Safety kleen, and shop towels --- Questions for Alan802

[inkbrigade]

Seen some pictures of Alans shop. Had a few questions for ya.

I saw you have a safety kleen parts washer. Is this the one you have? http://bit.ly/pInZwj
Do you use the solvent that comes with it?
I see they offer a Aqueous washer too which are safe and biodegradable according to their website.
Can you use this without gloves?
How is the smell?
Do you own or lease?
Do you have them come swap out the solution?
Do you need to rinse squeegees and floodbars with water after using this? Or can they be dried and used back on press again?

I also noticed you have a giant shop towel dispenser. Where did you get that and do you like it?

Thanks!

[Binkspot]

I have found Crystal Clean to be a better alliterative then Safety Clean. Better pricing, more flexible schedule and IMO better products. In my previous life I stumbled upon them and have used Crystal for about 10 years.  At one time I had four large 80 gallon parts washers in my shop, two were changed out weekly and the other two quarterly at a fraction of the price of Safety Clean.  You can purchase your own tank and have them service it or lease one from them, set up a schedule for service and let it ride. If you need service sooner give them a call and they are usually there the next day. Crystal Clean is easier on the skin.     

[mk162]

I use the stuff sonny sells and manage my own tank.  It is cheaper than safety kleen.  You can dispose of the solids easily with my method...an oil filter for a solvent filter and toss those in a toaster oven to cure the ink, or use P's method of outside under a black tarp.

I don't change out my solvent, I only change out my filters, 3 years going now.

The kicker with those companies if you read their contracts is you still own the solvent.  So if the driver hits a school bus, and the drums break open and leak everywhere, you are still liable for the cleanup costs of those solvents.  That is really crappy to me.  THAT is what I am paying for is a responsible disposal of my products, not "expensive disposal, with all the risks of doing it yourself.

[rushhourscreen]

I use the stuff sonny sells and manage my own tank. 

So, you circulate the "stuff" with the pump with no problems?  I had read somewhere anything other than solvent has a fire risk.  What is the name of Sonny's product? Thanks.

[mk162]

Plastiwash.  Mineral spirits is hard on squeegee rubber and isn't much cheaper to begin with.

[alan802]

Seen some pictures of Alans shop. Had a few questions for ya.

I saw you have a safety kleen parts washer. Is this the one you have? http://bit.ly/pInZwj
Do you use the solvent that comes with it?
I see they offer a Aqueous washer too which are safe and biodegradable according to their website.
Can you use this without gloves?
How is the smell?
Do you own or lease?
Do you have them come swap out the solution?
Do you need to rinse squeegees and floodbars with water after using this? Or can they be dried and used back on press again?

I also noticed you have a giant shop towel dispenser. Where did you get that and do you like it?

Thanks!

We have the parts washer on the far left.  We use their solution, I don't know which one it is, we do it on a lease basis, they come out every six weeks to swap out the solution.  They give gloves to you and the smell isn't bad if you have decent ventilation in the shop.  If you're in a confined area, it might get pretty hard to handle.  After we clean our blades and floodbars we put them in a bucket to dry, then you can wipe them down with a rag if they aren't completely dry. 

We get those boxes of shop towels at Sam's Club.  We have since moved to the blue rolls of shop towels that I put on a clothes hanger and hang those all around the shop.  I love the shop towels in the box, we glue them down so you can just grab one and tear it off without the box flying.  We started using the rolls on hangers because they are almost have the price of the box towels and over the course of a year, we'll save probably $500 this year by changing to the rolls.  They aren't as good and convenient as the box towels but the price makes it worth it.

I'm sure there are better and cheaper ways to do it than the Safety Kleen, and I feel like I'm not doing my job by not looking at those other options, but this thing works so good, it's so convenient and it's something that I never have to worry about so I haven't tried to do any better.  It takes less than a minute to scrub a dirty squeegee clean and floodbars are even faster than that, so we never have to wait for clean tools to do our job, it's been worth it for us.

[DanK]

This is a good thread, thanks!  We've tried to get Safety Kleen out to our shop a few times, and it's just not happening.  I think we're going to look into that Crystal Clean company.

We bought a parts washer at Home Depot or something for around $150 and that thing works well.

[Printficient]

This is a good thread, thanks!  We've tried to get Safety Kleen out to our shop a few times, and it's just not happening.  I think we're going to look into that Crystal Clean company.

We bought a parts washer at Home Depot or something for around $150 and that thing works well.

Plastiwash will work better than Crystal.  You need to check the wear on your squeegees.  Do not use the Crystal for cleaning out screens.

[JBLUE]

Seen some pictures of Alans shop. Had a few questions for ya.

I saw you have a safety kleen parts washer. Is this the one you have? http://bit.ly/pInZwj
Do you use the solvent that comes with it?
I see they offer a Aqueous washer too which are safe and biodegradable according to their website.
Can you use this without gloves?
How is the smell?
Do you own or lease?
Do you have them come swap out the solution?
Do you need to rinse squeegees and floodbars with water after using this? Or can they be dried and used back on press again?

I also noticed you have a giant shop towel dispenser. Where did you get that and do you like it?

Thanks!

We have the parts washer on the far left.  We use their solution, I don't know which one it is, we do it on a lease basis, they come out every six weeks to swap out the solution.  They give gloves to you and the smell isn't bad if you have decent ventilation in the shop.  If you're in a confined area, it might get pretty hard to handle.  After we clean our blades and floodbars we put them in a bucket to dry, then you can wipe them down with a rag if they aren't completely dry. 

We get those boxes of shop towels at Sam's Club.  We have since moved to the blue rolls of shop towels that I put on a clothes hanger and hang those all around the shop.  I love the shop towels in the box, we glue them down so you can just grab one and tear it off without the box flying.  We started using the rolls on hangers because they are almost have the price of the box towels and over the course of a year, we'll save probably $500 this year by changing to the rolls.  They aren't as good and convenient as the box towels but the price makes it worth it.

I'm sure there are better and cheaper ways to do it than the Safety Kleen, and I feel like I'm not doing my job by not looking at those other options, but this thing works so good, it's so convenient and it's something that I never have to worry about so I haven't tried to do any better.  It takes less than a minute to scrub a dirty squeegee clean and floodbars are even faster than that, so we never have to wait for clean tools to do our job, it's been worth it for us.

We use the same blue towels. Great on cost and they work great too.

[ZooCity]

We use Greeneway from Franmar on one of the wing pans of a big, stainless 3-sink and honestly we use so little of it that I'm not sure a recirc is justifiable.  It's an oily cleaner and you don't really need too much.  I'm sure hydrocarbon solvents are going to clean things faster but we use Greeneway to clean our hands and it doesn't stink.

I might try converting that sink for recirc.  The oil filter idea sounds smart MK do you have pics of your setup?

Awhile back on the M&R Forums someone had made a post about how brilliant using safety kleen was for their company because it allowed them to get some sort of b.s. "green" certification since safety kleen was responsible as the waste generator technically and not them.  So I think there must be some option to get safety kleen to cover the chem.  What baffles me is why companies like that don't just use safe cleaners.  Ours work great.     

[Frog]

Even "safe" cleaners may end up with unsafe contaminants.

[ZooCity]

Even "safe" cleaners may end up with unsafe contaminants.

True that.  In shops with the gnarly stuff or those hooked up to septic, good filtration and proper disposal of the filters is a must.  Shops using toxic inks, etc. are probably doing way better for themselves and everyone else by containing that waste stream and handing it over to some professionals. 

What blew me away about the post I was referring to is how proud the poster was about being certified "green" when they are ripping through thousands of gallons of hydrocarbon solvents every year.  That's just ludicrous and exemplary of how disingenuous the "green" marketing hype really is. 

Whereas MK here is taking culpability for his waste, curing it proper before disposal, the whole nine yards and he's recircing the same fluid 3 years going. 

I'm also a little confused on why those using safety kleen wouldn't want a plastisol-specific cleaner.  Seems like there's probably a bunch of stuff in that stock solution that isn't necessary for wiping down a squeegee right?  But having someone come and take care of that entire thing would definitely be nice and I see the attraction. 

[shirtz]

I use the stuff sonny sells and manage my own tank.  It is cheaper than safety kleen.  You can dispose of the solids easily with my method...an oil filter for a solvent filter and toss those in a toaster oven to cure the ink, or use P's method of outside under a black tarp.

I don't change out my solvent, I only change out my filters, 3 years going now.

The kicker with those companies if you read their contracts is you still own the solvent.  So if the driver hits a school bus, and the drums break open and leak everywhere, you are still liable for the cleanup costs of those solvents.  That is really crappy to me.  THAT is what I am paying for is a responsible disposal of my products, not "expensive disposal, with all the risks of doing it yourself.

Explain how you use oil filters?

[jsheridan]

Waterbased printing makes more and more sense everyday.

I can't stand safety kleen and we as printers have no use for it in today's market. The chemicals they use are in no way designed for the proper breakdown of current generation phalate free inks AND it breaks down our squeegee rubber. So you pay good money to let a product ruin your own products.. where's the business sense in that.. wow!

Read your tech sheets folks.. this new ink doesn't clean up like the old stuff and using the wrong cleaners can actually embed your ink into the emulsion making it harder to reclaim the screens. Oh and let's not forget, their isn't a tape on the market that can hold up their solvent. Spend $20 bucks for a roll of tape to protect your screen and the solvent breaks down the glue.

Your chemicals should match your product lines and do the job intended. A press wash is not for use in the sink and vise versa. Squeegees need their own recirculating tank and your dirty screens get carded of ink and go into reclaim immedialety after use where you degrade the ink, then the emulsion and YOUR'E DONE.. don't degrease unless you use cap film.

Or screw all that nonsense.. print water based and put your chemical money into water filtration systems, you can even put the dirty WB clean up rags you bought from Harbor Freight into the washing machine with some Tide and they come out spiffy clean.

[jsheridan]

[/quote]
Explain how you use oil filters?
[/quote]

Think filter you see at the Diesel pump.. kinda like that, it's inline with your pump and filters the solids and crap out. Replace it and cure it in the oven, then  it's safe to toss in the trash 

Cured ink of any kind is landfill OK. It's the uncured stuff that will get you in trouble.