Parts washer heater upgrade

[pfarber]

I decided to forego the pump and do a heater upgrade to my parts washer. Honestly the pump isn't that useful whereas hot solvent (or even degreaser) is.

I'm using an upgrade I found from a guy where he welded a 1.25 to 1in reducing bushing onto the side of the tub and then used the heater element's gasket, some RTV and a 1in Conduit lock nut to hold everything together. I was on the fence as to welding an element onto the tank or having a removeable element in a tube... I went with the welded element because I can protect the element in the tub and not having to move it in and out seems like a good idea. People who use/make bio-diesel use a lot of 'drop in heaters' but I really don't think that I'm gonna use the parts washer that hard once the G506 and G508 are done... so I went with the less 'fiddle with it' option.

Spot the hole for my nibbler.

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Traced the Reducer leaving enough lip to weld it to the tank. Cut tub and sand off the paint.

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Reducer in place and first round to tack welds (MiG) ground down.

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Test fitting element (4500Watt @ 240VAC) Note the pinhole that is leaking water. The reduce was thinner than the tub steel so getting good penetrating welds without burn through was tricky.

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I didn't have solvent proof RTV to seal everything up so the element has been fitted, but not installed.

I will put in a t-stat (the lower t-stat on a water heater is for a a single element) so the system is a set it and forget it temp wise. I could have just unplugged the element when the tank was hot enough but if you forget then you could have super hot magma and I don't want to get burned.

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Here are the bags for the reduce and the lock nuts.

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The element was $11, the t-stat $8 the reducer $2 and the lock nut $2. The RTV will be about $8. So about $30 so far and I already have a metal box, switch, cover and cable for power. So if you had to buy those items that's probably about another $6-8.

Will finish up tomorrow with more pics.

[pfarber]

Got the sealer and installed the element. Filled the tank with water and let it sit a few days to check for leaks:

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Now to try and get a cover or over the element.. maybe a piece of black iron or some steel mesh epoxied to the bottom/side.

I really should have made a removable heater. The element is very large and with a cover I'm going to lose about 20% of the usable volume of the tank. Depending on how long this lasts... if I do have to repair it I'm just going to weld up the hole and make a drop in heater. For now this should be OK.

I've decided that I'll probably go with plain old lye and hot water. Seems to be cheap and easy and will remove paint.

[pfarber]

I also made a small wheeled dolly. HF sells a wooden 'movers dolly' but its $15. The 4 casters and a scrap 2x4 was $10 so I built one myself.

Bonus is the dolly raises up the tank about 6 inches which makes it the PERFECT hight now... now more having to be slightly bent over. That alone was worth the $10.

Double bonus is now I also have a shelf that is big enough to hold 5 gallon buckets.

[ralph3n]

Nice! That's a better idea than using a portable ceramic heater.