In my never ending quest to take on more projects than I can complete, I am looking for a good efficient “drop in and walk away” parts cleaning system I can build. Scrubbing parts is a pain in the ass, makes a mess and takes forever.
Many different systems seem to work great for cleaning one type of part, but suck for cleaning other types of parts in the same system or can actually destroy parts not designed to be in there.
Example caustic soda in a “hot tank” eats nasty gunk on most ferrous metals like a dream, but can apparently dissolve aluminum parts like sugar in water!
Most of the parts I need clean are a mix of steel, cast iron, cast steel, aluminum, stainless and maybe even plastics. usually caked in grease, oil, dirt, soot, rust, paint, powdercoating, varnish, etc. Getting them clean is usually a step towards re-finishing them after the fact; paint, powdercoating, polishing, etc.
What I am thinking would be the most well rounded “system” would be a combo of 2 machines.
A vibratory parts cleaner full of a hot, circulating solution. Like non or semi diluted Simple Green, Power Purple, or what ever else is out there that will cut grease and dirt. That should loosen a lot of the gunk on the part, settle to the bottom when not in use and can be easily strained out to “recharge the system”. Drop the part in, close the lid, turn it on and walk away.
Then it would be off to a pressure blast cabinet with the same sort of solution running though it. Think a sand blast cabinet, but sealed up water tight, with a high pressure water pump like a pressure washer, running off an electric motor. Something that can physically blast off and loosen the hardened, caked on nasty stuff.
Lastly while somewhat off the subject, electrolysis cleaning. Tub of cleaning soda solution, battery charger neg lead on the part, pos lead on some scrap tin submerged in the tub. Works wonders on rusted stuff, but dont think it will do anything for dirty, greasy stuff.
Also what about vibratory or tumbler type machines that have the tiny ceramic cleaning blocks inside with a solvent or solution to clean the parts?
Any ideas???