Stripper Drain/Recycle/Waste System
John Polgar
Stripper flow table drains into empty fiver with lid.
Heavier particles settle to the bottom.
This is the intake side of my system.
When fluid level rises it flows into a second fiver.
Picture below shows overall side view of stripper collection system.
I used some electrical connectors with gaskets made to house exterior
wiring to fasten the two fivers together. I use MC and the system does
not leak. The fluid flows into the second fiver on the right. The heat
band is toward the bottom (heat rises, fluid at bottom and not always
at the top depending on stripping process). The uptake tube goes
through the lid on this side down to the bottom. The uptake tube has a
metal screen/cone fitting from Benco. This tube runs to the pump.
This is the top view from strip table down into intake fiver.
Fresh drum is to left. I’ll pull the uptake tube from the other fiver,
plunk it down into the fresh and run it through the pump, table, intake
and flow over into the uptake fiver. This starts me off or replenishes
as I use up stripper. Once I have 7 or 8 gallons run through as needed
so at least half the uptake fiver is filled I just pull the uptake tube from
the drum and drop it into the uptake fiver. It works very well. Minimizes
evaporation, keeps heavy matter away from the screen, keeps stock of
stripper cleaner longer, and minimizes waste. Notice in first photo above
about 3” of sludge? That’s 3 months worth of waste. I have a 55 gallon
waste drum used as “pre-wash”. When it’s filled, I’ll have it hauled off.
Right now it’s only a little over half filled and it’s been two years since I
started using it. However, it holds the last 5 years of what I had stored
before the drum. This is just stripper/solvent residue. I scoop out sludge
and put it in a plastic tub with loose lid stored under my strip table. Here
it evaporates further. Solid chunks get dumped into the “pre-wash” drum
along with cleaning solvents and stuff from the spray booth. Every month
or so on a nice warm day I pop the lid and let it evaporate. One day
evaporation usually drops the level in the drum by up to an inch.
