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Flow Through Parts Brush

So what good is the previous parts washer without a brush to apply the cleaner with. Well I guess I could go buy one. But they are pretty simple, not easily found locally for myself, and probably pretty cheaply built given their simplicity. Sounds like this scenario is ripe for a DIY product. Let’s begin….

Brush and Tube Fitting before

So go to a tool store and pickup a cheap parts cleaning brush, as plain as you can find one. I picked up a pack of two for around $3 US. You’ll need a drill, epoxy, and something to feed the fluid with. In this case I chose a small piece of tubing with a coupler to allow the brush to be disconnected from the cleaner. This becomes pretty self explanatory with the pictures. Just drill a hole from some where on the brush so that you drill through the bristle attachment point. You will loose the bristle’s at that point, but if you drill it out, where exactly are they suppose to be attached? Shove the tube in the hole then epoxy liberally. If you notice in the picture, not only is the hole epoxied, but the metal band is as well to prevent the fluid from leaking out from the top, which it did on a dry run without the epoxy.

Brush with fitting ready for epoxy

Brush with fresh epoxy

As the epoxy cured I used a rubber band to hold the hose close to the brush for a more inline connection. Once cured, attach to the hose on the parts washer. I also loosely zip tied the hose to the end of the brush through the hole in the handle. This should help maintain control of the hose as I move the brush around. If I could do this differently, I would have tried to use a longer drill bit and just drilled out the center of the brush on a drill press, then made the hose connection on the end of the handle. This would have made a more professional looking product. However I don’t have a bit to do that, nor do I currently own a drill press.

Lisle 14000 Parts Cleaning Brush with Polypropylene Bristles

J-B Weld 8277 J-B Water Weld. 2 oz.

Northern Industrial Flow-Thru Brush and Hose for Parts Washers

Tags: Automotive, Tools by Technical Mercenary
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Homemade Parts Washer

So after looking at parts washers in the stores and online I decided that I could build one with better features for the same price as the cheap ones. Most cheap ones are good only for water based (aqueous) solvents, and my design is no different since it uses a water pump for it’s design, though you could upgrade it. The pump used is a water fountain pump submerged in an old bucket from pool chemicals. There is a secondary bucket suspended beneath the tub drain and main bucket lid, that has shop rags in the bottom, with the bottom turned into swiss cheese. This provides basic filtering to prolong pump life.

Pump and filter assembly

The red in water above is from the red shop rags used for filters. Inside the smaller bucket is a down pipe of the tub drain. The smaller bucket is just suspended with some electrical wire via holes drilled in the appropriate places.

The tub itself is a feed trough from a farm supply store that is held off the bucket with four toilet tank bolt assemblies (they come with rubber washers) and a bar sink drain assembly that has a large hole strainer/stopper built in. The bottom of the drain assembly has the downpipe that goes through the main bucket lid and into the filter bucket. On top of the rubber washers that all the pieces came with, I also gave all the holes and seals a healthy dose of automotive grade RTV silicone.

Visible Drain and Bolt Assemblies

The feed tube from the pump comes up to pipe fittings that split in two different routes. The purpose of this is to create a sort of parts “dishwasher”. One of the pipes off the tee is to go to a flow through brush that will be built later (next article), but for now it is just an open tube. The other path taken by the fluid goes to a tube ring suspended at the top of the tub. This ring has nozzles provided by tube couplers that came from an assortment pack of vacuum tube fittings. These fittings are pushed into the side of the tube at desired intervals. Pilot holes help this process. When your done, mix in whatever you want for an aqueous de-greaser or parts solvent. Take a look at the final pictures and tell me what you think.