Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Cleaning Lubesters

I am about to buy a couple of lubesters and wanted to know what is the best way to clean the inside. I've seen posts talking about cutting them open, removing baffles, etc. but is that necessary? Is disposal of the resulting mess a problem? Thanks.

You can also check your local machine shop. They could dunk it in the dunk tank & that would remove all the oil & grease residue inside & out. The other way is a degreaser let it soak for a day or two. Then pressure wash it the best you can & get the rest by hand. Just remember to remove all the oil you can if you do step one. Hope this helps

CP:

I've got a metal stripping place I deal with. They completly submerge the items to clean them - and as an added bonus, they put a protective coating on the cleaned metal to prevent it from rusting.

The coating washes off with soap and water when you're ready to paint. But I leave the interior coated so I don't have to worry about any rust starting there.

The rest of the parts are small enough to go into my sandblaster to be cleaned.

Later . . .

Jim

I recently bought a lubester and was thinking of the same thing. I came up with 2 options.

First, my local machine shop didn't have a tank big enough for the lubester; also, their degreaser was a pressure wash system that wouldn't work very well due to the small opening of the lubester. They did have a furnace that they cook parts in that would work. They were talking about $100 to do the lubester.

Second was the chemical paint stripping operation. They also cook the parts in an oven prior to dipping.

My concern with both of these options is the cooking in an oven. I'm not sure how the lubester was manufactured, specifically how the seams are joined to be liquid tight. I'm guessing that it is welded, but I'm not 100% certain. If not, will the high heat "melt" however the seams are joined?

Appreciate all your thoughts on this.

Steve