Parts Washing Tank

Started by MiniDave, June 14, 2021, 01:37:29 PM

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MiniDave

If you do any serious mechanical work in your shop one of these is indispensable. I bought mine in 1990 from Harbor Freight and it came with a gallon of their water based cleaner, you mix it with 10 gallons of water IIRC. I poured it in and washed a few parts and the next time I opened the lid I noticed all of the paint was off where the solvent had sat! I was not a happy camper as it didn't do that great a job of cleaning parts either, so I decided to reinvent the wheel as it were.

Instead of having the solution just sit in the tank I decided to make it work like a Safety Kleen tank, with a barrel of solvent and a pump in the tank, allowing the scum and greasy stuff to go back to the bottom of the tank.

So I took the pump off the side of the tank and bolted it to a piece of SS bar stock, then ran the hose up and attached it to the flexible pipe, plugged it all in and set it on a tank of Safety Kleen solvent ($167 for 25 gallons at the time) and used it for years and years.

About 10 years ago I called them up for another 25 gallon barrel of juice and they said $425, delivered!   :-\

We used a company called Crystal Clean for our solvent at school so I called them. They brought over a new barrel and hauled off the old by now completely nasty stuff for - guess what? - $167!

Today they called me and asked if I needed a new barrel and I said sure, come on by. Delivered - $200. I guess everything has gone up now.

He offered to help me set the tank back up on the barrel but I said I needed to fix the light in my tank first, and said he had a brand new LED light I could have if I wanted it. He'd delivered a new tank to a customer that came with this light and the guy didn't want it so I could have it. Sure I said!

So, got that installed and boy howdy is it bright!

Now my tank is not only clean but I can see what I'm doing too!

I prefer safety solvent as I think it does a better job of cleaning - although I think the water soluble solutions work better than mine did if you heat them up first.....but I had no way to do that.

This tank and pump have now been working for me for 31 years! Can not complain about that!

In this pic you can clearly see where the level of the old solvent was.....

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad