Cleaning fuel tank

[sberry]

The fuel tank on my pressure washer hasn't been cleaned in 32 years, for good reason. It was working but it was all old and the fuel hoses were super hard, oem so I bought a roll and it ran out of juice the day before. As easy as it might seem it really took a day to clean this thing.
It is kind of a 1 off job. I found a filter that didn't make much difference anyway but, I ended up with about an inch deep sludge by the time I manmaged to scrap the walls and scrub with a scotchbrite hooked to a rod, a stick or 2 etc.
I made the circulator from this little pump and washed around a couple gallons of fresh diesel, scrub a little more and wash down. Getting the sludge out was another issue.
I finally dumped about a gallon of sawdust down, stirred it with a stick which actually worked quite well and then vacuumed out, took the vac and air nozzle/wand stick in it and blew it around till it was cleaned and actually impressed myself.
It took a little to figure out how to do it but I managed to get it cleaned up pretty good. So the secret of the day, while floor dry is good for floors we use sawdust in cleaning oily tubs and pans etc. It wipes clean and we dumped it thru the wood stove immediately. I had a plastic barrel to clean the other day, it was really easy.

 

[sberry]

I found a piece of conduit to this hose adapter I already had and the sawdust went whizzing thru a 3/4 without any clogging. It was dry enough that it didn't stick in the hose.
This is the super adapter, 3/4 hose on it and it fits a lot of stuff. I should make a bottle only one but its as easy to cut off a pop bottle as needed vs storage of another piece.

 

[amolaver]

I especially like the idea of using the oiled sawdust in the stove. Great idea. Probably no good for gasoline though

 

[sberry]

You can have an oily mess in a 5 gallon bucket,, run some sawdust around in it for a bit and wipe it right out with a paper towel and its nearly clean.

 

[G_P]

Sawdust is great for soaking up spills.
I have wood bins under my table saw and radial arm saw to collect the dust. There's probably a dump truck load worth of sawdust thats been slowly dumped on my property between my father, and now me.