I have discovered an amazingly easy way to way to clean a lot of small parts with very little effort. If you own or have access to a cement mixer, this tip will be very useful to you. The cement mixer, combined with sand-blasting sand, will automatically clean your parts for you!
Materials Needed
- Cement Mixer
- 1 bag (100 pounds) of sand-blasing sand
- 2 five-gallon buckets (1 for parts, 1 for sand)
- 1 section (1/4″ to 1/2″ mesh) chicken wire or comparable screening device
The Process
This process works well when cleaning heavy duty parts such as nuts, bolts, brackets, clips, rubber bumpers and bushings, spring plates, motor mounts and other comparable items.
- Start up the cement mixer.
- Pour in the parts to be cleaned.
- Pour in 1 bag (100 pounds) of sand-blasting sand.
- Lower the angle of the cement mixer down, keeping the angle of the mixer high enough so that the contents do not spill out, but low enough to thoroughly agitate the contents.
- Allow the cement mixer to run for approximately 4 hours. Four hours should be adequate time for general cleaning. Additional time may be required for cleaning excessively dirty parts.
- Place an empty five-gallon bucket under the mixer. Using a strainer (chicken wire or screening device), slowly tip the cement mixer to allow the sand to fall through the strainer, leaving the parts on top of the strainer.
You have cleaned your parts without all the tedious work! A “set-it and forget-it” process that yields great results.
PLEASE NOTE: Do not attempt to clean delicate parts using this method. Items such as horns, trim pieces, and brass parts will be ruined if you attempt to clean them this way.
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