An upgrade to some diy cleaning

[Neverenoughwatches]

Made a little upgrade to my cleaning process today. Meant to do this ages ago after some discussion regarding container material used in a US. @HectorLooi mentioned steel containers to be the best for allowing cavitation penetration, i seem to remember he said he used steel kitchen canisters of some description. All i could find in my kitchen resembling  that was a tin of peas, promptly emptied cleaned out and modified ( which only involved grinding off the sharp inner edge left by the pull back lid, which coincidentally took a nice slice out of my index finger while drying the tin, note the professional first aid ability ). This upgrade also included a make up jar lid supplied by Mrs. Never enough and drilling a few extra holes.  This now lets me spin off cleaning solution which helps with left residues, the tin is a close fit around the baskets assembly which cuts down on any wobble while using a cordless drill used for the spin. First picture is pre upgrade.

[rossjackson01]

Never

Good idea. I've been think of trying to make a hand spin drier. Hope you don't mind if I copy your DIY? What is the white bottom round container from?

Regards

Ross

[Neverenoughwatches]

24 minutes ago, rossjackson01 said:

Never

Good idea. I've been think of trying to make a hand spin drier. Hope you don't mind if I copy your DIY? What is the white bottom round container from?

Regards

Ross

Hiya Ross of course i dont mind. The little plastic basket is from cousins, I'll pop back in a min when i find the section where its listed. There is some speculation that plastic can be affected by the cleaning solution but I've seen many folk use pla for printing up baskets, I'm not sure what the plastic is in this basket but I've been using it for well over a year with no ill effect to it or anything else, i only do 5 minute runs on cleaning and rinses with heated spins inbetween.  The idea of the tin which is only 0.5mm thick is to give better cavitation compared to glass. Will the tin be affected ? I cant say just yet time will tell but so much of watch repair for us learning is about experimentation. 

28 minutes ago, rossjackson01 said:

Never

Good idea. I've been think of trying to make a hand spin drier. Hope you don't mind if I copy your DIY? What is the white bottom round container from?

Regards

Ross

https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/baskets-pots

 

[rossjackson01]

9 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Hiya Ross of course i dont mind. The little plastic basket is from cousins, I'll pop back in a min when i find the section where its listed. There is some speculation that plastic can be affected by the cleaning solution but I've seen many folk use pla for printing up baskets, I'm not sure what the plastic is in this basket but I've been using it for well over a year with no ill effect to it or anything else, i only do 5 minute runs on cleaning and rinses with heated spins inbetween.  The idea of the tin which is only 0.5mm thick is to give better cavitation compared to glass. Will the tin be affected ? I cant say just yet time will tell but so much of watch repair for us learning is about experimentation. 

https://www.cousinsuk.com/product/baskets-pots

 

Good man you are.

[Neverenoughwatches]

On 12/17/2023 at 10:14 AM, rossjackson01 said:

Good man you are.

Another upgrade for you Ross. The little plastic baskets from cousins, the center post is too flimsy to spin the basket outside of a neatly fitting tin as per previous post. So i did a little customising to make it more stable. Remove the center post of the basket completely and drill out a 6mm hole in its place. Add in some more holes around the side of the basket to your liking.  The base is just the lid off a sauce jar, i might change that or do away with it altogether but it does make the assembly more stable and creates a stand for the basket, you could add some holes to it if you wish, i probably will. The driveshaft  is a bolt that connects kitchen worktops together it was just the right length and is an m6 thread size,you will need an m 6 wingnut for the top locknut. The plastic disks are cut from the outer skin of an old upvc door panel, just cut with a holesaw and then spun in a drill to clean them up, probably add some holes to these too. I think the pictures are self explanatory, i have some bits and pieces coming in the mail plus some odds and sods to make up the drive for the basket and a heater. Ideas are an electric drill with a seperate speed regulator,  a striped down 2 speed cooling fan, these are great if you can adapt one to fit into some kind of jig ( very quiet induction motors and they run forever ). Also in the mix is an old drill press, a cheap laboratory stand with holding arms and dc car windscreen heater. Enjoy , i have too much time on my hands at the moment so theres more to come

On 12/17/2023 at 10:14 AM, rossjackson01 said:

Good man you are.

For some reason the pictures didn't add here they are.

[Neverenoughwatches]

Makeshift parts dryer if anyone wants a cheap hack . Just until the dc windscreen motor i ordered arrives to knock something better up. I normally use a food dryer but this is much quicker. A 2 pound travel hairdryer from a carboot that runs at 1000 watts and a microphone stand for 7 quid off ebay. The dryer is on low so just a good steady heat about 4 inches below the basket, within 10 seconds the basket of parts start to swing, that aids the drying. Obviously put all small parts in mesh baskets and check that the height and heat output below the basket suits requirements

[Neverenoughwatches]

A couple more washers for those of us that like to potter around making gadgets. The small one just a a cheap dremmel type tool , this one is cordless which is handy. Mounted on a very cheap lab stand, i should have spent a few more quid really, the locking nuts and brackets are a bit pants, the clamp is sort of ok, but its completely stable because there's no weight to any of it and its extremely quiet when running. Another 15 quid would have got me a much better stand. But all in all i like it, the lowest setting on the dremel is perfect and a touch above that to spin off the cleaner. The big one is a drill and press bought this year at a carboot for a fiver. Very stable and the voltage regulator for 15 quid gives it plenty of speed adjustment. The travel on the press is 75mm which is perfect for lowering the baskets i made, i just had to remove the big return spring in the press and tighten up the travel mechanism.  It took a little while to find all the right nuts bolts and couplings and some adjustments had to be made but not a headache. I was thinking of adding an impeller to the spindle of the drill but there already seems to be a bit of a vortex going but adding some wave breakers will be an Idea. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

Final piece to the puzzle, i decided against the 12 volt windscreen heater as a part dryer, it became to expensive to convert the voltage on something with a big power consumption ( nearly double the heater, a massive £25 ). Since i already had the voltage regulator for the drill, it's now become useful for reducing the heat output and fan for the travel hairdryer. It just needed a dryer tunnel making, that was precision manufactured from a protein supplement container. Everything you see on the cabinet totals a whopping  £120, some new, some secondhand, some made up by a dodgy bloke with a saw and a drill.  3 washers, and 2 dryers. To be perfectly honest i prefer the stuff i made up, for that you can knock off the 80 quid that the US and the food dryer cost.  The last picky is a mini US for cleaning the balance and fork, it will be interesting to see how it performs. Contact lens screw cases, balance one side the fork in the other soaking in some trichloroethylene. 

 

[rehajm]

[Neverenoughwatches]

On 12/21/2023 at 11:32 AM, rehajm said:

Actually matey, i was much more of "THE A-TEAM" fan . What they couldn't turn a GMC  Vandura into from a shopping trolley and bungee cord wasn't worth shit.

Another little upgrade involved find good washing jars, initially i was using coconut jars . These were ok a little small but did the job, square jars i know wash better due to a different fluid  dispersion in the jar. So i picked up a few square and also some round of a similar size to test the difference. There is a big difference, see the pictures, there are two pictures of the wash within each type of jar, a slow wash and a fast wash.  The square jar is much more vigorous, at high speed almost creates a foam that has to be controlled.  But definitely if you are thinking of knocking up a DIY washer ( and i would this has been so cheap to do )  go for square jars, these are thick with a good wire snap down glass lid, for those of us in the UK £2.50 each from B & M stores.

Another little upgrade involved find good washing jars, initially i was using coconut jars . These were ok a little small but did the job, square jars i know wash better due to a different fluid  dispersion in the jar. So i picked up a few square and also some round of a similar size to test the difference. There is a big difference, see the pictures, there are two pictures of the wash within each type of jar, a slow wash and a fast wash.  The square jar is much more vigorous, at high speed almost creates a foam that has to be controlled.  But definitely if you are thinking of knocking up a DIY washer ( and i would this has been so cheap to do )  go for square jars, these are thick with a good wire snap down glass lid, for those of us in the UK £2.50 each from B & M stores.

How easy is this ? Simple, versatile and cheap as chips, one portable washer. The gentle hum of the little dc motor, the soft swishing of fluid and the serene slow vortex of bubbles and waves. Its hypnotic,  it also makes me need a pee