Projects Building a Parts washer from a dishwasher

So gasoline and cascade is a bad idea?

 

I realized that my controller can take a 12v supply, so I went ahead and ordered a 12v RV type pump for $18, along with an inline filter.

I don't know if there's a pressure switch, or if there its, it's part of the inlet valve.

So I know some of you could have predicted this, I should have, but purple simple green is WAY too sudsy. It ran for about 5 seconds before it foamed up enough that the wash pump couldn't pump it. I just had it laying around, which is why I tried it. Last time I was at NAPA, they had an aqueous parts washer solution designed for actually being in a parts washer, so it won't foam up, and there are things like Krud Kutter Parts Washer Cleaning Solution that might foam less too.

 

Reminds me of the first time I used the washing machine as a teen that needed a clean shirt for that evening.

 

Haha, my son used my wife's dishwasher for years before she caught him!!

 

You can buy the powdered soap used in hot water parts washers , it does not get sudsy and will clean anything .

I did a tea spoon of dawn in the dishwasher one day as I ran out of dish washing detergent. Thought a tea spoon can be that bad …….. it was BAD !!!

 

I’m glad I learned from all those mistakes when young and renting an apartment

 

Krud Kutter Parts Washer says it can be used in immersion, ultrasonic, manual and spray application, and it available locally in sizes that are practical for me, so I think I'm going to try that first. Zep has a powdered hot spray cleaner, but it's $100 for 40 lbs. I wish I could just get 1lb of it.

 

The ZEP orangish granular powder is some of the best stuff out there. Be a long time to go through 40lbs of the stuff for home use !!

 

You guys keep messing with the ole ladies shit and one day you will find crusty food bits floating in your parts washer. Not good.

 

In the lab we used Alconox, an industrial cleanser, in a large ultrasonic parts cleaner, to clean anything from lab glassware to greasy test equipment, and the occasional old Ford parts. This stuff is low to no suds, and seems to cut anything. It's also used in chem labs in glassware dishwashers, so it should work just fine in this application. Not cheap but it doesn't take much to work.

 

Or crankcase crud in your spaghetti!

 

Parts washer build update: here are some shots of the guts. Relay and timer board was still good, but panel was dead, so there was no way to run it, so I took out the control and relay boards and replaced them with an Arduino and a generic relay board for the AC components, a 20x4 character display and a push button rotary encoder. I wrote a program with a basic menu to control the functions of fill, run, drain and quit. I figured out that the heat sensor is a 10k thermistor, so I set up the run cycle to turn the heat on until the fluid temp hits 160, then cycle to maintain that temp.

I eventually want to make it so the run time and temp are settable through the menu, but I am not that good at programming.

I haven't tried the new fluid yet. I've just hooked up to the pump and filter.

 

Now I have to think your prototyping.

 

Yup, soon, there'll be a low-buck kit for cheap conversions available. . Then watch the price of "junk" dishwashers skyrocket. May as well, everything else is priced to the moon lately.
Marcus...

 

My dishwasher barely washes dishes, don’t know where yall are getting your dishwashers from!

 

I've got four dishwashers, aged 14, 16, 19 and 20. They barely wash dishes, and they are bad lawnmowers too

Cheers,
Harv

 

What happened to a 5 Gal. bucket some gasoline and a couple of stiff brissle brushes?

 

Tried using an old dishwasher connected to hot water & tsp on a steel intake manifold & wheel with many coats of paint, hoping it would strip or at least soften the coating, no luck .

 

I do a lot of golf cart engines, the block and crank invariably go through the heavy duty hot cycle in the dishwasher after I've degreased them. We use the tablet type cleaning soap and it removes all the baked on grime inside the crankcase that the solvent degreaser won't touch. I dont even take out the ball bearing mains, just give them a lube immediately it's done drying. The significant other has long ago seen there's no residue or post wash stench so I'm good to go.

 

Had some friends drop in for coffee and chat , the wife of the couple wondered why I had those motor thingys (2 sets of pistons and rods) the kitchen sink , I said I'd just put them through the dishwasher she looked at him and said I hope you don't do this at home ,quick as a flash I said he was the one who told me to use the dishwasher for cleaning parts can you imagine their conversation later in the day

 

I just installed the old dishwasher into my shop when the wife had to have a new kitchen. Works great on some pieces but not so great on others. Overall glad that I did. Really handy to just throw parts in and walk away.

 

Know any plumbers? Have them save a few take out sump pumps for you. The switch usually fails before the pump does. Just swap them out when the solvent eats them up. Water based solvent should last quite a while.

 

There might (or might not) be some information in here that would be useful.