short cut to de-oil parts??

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Hey guys,         I'm hoping to tap into the collective infinite wisdom again.I have a couple of cnc machine shops that I do various weld/fab work for on a regular basis. A large percentage of said work is producing various weldments, welding part A to part B. The job I'm currently doing consists of 1500 parts, 750 of one and 750 of other, to be welded together. When doing this type of work, I often encounter oily parts, being from the cooling fluid used in CNC machines or from an applied coat of MoreCoat.      Is there a short cut to drying/cleaning oily coolants, ect.., on said parts to a satisfactory state to weld?.....I thought about  placing parts in some type of heater, or oven at low heat for a while, to maybe dry them to a point where they would better weld.......After writing down the oven idea here and reviewing it,,, that sound pretty stupid...?     Can anyone suggest a cleaning/prepping process that would be more cost effective than hand cleaning 1500 parts???Miller TrailBlazer 251Miller HF-250-1Miller MaxStar 150 STLHyperTherm PowerMax 380 plasmaLincoln PowerMig 180Millermatic 252Miller Diversion 180
Reply:Hello wagin, how often do you do this sort of thing? My reason for asking is to help you decide for yourself if you need to consider investing in a hot-water parts washer. There are a number of units that are used by automotive rebuild shops and others who have oily/dirty parts that they need to clean before assembly and these machines can certainly provide that sort of cleaning. You might also be able to find one used somewhere as they are a bit on the spendy side. The ones that I have seen have a door that opens up to expose a rack that the parts can be loaded onto and then they use a combination of hotwater and soap to clean and rinse the parts, I seem to recall they also have a drying element to get rid of the moisture after the washing and rinsing has been completed. Might be worth looking into for your applications. Best regards, Allanaevald
Reply:Where I used to work we'd degrease parts in an large ultrasonic cleaner with hot water and simple green. The parts were not super oily, but might have a light coat of oil on them. After that we'd rinse in hot water and let dry.I've boiled larger items that wouldn't fit in the ultrasonic cleaner in simple green and water. The roiling boil did basically the same job as the ultrasonic in agitating the solution to help remove the oils.One thing, simple green breaks down with heat so you have to change the solution regularly. We'd do it daily, but we were not doing the quantity of parts or dealing with large quantities of oil either.Dawn Dish soap also works well. I would frequently use it as a pre cleaner to remove oil for some things.I was aware of one shop that used an old dishwasher to clean parts. That might be a thought if the parts are small enough that you can get enough in the machine..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:we had a Hotsy parts washer at work.  It was great.  Throw in greasy, oily parts, set timer, and 15 min later they were clean.  If you pulled them out while they were hot, the water would evaporate off them in minutes.  Or you could blow them off with air.My name's not Jim....
Reply:Thanks guys, I like the dishwasher angle...simple enough but effective. I will have one in shop soon. Thanks againMiller TrailBlazer 251Miller HF-250-1Miller MaxStar 150 STLHyperTherm PowerMax 380 plasmaLincoln PowerMig 180Millermatic 252Miller Diversion 180
Reply:How big are the parts?Could you just put a bunch of parts in a metal basket and then dip/dunk/spray in some cleaning solvent?   These are steel parts, right?  I'd be leary of using water.  Water+steel=rust.  Somtimes PDQ.  Yeah, I know that the machining 'lube' is usually a water-based goop, but part of the goop is corrosion-inhibitors so that the water doesn't instantly rust the machine or the parts.  When you remove the oily goop, you then have bare steel.55 gallon drum of cleaning solvent?  http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/3APL5?Pid=search  It's a mix of acetone, tolune, and methanol (aka brake-cleaner formula with no chlorinated solvent like 111 tri-chlor).  The best laid schemes ... Gang oft agley ...