ZEXXX
New member
Build your own parts washer cheaply and easily. Caution, use only approved environmentally safe solvent. ]
It consists of only a few basic parts. I used a sink that I found in a stream bed after a flood. It sits on a homemade frame made with angle iron from old bed frames salvaged from the dump. The tank is a standard 15 gallon drum barrel with a top that has a standard bung hole in it's center.
This shows the plumbing adapters that I needed to reduce the sink drain down to a reasonable size and dump into the tank.
This picture shows the tank. The second bucket is a 5 gallon paint type. It has many holes punched onto the bottom for the solvent to flow through. I use 3 layers of any soft cloth (old "T" shirts work well) cut in a circle and laying in the bottom. The inner bucket is a one gallon paint bucket with holes in it's bottom and only one more round cloth as a filter. I change it more often than the larger one. The dirty solvent must pass through a grate in the sink, through the first filter in the one gallon bucket, through the 3 layers of filter cloth in the 5 gallon bucket and then into the 15 gallon barrel. It works fairly well.
Here you can see the pump. The pump just sits, immersed, on the bottom of the barrel. The first pump was whatever I found laying around, but it failed after only 6-8 years. This one is a Little Giant pump that I bought from WW Grainger for maybe $15. It lasted about 18 years and only broke recently (2001) when I pulled it out to photograph it for this page. See the broken outlet in the upper left? Just about any pump will work just great. I just replaced the exact pump, but slightly improved, for $70. Not so cheap.
You can see that I really didn't spent a lot of money on this item
There is nothing fancy about a parts cleaner. Find any sink. You could fasten it on the wall and not need a frame. Don't mount it on the 15 gallon barrel like Safety Kleen does, as that is too low, unless you are under 5' tall. Make anything to filter the solvent. I keep my "old" solvent and often use it for soaking and pre-cleaning really nasty parts. My current solvent stays clean much longer that way. I bought a 55 gallon drum of it from Chevron over 25 years ago and am just now using the last of it. It has been my only real expense. The flexible nozzle and hose is an official one from a real parts washer that my old Safety Kleen service guy gave me. I turn it on with a standard wall switch. I used a ground fault type outlet for the parts cleaner. I painted everything on it one day when I was painting other things. I have a back splash made from an old metal sign. I used whatever I had as I was over 50 miles from any type of supply place. Besides I like to improvise. Research and use only approved solvents.
I FOUND THAT WHEN I WAS SEARCHING ON GOOGLE ,IM DOIGN IT TOMOROW
It consists of only a few basic parts. I used a sink that I found in a stream bed after a flood. It sits on a homemade frame made with angle iron from old bed frames salvaged from the dump. The tank is a standard 15 gallon drum barrel with a top that has a standard bung hole in it's center.
This shows the plumbing adapters that I needed to reduce the sink drain down to a reasonable size and dump into the tank.
This picture shows the tank. The second bucket is a 5 gallon paint type. It has many holes punched onto the bottom for the solvent to flow through. I use 3 layers of any soft cloth (old "T" shirts work well) cut in a circle and laying in the bottom. The inner bucket is a one gallon paint bucket with holes in it's bottom and only one more round cloth as a filter. I change it more often than the larger one. The dirty solvent must pass through a grate in the sink, through the first filter in the one gallon bucket, through the 3 layers of filter cloth in the 5 gallon bucket and then into the 15 gallon barrel. It works fairly well.
Here you can see the pump. The pump just sits, immersed, on the bottom of the barrel. The first pump was whatever I found laying around, but it failed after only 6-8 years. This one is a Little Giant pump that I bought from WW Grainger for maybe $15. It lasted about 18 years and only broke recently (2001) when I pulled it out to photograph it for this page. See the broken outlet in the upper left? Just about any pump will work just great. I just replaced the exact pump, but slightly improved, for $70. Not so cheap.
You can see that I really didn't spent a lot of money on this item
There is nothing fancy about a parts cleaner. Find any sink. You could fasten it on the wall and not need a frame. Don't mount it on the 15 gallon barrel like Safety Kleen does, as that is too low, unless you are under 5' tall. Make anything to filter the solvent. I keep my "old" solvent and often use it for soaking and pre-cleaning really nasty parts. My current solvent stays clean much longer that way. I bought a 55 gallon drum of it from Chevron over 25 years ago and am just now using the last of it. It has been my only real expense. The flexible nozzle and hose is an official one from a real parts washer that my old Safety Kleen service guy gave me. I turn it on with a standard wall switch. I used a ground fault type outlet for the parts cleaner. I painted everything on it one day when I was painting other things. I have a back splash made from an old metal sign. I used whatever I had as I was over 50 miles from any type of supply place. Besides I like to improvise. Research and use only approved solvents. I FOUND THAT WHEN I WAS SEARCHING ON GOOGLE ,IM DOIGN IT TOMOROW
