Washing nasty parts

[motownbrowne]

I'm curious how you guys clean up greasy dirty tractor parts. I'm working on the rear axle seals and brakes for my 1952 8n. The drum, shoes, hub, backing plate, everything is coated in a mix of hydraulic oil and dirt. I don't have a parts washer, so I'm thinking about warm water and simple green or something. But my question is what to do with the solution after using it? I sure as heck ain't gonna dump it on the ground.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[DFB]

Nothing worse than having a big bucket of dirty oily water and no where to dump it!

That's one big problem with using water soluble degreasers like Simple Green & that Castrol Purple Cleaner I've been down that road before.

Pump bottle spraying WD and cleaning with rags and brushes has always worked good for me on dirty oily parts. Catch the drippings in oil drain pan and toss it all in the trash. You can after remove any film residue with brake cleaner or mineral spirits if you wanted too Guess you could use a engine cleaner degreaser too. Done a lot of parts that way motorcycles parts right down to the frame.


I have a cheap HF table top parts washer that don't suck

 

[rswyan]

Evaporate the water or the volatiles (depending on what you're using) and then burn the residue if you have a wood stove or furnace.

 

[rustyshakelford]

I pour it on the ground. Gas works well but is dangerous and not great on the hands. I agree with getting a table top parts washer and some solution

Brett

 

[SPIKER]

I've had the same issues as you (OP) are having with what to do with cleaning fluids after you are done.

I'll be watching & seeing what others do, I have myself used old Oil Jugs to hold it until I had a good fire or pile of brush needed burning & disposed it then.

I too use the GAS and or Diesel for cleaning on the real greasy stuff as all the NEW cleaners are about useless.

M

 

[EddieWalker]

I scrape everything off of the part that I can and then wipe what's left with paper towels. That all goes into the garbage can, which gets picked up every Monday morning. Then I spray the part with brake cleaner. Nothing cleans like it, and I like to keep at least a few cans sitting on the shelf just for those times when I need to replace or fix something.

Eddie

 

[Coyote machine]

Scrape off crud, spray with Brakleen, use air to blow off residue. Funnel into used oil container, dispose of at TSC or similar waste disposal collector. Throw shop paper towels into trash. Done.

 

[radioman]

its tough .. you want to do your part with environment, but society makes it hard to do so. unlike eddie - I dont toss paper towels in trash - I burn em. if it grease/oil it has btu's in it. For the tough crook and nannys parts, I use gas or kerosene and dump it on weeds where i need to kill.

 

[skylarkguy]

I have been in this boat as well. I have done the scrape/brake cleaner/rags into the trash, that works ok for a lot of stuff but can be tricky for little nooks and crannies.

I then found a HF parts washer at a garage sale. I used water based solvent, simple green etc in it, but ended up with 5-10 gallons of nasty water to deal with. Our county has waste disposal that will take this greasy water but it was less than Ideal.

The HF parts washer went belly up and I finally found a deal on a good old NAPA solvent tank that sits on a barrel. I investigated using safety kleen but they had very high delivery surcharge and wanted to visit at least 4 times per year. Eventually I found a company called Thermo Fluids that delivers as much virgin solvent as I need, as often as I need, for a small delivery charge. The stuff is $10/gallon and works great. I suspect that I will only change the fluid out once a year at most.

Good luck

 

[mark02tj]

A friend of mine used to work at this place. They make an environmentally friendly parts cleaning system. You have to use their equipment and fluid. Basically, there's a non-toxic cleaning fluid that has little microscopic critters in it that eat the grease and other nasty stuff that's washed off the parts. There's a filter in the drain of the tank that gets the bigger stuff. The filter is also infused with the little critters. Supposedly you can drink the cleaning fluid and it won't hurt you. I always politely declined when I was offered a glass of the stuff.