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what's in your parts washer?

the best price I could fine for mineral spirits was about $35 for a 5g bucket. not too bad a price imo, if it would have been odorless. unfortunately, the best price I could find on odorless was $13.69 per gallon.

with diesel being ~$3.50 here, I figured it was worth a try. if I decide I don't like it, I'll look into one of the water based cleaners.
 
some good fluid info and filter info in here . http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120754

my parts washer build thread on there.

and here http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289961
I remember reading that thread. it's what got me thinking about how much I wanted one. :D

I managed to pick this one up for $50 (plus made him throw in some folding chairs I saw sitting in his garage. :P )
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

I do think I'm going to want a flow-through brush like yours at some point though, so I may look into modifying my setup to add that.
 
I picked up some kind of solvent at Oreilly's and it was around $50 for a 5 gal bucket. I ain't doing that no more. I was thinking about mineral spirits, but someone over at GJ suggested simple green. I can't do diesel. The garage is attached. The wife would kill me. Really.

Mine is too. Even the woman can't smell the stuff if she goes in there and tries to. The worst part about diesel to me is my clothes. I pretty much have to leave a sweatshirt in the garage that I can splash on, otherwise it will stink up whatever room I leave it in. I usually have clotches out there that I work in anyway, so I just put that on and wear some long gloves and it's no big deal.

In case it was missed, I used a strip of EPDM door stripping inside the lid of my washer to seal it. Works great and is very airtight.
 
In case it was missed, I used a strip of EPDM door stripping inside the lid of my washer to seal it. Works great and is very airtight.
that's a good call. if I have any odor problems, I'll certainly be doing this.
 
When I had my shop I had a solvent tank and used stoddard solvent.
 
"What's in your parts washer?"

A dead rat.
Gotta clean that thing out one of these days........

Oh, you mean what kind of solvent!!

I never owned one since I had lots of friends with them. But, about a year ago I saw a cheap one at one of those tool sales and bought it.
I think most of the ones I have used had either MS or Kerosene in them, not sure.

But, this one was super cheap, made in china in one of their lesser quality factories, so I did not want to use anything flamable. It had all kinds of warnings about not doing so.
I was afraid the pump motor might detonate.

So, I filled it with Simple Green. Probably a mistake.

It did the job pretty good, but after washing several parts I noticed something strange.
I could not close my left hand.
It was not paralyzed, it just did not close any more.
I held it up next to the other one, and it was about half again bigger than it should be.
It was swollen more than you would believe.

Didn't hurt, itch, or even feel bad.
I turned a hose on it and started washing off the Simple Green. It did not seem to want to wash off.
No matter how much I washed it, it just kept sudsing up.

I could make a fist and foam would appear. I kept washing and scrubbing and gradually the suds went away, and the hand started looking more normal.
It was not a reaction to the stuff, it just had absorbed into the skin and swelled it up.

I still use it, but I make darn sure I use gloves when I do.
 
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