Electro Cleaners Series - Part 1

Part One!

So the Electro-Cleaner Tank…  Just another hot alkaline tank on the line we swish the parts in and it cleans the parts right?  

Wait…  What?  What do you mean by "cleans the parts?"   Then what are we doing in the Soak Clean Tank?  Isn't that where we "clean" the parts?  Yes but like when I clean the house vs my wife cleaning the house, two completely different types of cleaning.  

This is part one in a short series that will deal the best electro-cleaning practices and, more importantly, the worst electro-cleaning practices.

Part One:  The Common Mistakes We Make  

#1)  Electro-cleaning solutions are not for removing oil.  They have no capacity for holding oil and if you have an oil slick on top of your tank then you're not soak cleaning properly, long enough or with the right solution.  And if you have oil floating on top of your electro-cleaner there's a good chance you have "ring around the collar" traveling further up the line.  You must soak clean well and rinse if you can to keep that oil out of the electro-cleaner.  Or it will travel all the way up your line.  

#2)  Please!  Do not use the tank as your anode!  Note:  I'm using a generic "anode" here as they could be anodic or cathodic.  

The tank walls will get covered with smut, dirt, grease and other non-conductive crap and the tank walls will stop conducting.  Big deal you say?  You can just pump it out and scape the walls clean.  Well yeah but…  That's lot of work and shuts the line down for a while.  Why not have steel anodes hanging off bus bar and use those instead of the tank?  When they stop conducting you can pull them out easy and scrape them clean.

And speaking of bus bar…  

#3)  Your anodes should be steel.  And if you have steel anodes coming out of the tank and hanging from bus bars the hooks are going to rust.  It isn't easy keeping them from rusting and losing contact.  That will lead to all kinds of troubles.  

So those are 3 quick things you can look at in your shop and see if you are experiencing any… or all… of those problems.   Take a look and let's talk.  Call me!  I'm around!