A timely and interesting congruence of threads. I've found a dishwasher with
a shot of TSP and some dish soap cleans parts extremely well. And naturally
a washing machine and dryer is great for shop rags and shop clothes. But
using them has the potential to be extremely expensive--as much as 50% of my
net worth.
The solution--buy my own at garage sales and install them in the garage. I
have a washing machine, dryer and dishwasher installed in my shop now. I
actually planned ahead for this and installed the appropriate power, hoses
and drains in the machine shop section when I built the house. The washer
and dryer were languishing up in my storage shed until recently, but I
transferred a bunch of junk to the storage room and moved the washer/dryer
down. Then I built a bench over the top of them. The dishwasher is a recent
addition. I haven't done anything smart yet to filter the water as it
circulates, but that's next. I haven't used it much yet because I figure
it's not ready for prime time. But last night I popped my flywheel, all my
clutch parts, my carb bodies and a screen box full of carb bits into the
dishwasher and they came out sparkling.
I paid $50 for the dishwasher and nothing for the washer/dryer. I'm also
looking around for a really big toaster oven to cure powder coat. I feel
like a happy little homemaker sometimes.
I also have a little bench top parts washer that I bought for $69 at the
Napa store.
I've got a completely unused kiln taking up a lot of space in my wife's
"hobby" room in the shop. She hasn't set foot in it since the pottery
equipment was installed four years ago. I'm either going to get rid of all
that stuff on eBay or hook up the kiln and use it for heat treating metals.
Incidentally, carter centrifugal fuel pumps make dandy parts washer pumps.
They have a screen to take out the big chunks, but the sliding steel
impellers will pump anything short of peanut butter and last forever even
with a bunch of abrasive crap in the solution.
Bill Babcock
Babcock & Jenkins
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