View GarageWith pleaty of time on hand recently it was a good opportunity to do a makeover on the parts washer. The usual story this cheap Chinese Wuhan parts washer didnt last long and the pump shit it self. I was going to bin it, but decided that the only thing worth sulvaging was the actual basin.
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Removed the legs and decided to use an old 60lt oil drum, Cut a hole in the basin and fitted a 2" basin drain with strainer to keep the bigger bit of crap out of the storage drum. This drum had a bung 50mm from the bottom so it was a good place for a pump pickup. This allows for 50mm sediment which should last some time before cleanouts. I picked up a 12v pump from the local RTM shop for $30 everything else I had sitting around the shed. I used an old battery charger which powers the pump and a battery isolation switch to turn it on and off. I also fitted a 12v LED reversing light to brighten it up, getting close to needing sun glasses when using but its easy to see when thing are clean and inspect the parts for any damage (never come with a light originally). Although it was a bath type washer originally with a small pump, it was a bugger to wash parts as they sit in all the crap in the bottom and made it harder to get things clean. It had a shelf to wash parts out of the fluid but it was so weak it bent with a tiny amount of weight and collapsed to the bottom of the basin and all the small parts got lost in the crap at the bottom.
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I cut out some plywood (round) and fitted 4x caster wheels to it and sit it under the rolled lip on the underside of the drum. I can move it around the shed easy to my work bench or out the back to dump the old washer fluid.
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I can even run the washer outside if needed and run it off a battery so don't even need 240v There is a plug in the basin so I can flood it to soak thing overnight if needed, I think I have all my bases covered. I have always used hydrocarbons fluid to wash parts and have tried waterbased fluids previously, but have been very disapointed with their performance. I was talking to the local Bursons parts shop salesman and he recomended using a new water base parts cleaner they had. It was going to cost me less than using kero so decided to give it a go. 20lts will make 180lts of washer fluid as it states to mix with water a 6-1 ratio, but like all of us think stronger is better right, so I mixed it to 2 1/2-1 ratio. 20lts of concentrate is only $58.00. Very impressive it actually works better than the kero and Safety clean parts washer previously used over the past 25 years. I mixed the parts washer fluid storage/drum level to half full 30lts so should last some time between servicing. I am overhauling some more power steering rack kits so it was a great opportunity to give it a good test. I took bugger all scrubbing to get all the parts nice and clean. The only criticism i have is you need to blow dry the parts as they can otherwise dry and leave white streaks on clean parts. Otherwise very impressed. Even with the strong ratio it doesnt eat into my hands as much as hydrocarbons fluid, but like all cleaning fluids it will dry your hands out after a while. In the first photo you can see a ring around the basin from the kero previously used. I tried to remove it with wax grease remover but did bugger all. When I used the water base fluid it removed the stain within five minutes without touching or having to scrub it, just wet it with fluid from the pump outlet and it dissolved in no time flat.
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