Stuff I make...

CharlieK

Un-Known Member
Trying to come up with an efficient way to wash the oil off of P&O steel, we threw this together. Absolutely no attention to detail... The sheets I'm cleaning range from 42" tall x 60" long... to 42" tall x 38" long. The "solvent" I'm using I get from Diamond Vogel Paints, made by Great Lakes Labs, All Purpose PrePaint Degreaser. Each 18 degree increase in solution temperature doubles cleaning effectiveness... So I have a 4500 watt, 240 volt water heater element in the tank to warm it up, and a thermostat to stop the heating at 130 degrees, because the listed max temp for the pump is 140. The pump is from Ace Hardware, its just a shallow well pump. The sprayers are the cheapest lawn sprinklers I could find, if it ends up working like I hope, and if I need something more robust, I'll change it. If it doesn't work like intended, I'd rather scrap cheap parts!

Plastic sprinklers are screwed to an 8ga backing plate, which slides into a "holder" cut from 3/8 plate... Unhooking the hose, they can be replaced fast...

PW1.jpg
 
Because this is a single purpose washer, the sections of channel iron are a bottom guide for the sheet. Because the water flow will be significant, they are just small sections, each ramped slightly, to minimize hitting the next channel with the sheet. If I was using it for other parts, the channel could have been omitted and just used expanded metal for the floor...

PW4.jpg

PW5.jpg
 
Actual dimensions of the base tank are 32" wide, 65" long, 12" deep... the tray for the pump off to the side is 12" wide, the same 12" deep, the same 65" long.

All of the steel used to make it is 8ga, except for the door, which is 12ga...

The wash "station" above the tank is 32" wide, 48" tall, 65" long... If I can figure out what I did with my drawing, I'll post it later..

The idea was to throw together, as fast as we could, a cheap washer.... I'm way behind making the containers the oily steel is being used for. So far, there is close to 8 hours into this contraption...
 
The picture showing the tank being filled with solution, shows a backing plate. If I find the drawing, it'll show it better, but that backing plate goes down 2" shy of the bottom. It's purpose is to be an oil skimmer, to keep the floating oil in the first, main part of the tank. If I need to later, I can add in an electric oil skimmer to remove it.
 
Adding interlocking lips on the door jam and on the door itself, now your feet will stay dry. The only water it leaks is from dripping off the wet door when you open it. Running it for 30 seconds on the 14ga part, with the water temp at 105 degrees... The part is "hot" to the touch, and the heat of the steel when it's pulled out, helps the part dry off pretty fast. No trace of oil left on the parts...

When the pump is running, it's always bumping off of the pressure switch, so in a way, it sounds like the motor is continually stalling. Not sure how good that's going to be for life span on the pump.

Assuming this thing continues to work as it is, I'm going to make 2 more of them. When the parts are being cut out, I get 3 out of each sheet. The cut out parts will go into the washers as soon as they are cut, washers get turned on, and will run for several minutes, until the next parts are cut and ready for washing...

PW26.jpg

PW25.jpg
 
Pretty cool setup @CharlieK :thumbsup:

Curious to see how good it works

Only washed a few sheets with it so far. I'm going to add a bypass valve in the line in the morning. It's bumping off of the pressure switch constantly... so I'm going to put a relief in it. The 5 or 6 parts that we ran through it... it worked great! See how tomorrow works with 100 or so... Assuming tomorrow works good, I have to get the wiring into some conduit, and covers over the element and thermostat.

What kinda solution you run in that CharlieK?

I've got a regular parts washer, like a soak tank style that uses solvent. It's great, but i can't get transmission cases, differential housings, cylinder heads, etc. Big stuff in there. I've been wanting one of those big steam washer parts cleaners you can set engine blocks in,but they are pricey.

I'd love to build something similar to what you did. Maybe a little smaller, but same principle.
Great Lakes Labs, All Purpose PrePaint Degreaser is what's in it. I've got it mixed pretty strong... 4 gallons to 55 gallons of water. Eco friendly, water soluble/ non- flammable was a key thing for me, since we are welding the parts as soon as they come out... and because I have a lot of osha walk throughs... I was thinking about trying it with a greasy part, just to see what it would do, when the guys are done running sheets tomorrow. I'll have to see what I have laying around.
 
@CharlieK I built this prototype. 2" round tubing with 2" stops 20200607_165846.jpgwelded on. There is the possibility I may be building several more. I made the stop by tacking one end then heating them with my torch and bending them over. It was a little tricky getting them straight. I could use advice on a different way to make the stops or is the way I'm doing it with the tools I have available the best method.
 
@CharlieK I built this prototype. 2" round tubing with 2" stops View attachment 65850welded on. There is the possibility I may be building several more. I made the stop by tacking one end then heating them with my torch and bending them over. It was a little tricky getting them straight. I could use advice on a different way to make the stops or is the way I'm doing it with the tools I have available the best method.
Do you have the same gap on the bottom as you do on the top... I'm not sure there is a much of a better way to do it. Wonder if @1951 Ford might have some ideas.

One thing maybe to consider, is if you take a longer length of your stop material, tack it on a spare piece of 2" tubing, heat it, wrapping it around by bending it with leverage of the longer piece. You still have your heating time, but then cut the full wrap into 2 or 3 different stops, letting you place it better? Guessing you're heating and bending smaller pieces currently, and that would require the use of a hammer?

Could probably build a bender of sorts, similar to a conduit bender, but that has it's own share of challenges! Not sure it would be worth the effort...
 
@CharlieK I built this prototype. 2" round tubing with 2" stops View attachment 65850welded on. There is the possibility I may be building several more. I made the stop by tacking one end then heating them with my torch and bending them over. It was a little tricky getting them straight. I could use advice on a different way to make the stops or is the way I'm doing it with the tools I have available the best method.
One other thing to think about...

It's fairly common to have a stop like that, that isn't form fitted throughout the stop. If it was just a bend in the center of the piece, bent at the right angle, to leave the same size gap on the ends as the middle. Obviously that changes the look, and maybe even the use...
 
Do you have the same gap on the bottom as you do on the top... I'm not sure there is a much of a better way to do it. Wonder if @1951 Ford might have some ideas.

One thing maybe to consider, is if you take a longer length of your stop material, tack it on a spare piece of 2" tubing, heat it, wrapping it around by bending it with leverage of the longer piece. You still have your heating time, but then cut the full wrap into 2 or 3 different stops, letting you place it better? Guessing you're heating and bending smaller pieces currently, and that would require the use of a hammer?

Could probably build a bender of sorts, similar to a conduit bender, but that has it's own share of challenges! Not sure it would be worth the effort...
Gap is close to the same. That is not real critical neither is the length of the stop. I did heat them and bend them with a hammer.

I thought about everything you said and I don't think it's much better then what I did.
 
Gap is close to the same. That is not real critical neither is the length of the stop. I did heat them and bend them with a hammer.

I thought about everything you said and I don't think it's much better then what I did.
If I was doing something like that, I think I'd be doing it the same way, or really similar. If I was doing several hundred or more, then I'd make a die like one of these, for the press brake...

BrakeDies.jpg
 
I'm not following what you're saying.

This one the stop is a little short of 2"... but if it was longer, the gap in the center, between the stop and the round tube, would be the same as the gap at the ends. The bend would be much more rounded than my picture. This would be fast to set up a little jig to support the ends while you smack it in the center with a pointed hammer.

The way you're doing it looks a lot cleaner though...


Stop.JPG
 
This one the stop is a little short of 2"... but if it was longer, the gap in the center, between the stop and the round tube, would be the same as the gap at the ends. The bend would be much more rounded than my picture. This would be fast to set up a little jig to support the ends while you smack it in the center with a pointed hammer.

The way you're doing it looks a lot cleaner though...


View attachment 65854
Ah ok that makes sense. I'll have to think at that.
 

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