I am about ready to get a new Parts Washer. After poking around a bunch here is what I think I want along with compatible Washing Fluid. Washer tank has fire saftety latch but the pump can only handle water base solvent. Any thoughts? www.eastwood.com/catalog/product/view/id/27291/s/20-gallon-parts-washer-flowthru-brush-parts-basket/? www.eastwood.com/catalog/product/view/id/521/s/metal-wash-7-oz/?
Looks just like the one at Harbor Freight and Tractor Supply. I ended up getting the Tractor Supply version (on sale for $89.00) and 15 gal of their solvent based cleaner (PSC 1000). Works great. I've had no issues with the pump. (Links below) https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...MIs9Cer52p8QIVaR6tBh05pAwwEAQYASABEgLRDPD_BwE https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/crown-psc-1000-parts-cleaner-5-gal?cm_vc=-10005
That's about right. Close to $50 for 5 gal. It takes about 11-13 gal to fully cover the pump intake. A 15 gal fill is about perfect on mine. A water based cleaner would've been much cheaper but I prefer petroleum based solvents.
Scofflaw, how long have you been using this parts washer with solvent in it? Many reviews on their website saying the pump only lasts five minutes with solvent in it.
There was just a fairly long thread on this same topic. It pretty much boiled down to pump/cleaner compatibility.
I bought a parts washer at TSC and PSC 1000. Turns out the PSC 1000 fluid wasn't compatible with the pump. The tech at the washer manufacturer said they had advised TSC about this issue in the past. I took everything back. I bought another washer from Amazon IIRC. The pump in it failed even thought it was supposed to be OK for the mineral spirits I was using. Used it without a pump for a while and finally broke down and bought another pump. Little Giant pump and all is OK now.
My thoughts: Try to find a used old style solvent tank locally, a lot of shops are phasing them out. In any case, use petroleum type solvent in a machine made for it. We have the water base ones at work and they are constantly giving problems, and need expensive fluid changed regularly. The old solvent tanks never failed in decades and do a good job on oily, greasy stuff. Also, there are dozens of brands of solvent that are basically all the exact same fraction of distillate that comes out of the refinery.
I’ve Ben using it since last October. Still working well. Maybe the Tractor Supply pump is different, but it visually looks the same as Eastwood?
Cleaned out the 20 year old stuff a couple of years ago.. big mistake, it was still working, but dirty as hell. Thought I'd try mineral spirits. Being a dumbass, I picked up the "green" version. It'd be easier to lick the dirty parts as soak it in this shit. Then tried purple stuff. IMHO, it sucks, too. Now I'm back to real mineral spirits. So far, so good. I guess I'm spoiled. Back in the 70s, working on cars and greasy Harley parts, the stuff we used damn near smoked the parts clean. I know it was dangerous, but it worked. As far as I'm concerned, if you want to use water based stuff, just take the parts into the shower with you, and use shampoo. Probably work better.
Think it was Amazon but I'll check tomorrow to see if I still have any info. Just checked my Amazon history: Bought it in June of last year. Still works but it doesn't get used that much lately. Currently just over 60 bucks. Little Giant 518550 Submersible Parts Washer Pump
Oh no....home work ! We ran those Little Giant pumps back in the day - like the 80's - when I was rebuilding Kwik Way machinery trade in's.....they did expire sometimes but they took a lot of punishment. That's what pump we put in our Kwik Way valve refacers. Hopefully 51504bat will come up with a number.
On Amazon Little Giant 518550 Submersible Parts Washer Pump Little Giant 518550 Submersible Parts Washer Pump, Black - Power Water Pumps - Amazon.com
What was the stuff used back in the day? "Mineral spirits" covers a lot of territory. We had a big red solvent tank parts cleaner at work with a light and a flexible metal hose arm, the motor ran quiet, and the stuff smelled pretty mild something like charcoal lighter fluid or deodorized kero maybe. It wasn't going to melt your face off, but it got stuff clean. I'm just a simple guy trying to do a simple job. Why does everyone insist on f&$@king up simple things? "Let's replace what works, with what sounds good!" If I spend $150 on parts cleaning solvent and the pump dies I ain't gonna be a happy camper.
Everyone on here hating on water based. I have switched everything over to it and currently run one washer with "Ozzy juice" heated up to 90+ degrees it will destroy the nastiest of the nasty. Also installed string filters and the juice has lasted 3 years and some very very nasty diesel engine cleanings. Plus I can pull my hands out after hours of washing and not feel like one move of fingers is going to split my skin open. Other washer I have set up with alumabright, but heat it to 140 and let it t do it's own thing. It again does much better than solvent.
Why switch, though? I don't "hate" it, I can't see any particular reason. "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it." Need to wear gloves, the solvents on skin, anything that will clean parts will also get into your bloodstream right through the skin. Not just the solvent itself, but also dissolved heavy metals carried by the solvent itself. Your liver will thank you.
'Back in the day' you could get a specialized 'parts cleaning' solution, petroleum-based. Most gas stations had a parts washer, but after the majority of them turned into mini-marts the market got too small. These days 'paint thinner' is about as close as you can get. IIRC you could still get the good stuff if you hunted for it up until about the mid-'80, then it went away. I worked for SoCal in the late '60s/early '70s and at that time you could still buy 'cleaning solvent' at most stations up until the late '70s. It wasn't quite as nasty as paint thinner. Once all paints are converted to water-base (and that's coming), water-base will probably be your only choice unless you can prove a need and there'll probably be a permit process involved.
Back in the 60's and 70's I would buy varsol for parts cleaning at most any of the local gas stations. They typically kept it in a 55 gal drum with a hand pump on top and it was around 50¢ a gallon.
OK, I went dredging in the memory banks and 'naptha' and 'stoddard solvent' came to mind. These are forms of 'mineral spirits', of which there's quite a large variety. That led me to this... White spirit - Wikipedia It seems that mineral spirits could be refined with specific properties, which jives with what I remember about what Standard sold. It was less stinky than kerosene or paint thinner, and less flammable too. I remember it being a bit 'oilier' than thinner also. They note in the article that some of the more-toxic stuff could be or was removed depending on use. But what I also got out of this is when you went to buy 'cleaning solvent', there was multiple products that fell into that category and you may not have gotten what you expected. I also expect that with the pressure to switch to less toxic, biodegradable products in the workplace, the market shrunk too much and this stuff went away.
back in the late 80's I bought a 30 gal can with 20 gals of the safety kleen stuff. This stuff worked great but was hard on your hands, well I never did use it, infact I walked by the 30 gal last week and kicked it and its still full and sealed. Plan was to build a parts cleaner so I bought the good stuff from the guy who maintained our washer at work. And as you can tell I never got around to it....... but someday !!
Yup, Stoddard Solvent. Kinda hard on the hands, at least it was on mine. Still have a couple of 5 gal cans. Built a cheapie parts washer, using a 20 or 30 gal grease drum, & an old stainless steel tabletop w/a 1"lip for the washing tray. For a pump, I used an older car-type in-tank fuel pump, powering it w/a small battery charger for 12v. Puts out maybe 5+ psi, but ok volume. Figured out quick-like, that due to the expense of the solvent, I put in ~ 10->15 gals of water in the drum, ~ 5 gals of solvent. Hung the pump in the solvent, & used a return drain pipe that extended into the water to ~ 6" from the bottom of the barrel. Found that since solvent floats, stays separate from water, the dirt n crud would also separate & stay in the bottom of the barrel. Worked ok, 'till it froze in the garage... ;( . Worked again correctly when it thawed out... . If you want a universal gear pump that'll pump near anything, get an old acvw oil pump(I'd avoid the auto-trans version, & any size will work, & you don't need the 30mm one except for bragging rights), can be scored n junk, just need it complete, & power it w/a 3/8" drill. Make sure the cover n gasket is there, tap the inlet/outlet hole for threaded fittings, hook-up as needed. Pump uses a drive-tang on a shaft, but that can be modded as needed. Maybe an old v/8 dist drive shaft would work - like Stude, or ford, or somesuch, just slot end & pin it. Marcus...
This combo and your favorite bucket, tank will clean anything I’ve thrown at it. Has to be hot. Usually 1hr soak sometimes 4hrs. Pump and brush or Agitating is quicker.
Are old Safety Kleen units around? I remember seeing shops throwing them out decades ago. The SK solvent became too expensive to buy for them.
Right, my point is there are specific chemicals or hydrocarbons identifiable by CAS#, and then there are brand names or commercial products maybe no longer generally sold for "political" reasons. It ain't rocket science. (Well maybe a little bit, kerosene mixed with O2 works pretty good for that). And Kero is in the the neighborhood under discussion. The central issue of course is avoidance of solvents that tend toward explosive vapors.
I don't know why all the fuss about parts cleaners, my son filled up the dishwasher with his parts and set it to washing. My wife absolutely blew a fuse when she caught him pulling the parts out, but they were sure clean..
Well, I've got a re-tasked electric oven in the shop for powder coating, maybe adding a dishwasher would be a good idea....
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