What do you use to filter your drain effluent?

[ZooCity]

Interested to hear what everyone is doing.  We currently use a four stage sieve sort of system with a plastic bucket, little pvc pipe 'frames' and screen mesh from coarse to fine, stacked up in said bucket.  Going to get a little fancier with the impending move to wb inks as those need to be truly filtered for environmental reasons as city sewer will not pick up all of that stuff. 

Using a pool sand filter has been ruled out- thanks screenedgear!

[tpitman]

I bought a sheet of that blue washable furnace filter material that's about an inch thick, and cut out round bits to fit into the two drains of my washout sink. You'd be surprised at how fast they plug up, and except for an occasional solid piece of emulsion that didn't dissolve, like a drip, all that goes down there is ink degradent to get the last bit of ink film off, dissolved emulsion,emulsion remover, and water. I'm sure that filter media such as those round ones for whole house water systems would get more out, but I've never had a problem with a clog . . . just a blue stain on the pvc waste pipe.

[Nation03]

I'm going to upgrade to a blackline unit when I move out of my basement. But for the time being I use 2 old 230 mesh screens with filter media laying over each screens mesh. Kind of ghetto rigged, but it works. I clean all the ink off my screens with screen wash before I reclaim.

[ftembroidery]

I used a milking funnel (it's about 16" in diameter and 8" deep) with commercial milking filters (about 8" in diameter).  Depending upon emulsion thickness, the filter would last between 1 and 3 screens (I was a 1-man shop and screen printing was only about 1-2% of our business).  It then drained into a 5 gal. bucket with a sump pump in it equipped with an automatic float, which pumped it into a standard laundry drain I installed.

[mooseman]

not a very clear picture and I must admit I have not mucked this out in some time but for what it is worth we use a settling tank (30 gallon seed bin from farm supply) and some simple PVC piping.
Inflow is delivered to the bottom of the tank (bucket) via the dip tube solids settle out and drain water is skimmed off of the top to city drain.

here is a pic
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x296/copdaddy/DSCF6655withnotes.jpg
http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x296/copdaddy/DSCF6670withnotes.jpg

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x296/copdaddy/DSCF6672withnotes.jpg

mooseman

[Prosperi-Tees]

Is it really necessary to filter anything? I have been into a couple long time shops where everything just goes straight down the drain from reclaiming screens.

[tpitman]

Is it really necessary to filter anything? I have been into a couple long time shops where everything just goes straight down the drain from reclaiming screens.

My kid works in a local shop that's pretty busy and he says the drain has gotten plugged up with the crap before.

[ZooCity]

That ain't a half bad setup moose. Might want an aav on that vent pipe directly over the drain.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Is it really necessary to filter anything? I have been into a couple long time shops where everything just goes straight down the drain from reclaiming screens.

My kid works in a local shop that's pretty busy and he says the drain has gotten plugged up with the crap before.

I understand a filter or strainer/screen to capture large solids but is there really anything that should not go down the drain? Everything I use is labeled "drain safe".

[tpitman]

Unless someone is dumping ink down the drain, which of course you shouldn't, I'd guess that dissolved emulsion is the one thing that would be most problematic. Trouble is, there's not much else you can do. My emulsion melts off so fast that I couldn't even scrape off the bulk, or try to wipe it out with an old shirt.

[Prosperi-Tees]

I use Easiway Supra and it seems to liquify the emulsion pretty good unless I leave the screen in the tank to long and then it gets kinda stringy.

[ZooCity]

I've tried researching this a few times and it's honestly pretty hard to figure out in scientific terms but....

On most city sewer: successfully reclaimed emulsion solids are probably fine, light ink residue (ultimately solids once parted from the ink degradent) from clean formulated plastisol also probably fine (too much would be an issue I would guess and I'm not sure if the nasty plasticizers can effect this one way or the other), the soy or citrus chem's are probably no worse than most other detergents that gush out of American households on a daily basis. 

Problem substances are most likely dehazers, the unexposed emulsion you wash out of the image area and water-bourne inks.  (I wish I'd bookmarked the article I read on this, it wasn't a study but made some good, yet speculative points that water-bourne inks are a no-no to go down the drain, even the friendlier new ones.  Substances in them will presumably make it back to the tap water. )

And that's pretty much what goes down the drain right?  Am I missing anything here?

I doubt that most shops, using modern chem's and inks, are major point source emitters of anything but all of our shops combined could represent a larger issue.  My goal, aside from not clogging the plumbing, is to filter out anything that city water treatment cannot manage easily and dispose of it properly.  Don't want to take a leak in the pool. 

[mk162]

Having toured a water plant while doing some A/V work, I can tell you they are wicked awesome.

They have giant filters that pull solids out and then they are carted off to an incinerator.  I would imagine that chunks of anything we would dispose of would end up there.

As for the dissolved stuff, that goes through several stages(I didn't get to see them all) before ending up in a giant tank that gets the piss bleached out of it(literally).

I should have paid more attention.

Emulsion is the main culprit when it comes to clogging drains.  The best stuff to fix that is Zep's heat crystals or something like that.  That crap burns through anything.

[ZooCity]

I like the idea of taking a tour of the facilities. I smell a company field trip!

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

[mk162]

The coolest part was the new rain water runoff holding tank.  It seriously felt like a movie.  Almost like the inside of the matrix.  It was a cylindrical room that was about 30-40 feet across and at least 150-200 feet deep.  But it had levels in it, we walked out on the top level and could look over the edge and down.  It was really cool.