Re: Cleaning Question

[Daniel Youngquist <dany@domain.elided>]

On Wed, 7 Jan 1998, Eppinger.Michael wrote:

> I have a 20 gallon parts washer that I am trying to find a good
> cleaning solvent to use with (heated or not).  I've tried a heated lye
> solution, but it just didn't work all that well.  How dangerous is it
> to use diesel or kerosene in these types of parts washers with the
> electric pumps?  If I could find a non flammable inexpensive cleaning
> agent, I got the pump routed down to the bottom of a 3" x 3' CPVC pipe
> that has a 220V hot water heater element epoxied in the bottom end,
> then routed back up out the top to the spigot and brush.  Temperature
> wise ( I normally turn the heater off when the reservoir gets to 150
> degs), it works great, but the lye solution didn't work all that well. 
> I assume I don't want to heat diesel or kerosene this way.  Any ideas? 

How about plain ol' mineral spirits, AKA "solvent"?  I have no idea if
it'd be safe to heat it, but it's always worked fine cold for me.

Diesel and kerosene are not very volatile and explosive like gasoline,
in fact they're pretty difficult to get lit if you try and burn them.
So I don't see any problem using them with an electric pump.  But I
think mineral spirits is a better solvent.

I'm not qualified to talk about heating either with a water heater
element, but if the element's gonna be much hotter than you can touch
without getting burned, I think I'd wanna be a long way away for the
trial runs. :) 

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