away to your assembly bench. THAT worked for me for 25-30 years.. I use to watch the guys who were IN LOVE w/ the air hose.. blow their parts BONE dry & complain that the Varsol was no good.. so they started spraying everything w/ penetrating oil or some kind of oil based nonsense.. SO THAT would dry on their parts & they'd have to go back & clean the parts ALL OVER AGAIN before assembly.. idiots.
Used Stoddard for years bare handed, as well would have a bucket of ATF of some blends would rough was then go to diesel then move to soap and water to cut the diesel. Can still remember first contract shop I worked around, they used Methyl Ethyl Ketone(MEK) as a cleaner, but WAS NECESSITY to wear gloves(most did not Me either) weird stuff could taste it as soon as touched it, found to absorb THROUGH skin, Hard on the liver. Who knows what lurks inside of me from all the crap had MY hands in. Nuke mechanic shop used biodegradable water based cleaners, CRAP worthless. Stick with diesel, maybe knock heaviest HARD buildups down with acetone AND GLOVES then go to diesel.
Doing what I do best, asking stupid questions, in the heated cabinet, why not just use old antifreeze that is drained out of machines and do the pump thing just like your pressure washer and circulate the used antifreeze once your done for the winter, its what I do for my pressure washer. Most shops have barrels of used antifreeze they'd love to give away, cost would be nothing and a 55 gallon barrel sitting beside the cabinet can't be that bad to have around??
The cheapest I have found is the 5 gallon pale of parts washer fluid at Tractor Supply. It is $39.00 here and does as good as mineral spirits and has no smell.
I'd put a couple of turns of heat tape around the pump.