Simple Tech from a simple guy... I was cleaning the chunk that I was getting ready to stick in the wifes car in preparation for the HAMB drags, trying to contain the plethera of crap that I was scraping off of it and trying to scrub it at the same time. I kept smashing my fingers moving it around and every time I moved it some of the grunge that I had just scraped off would get smushed back on it. Plus I was trying to keep all the grunge out of the pristine gears. All this a prelude to putting it in the parts washer and then how do I deal with it in there? If only I could hold it yoke up and gears down, but how? I think I tripped over the 5 gallon bucket so many times that I kicked it once. Maybe twice. I know I named it something unpleasant. But when it landed open side down it struck me. Cut the center out of the bottom of that bitch and drop the gears in it. It's like these buckets were made for this. Actually this one says it was made for Sherwin Williams paint but I'm good at pretending... It works beautifully. The yoke and nasty housing are up and the gears are down and now protected. I try to tip the thing over and it will take alot. I continue on my scraping til there's no more to scrape. I stand it up in the parts washer. This is great! All the crap comes off, goes down the side and catches in the little recesses that are formed to make the bucket rigid. The clean fluid overflows and continues to the drain. I move it to the mop sink, hose her down works great in here also, the wide base makes it not so wobbly as the sink flexes a bit. I then carry it out to the sun, set it down, squirt it with the air hose to dry it. Inspect the gears. Clean. Maybe a tiny piece of bucket remnants. Air hose readily takes care of that. Worked pretty damn handy for the spray painting process as well. And it's reusable. Did I stamp a 32 Ford body out of a mini van lid? No. But someone may have an interest in it. Or not. where's my beer?
As a further note, those same five-gallon buckets with lids make excellent shipping containers for center sections/chunks as well. Handy for sellers, hard to tip over as mentioned, avoid difficult boxing/packaging dilemmas, and the UPS guy appreciates the handle. Just use a good heavy-duty one.
Adding to the list of uses... Take one of those handy little buckets and cut a 5" diameter hole in the lid and then place the lid back on the bucket. You now have a great place to put a manual tranny (clutch-end in the hole) for cleaning and painting. Worked great fo me. This could turn into 1001 great uses for 5 gallon buckets. Although I use those square cat litter buckets. Vance
if you stop by one of the local commercial bakeries they usually have tons of the these bucket for free. all of the pasturized eggs come this way and for the bakery become a hassel (they go through 100's) one bonus is they are food grade,no chemical residue to worry about.
And bakeries also get a large variety of smaller cans, too. Frostings and fillings, cookie dough and a lot of their stuff comes in plastic pails. 1,2, 3 gallon and even smaller. And they are free around here,too. The recyle places don't take them so they go out with the trash. Frank
You can also use the lids to cover the opening in your rearend housing while your chunk is out...I know there's a million other uses for these things...
I use a bit of plywood. The advantage is that I can draw the center section down tight to the wood so no water or cleaning chemicals can blow into the bears or bearings. I like to use cheap dollar store oven cleaner and then white wall cleaner to get the grease and old paint off. For painting, I use the board with three or four bolts held in by washers and nuts. The center section sits on the nuts. And when we spray the center section does not seal to the plywood.
Huh, what a good idea. It never ceases to amaze me some of the alternate uses for "Rigid Plastic Packaging" The inside joke here is that I work for a company that makes plastic buckets. And no I will not ship anybody a bucket for chunk cleaning.
The Jalopy Journal
