Getting Fed Up With Messy Coolant Tanks

Okay let me tell you about my workshop disaster. Last month I had this crusty coolant tank that looked like a science experiment gone wrong. Sludge everywhere, gunk sticking to the walls, smelled like rotten eggs mixed with cheap oil. Tried cleaning it manually? Absolute nightmare. Took three guys four hours scraping with brushes, spraying solvents, nearly puking from the fumes. We wasted half a workday just on one tank. Boss was pissed about lost production time, and my back still hurts from hunching over that metal box.

My Sketchy DIY Solution

After that mess, I hit YouTube late one night drinking cheap beer in my garage. Saw some factory video with this rotating spray thingy cleaning tanks in minutes. Thought – why not make a ghetto version? Dug through my scrap pile and found:

• A busted pressure washer motor
• Old sprinkler parts
• Plastic PVC pipes from last summer's failed garden project
• Zip ties (always zip ties)

Spent Saturday cobbling together this monstrosity. Welded metal brackets onto a dolly for mobility, rigged the pressure pump to spin the sprinkler head using belt drives. Nearly flooded my garage when a pipe joint blew during testing – my dog bolted like I set off fireworks.

Surprisingly Not Terrible Results

Took my Frankenstein cleaner to work Monday morning. Boss just sighed and walked away shaking his head. Hooked the hose to our solvent tank, shoved the spinning nozzle through the access port, and hit the switch. This chaotic whirlwind happened inside:

• Pressurized solvent spraying 360 degrees
• Gunk instantly sliding off the walls
• Two minutes later – shiny metal surfaces

The magical part? We hooked a filter to the drainage pipe and recovered 80% of the solvent. What used to take hours got done during coffee break. Saved $1200 on labor that month and cut solvent costs nearly in half. My ugly pipe contraption now lives permanently by the machining stations.

Never buying those overpriced "industrial" cleaners again. Next project? Modding this baby with a timer switch so Jerry stops hogging it for lunch breaks.