Shhhhhh........ If only his wife knew.....

Bob Carriere · #1 21-05-05, 04:48

If only his wife knew how good Rob Clarke is at washing parts........... she would have him do the dishes!!!!!

To a wonderful Friday evening.....

Bob

RHClarke · #2 22-05-05, 03:18

At Chateau Carriere, it ain't clean until it's Carriere clean. It's funny how enjoyable it is to scrape 60 year old grease from a rusty metal object, and tediously boring to clean dishes at home...however, at home, I much prefer doing the dishes to cleaning a soiled nappy...dishes win every time.

Thanks, Bob for the help in the tear down and clean up of my starter. It may be useful to take a shot of the extra "thingamajig" on my starter case. Perhaps one of the MLU Borg can ID it's purpose...

RHC

Phil Waterman · #3 22-05-05, 16:56

Just this week my local friendly garage let me use their new environmentally correct new automatic parts washer. Over sized commercial dishwasher with revolving parts bin hot water degreaser from high-pressure nozzles, and a neatest oil skimmer. He had demonstrated it to me a couple of weeks ago by putting a grease mess of a transfer case in fully assembled 10 minutes later the outside looked like new. He said that now they would disassemble it putting all the parts into parts baskets to go into the machine.

This guy is a nut for being an environmentally correct garage, which is just as well because the state and federal authorities are really tightening up on anything that might pollute the ground water.

Anyway he said I could use it so I loaded up all the brake assemblies and backing plates from the Pattern 12 and took them down and batch after batch loaded them in they came out nice and hot and clean laid them out to dry and in little under an hour all four wheel assemblies were done.

Mark Sierant · #4 23-05-05, 03:18

Now I have a tub and pump as in the Top photo on this tread. Up until now I have used Kerosene as a parts cleaner but now all retailers have stopped selling this wonderfull stuff from the bulk pumps here in Australia. We have to order 20 litre drums into a fuel agent and these guys want twice the price of petrol per litre.

Does anyone especialy in Australia have a option that is good on your hands and does not explode?

PS petrol is not an option as I have tried this mixed 50/50 with kero and had a nice big fire when the pump arched in the parts washer

Alex Blair (RIP) · #5 23-05-05, 14:27

Quote:

Originally posted by Mark Sierant
Now I have a tub and pump as in the Top photo on this tread. Up until now I have used Kerosene as a parts cleaner but now all retailers have stopped selling this wonderfull stuff from the bulk pumps here in Australia. We have to order 20 litre drums into a fuel agent and these guys want twice the price of petrol per litre.

Does anyone especialy in Australia have a option that is good on your hands and does not explode?

PS petrol is not an option as I have tried this mixed 50/50 with kero and had a nice big fire when the pump arched in the parts washer

Mark
A heavy mix of washing soda ,water and a little detergent..
I use that mix for just about everything that had to remove grease or grime..If it will take of the stuff baked on in the family oven,it will take crud off an old transmission..A dip in a light oil after cleaning and thoriough drying will bring back any good lubricant you require for rust control..
Add electrolisis to the cleaning application for rust removal..(Be careful if using electrolsis..the vapour ,hydrogen ,given off in the process,will light up your life..vent or process out side..

Bob Carriere · #6 23-05-05, 18:33

I am no "nature nut" but I do try to be cautious of what I do to the environment.... as I do rely on a well for water...but...

When I was a kid.... and yeah that is a long time ago.... I washed parts for my dad using furnance oil.... Naphta was better particualarly for brake lining as it would dry so fast .... the best was the Carbon Tet that dad got from his work....... smelled swett and really degreased.... now it is a controlled substance and you can't even get rid of it.

I use Clean-Flo parts cleaner....$44 dollars per 20 liters and need two to fill..... I let the old stuff sit for 2 or 3 months and siphon off the best 75% of it an use it again.

After two hours of washing your hands tell you that you have degreased you skin enough and start to pulsate....... now I try to clean in small batches and not to immerse my hands in the solution and use the pump solution and brushes. I dispose of dirty solution storing it in 45 gal drums along with engine oil, paint thinner, gear lube and donating to a friend who has a special furnace that burns the stuff clean and heats his service station. The province of Quebec forced him to buy and install a special holding tank with a concrete catch basin in case it ever leaked.

I like Alex's alternative....... wonder if I can feed that soda/soap solution in my pressure washer to do the transfer case external
dried grease.........how about a weak lye solution....

Bob C

Euan McDonald · #7 24-05-05, 01:31

Hi Mark (Russel),
I use a Castrol parts solvent that comes in 20l drums, it is ok on your hands & has a low flash point however it does leave a slight resedue. I highly recomend this product as it comes at the right price, for free.

#8 24-05-05, 01:57

We must be lucky, paraffin (kerosene to everyone else) is still available in bulk quite cheaply and does a good job.

We have used variously red diesel ("Cherryade") - does a good job and leaves a nice inhibiting film but stinks of course; AVTUR which is nearly the old TVO (tractor vaporising oil) and contains kerosene, petrol and diesel pretty smelly stuff also.

For larger stuff we do, believe it or not, use the hot pressure washer. It removes everything and given a good long blast on a warmish day (no problems in Oz here then), the item gets so hot it dries almost immediately, then just a rinse out with a de-watering fluid (WD40) or diesel even, if further strip down isn't going to be done immediately.

Great on old gearboxes and diffs etc., where the oil has become like treacle.

R.

Bob Moseley (RIP) · #9 24-05-05, 08:06

Hey Euan
I take it my freebies will be coming over with your next trip to race around Adalaide.
Hopeful Bob

Max Hedges · #10 24-05-05, 12:04

Quote:

Originally posted by Mark Sierant
PS petrol is not an option as I have tried this mixed 50/50 with kero and had a nice big fire when the pump arched in the parts washer

Sounds like a normal all ausie adventure

EM

Mark Sierant · #11 25-05-05, 00:59

It was easy to put out all I had to do is close the lid on the parts washer and presto no oxygen, just a carbon coated lid left to remind me of another adventure.

Now as you have mentioned "SHED" adventures Max I would like to hear about other peoples OH&S miss adventures. My other two

Well heres one of them

HYDROGEN EXPLOSION
Having access to a large numger of deep cycle battery banks I built a 2000 amp 48 volt DC Parts washer. This baby could boil 200 litres of water in 5 minutes so that cleaning was in a very hot electrolysis bath. Worked a dream until one day I fogot to turn the power off before removing the job. The resulting explosion blew me clean of my feet and out of the shed door.