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I have been thinking about setting up an old dishwasher in my shop for washing smaller greasy parts. They do well on dishes and I would think that the soap and hot water would remove grease pretty well to. Has anyone tried it?

rdbates,

I haven't tried it, but I think organic grease is more soluble with temperature, and washes off, while greases from petroleum products don't solubilize as readily with hot water.

I would be careful putting items of this nature into a non-explosion proof environment. I could see the timer on the dishwasher going from wash to rinse, and in the process igniting the vaporized mixture of petroleum products (grease) and sending the dishwasher into the neighbors backyard.

Stuart

Just my 2cents worth. The timer is outside of the washing area. I do not think you could create an explosive environment inside a dish washer, by washing automotive parts. Commercial hot tanks are nothing more than a large dish washer. They use lye as a cleaning agent. Lye is not a problem to buy and it will solubulize - nice word - automotive grease very well. You can buy liquid lye at home centers, it is the purple cleaner. It is the ultimate degreaser for ferros metals. Do not us on aluminum. I do not know how it is for foaming, which is a concern for dish washers. I know commercial parts washers use an anti foaming agent to control foaming.

Oh, by the way, wear protective clothing. Lye eats flesh with ease.

Lonnie,

I wonder if the lye would solubilize (it is sort of a cool word) the dishwasher? Your right about the arc-n-sparkin...the switches would be outside and safe!


Stuart

You'll be making a homemade version of this:

http://www.cudausa.com/

We installed a boatload of them at my work & they work well.

Thanks guys. I might try it since it would sure beat scrubbing parts in the solvent tank.
Atomarc: I'd kind of like to see a flying dishwasher. I wonder if the Myth Buster guys would try to launch one

rdbates,

Just a note to explain, sort of, my defective reasoning with the flying dishwasher. The superintendent of a mill I worked at years ago did hobby wrenching at his home. He wore coveralls, and his wife would wash them in the machine located in the laundry room attached to the back of the house.

After one particularly greasy weekend job, this fellow decided to help his wife out, and he soaked the dirty coveralls in a pail of gasoline.

The wife came behind him, fetched the coveralls from the pail, let them drip for awhile, then threw them into the washer. I'm pretty sure you can figure the rest out.

As the machine filled with hot water, the cloud of gasoline vapor laid on top of the rising
water. When the machine was nearly full, the vapors were being pushed up and out...and being heavy, floated down...right to the motor.

When the machine switched to its agitate mode and the motor kicked in, the laundry room wall blew out...so much for doing your own coveralls!

Stuart

Me thinks the gene pool needs another shot of chlorene. What a story. It's amazing to anyone with any mechanical/industrial experience at all to think there are people that are so ignorant of gasoline's properties.

joe,

I agree with you, but "sh** happens".


Stuart

That's quite a story. You would think that the wife would have thought about it a little before she did it. I have heard of putting a cup of jet A in with greasy coveralls to clean them- just not in your own washer because it melts the seals. I'll bet the firemen had a good laugh and then a disapproving head shake. D'Oh

Not to change the subject BUT
How about the guy from Queens a few yrs back that had trouble starting his car in the cold weather.
So he takes and puts a qt. of GASOLINE in a POT ON THE STOVE to Quote "Warm it a Little"
Needless to say it was quite the show when The FDNY rolled up, and the Jacka&# was still alive

I know a fellow who rebuilds steering boxes and uses a small oil barrel with a hot water heater element in the water and loads of dishwashing soap to clean the steering box parts. He has a board on top of it and every now and then, it'll will burp a bubble or two out. He says it works better than anything he has ever tried.

He keeps it outside the back of his house.

So - "you know your a redneck if you keep your parts washer outside the back of the house - so it can burp!"

Joe

My grandma was severly burned several years ago while washing my grandfathers coveralls in her conventional washing machine. He had been overhauling an old tractor and soiled his coveralls with diesel and grease. She put them in the washer with some other items and when switching cycles the residual vapors ignited as she opened the door on the top of the machine. Warning stickers are now found on new appliances with regards to washing items with flammable materials on them.