The suck bucket

phil46 said:

needed to remove some contaminated diesel from a tank with no drain plug on bottom. no suck bucket available and no shop vac, so after hunting around in back of van i had a plan. The suck can/van!!!!!!!! using the brake booster vac pump!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdvVacv4mxQ

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A couple years ago I had to remove a hydraulic line from a machine at a remote site, no air compressor, nothing to drain oil into. Well if I had been at the shop I have a homemade vacuum device that works off shop air to hold a vacuum on a tank like this, works great. This time the tool was back at the shop and like I said no air compressor. But I did have a source of vacuum kind of like phil46. This was a Ford F-150 with a gas engine. Scrounged around and actually did find some tubing to hook from the hydraulic tank to the intake of the truck. Seemed to be working fine got old hose off and only lost a cup full of oil by the time new hose was hooked up. That's when I noticed the Ford was smoking out the exhaust a little. Seems a little hyd. oil did get sucked into the intake. Lucky as I said this was somewhat of a remote location. So after five or six miles of hard driving the Ford stopped smoking and never gave a problem. Is there a statue of limitations on the EPA pollution laws?

phil46 said:

needed to remove some contaminated diesel from a tank with no drain plug on bottom. no suck bucket available and no shop vac, so after hunting around in back of van i had a plan. The suck can/van!!!!!!!! using the brake booster vac pump!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdvVacv4mxQ

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Very nice phil46, welcome to HEF. :drinkup

kshansen said:

A couple years ago I had to remove a hydraulic line from a machine at a remote site, no air compressor, nothing to drain oil into. Well if I had been at the shop I have a homemade vacuum device that works off shop air to hold a vacuum on a tank like this, works great. This time the tool was back at the shop and like I said no air compressor. But I did have a source of vacuum kind of like phil46. This was a Ford F-150 with a gas engine. Scrounged around and actually did find some tubing to hook from the hydraulic tank to the intake of the truck. Seemed to be working fine got old hose off and only lost a cup full of oil by the time new hose was hooked up. That's when I noticed the Ford was smoking out the exhaust a little. Seems a little hyd. oil did get sucked into the intake. Lucky as I said this was somewhat of a remote location. So after five or six miles of hard driving the Ford stopped smoking and never gave a problem. Is there a statue of limitations on the EPA pollution laws?

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Upper cylinder lubricant, right kshansen?

willie59 said:

Upper cylinder lubricant, right kshansen?

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Yea that's my story and I'm sticking with it! Those old 4.9 sixes are tough old engines. Wish they still made them!

kshansen said:

Yea that's my story and I'm sticking with it! Those old 4.9 sixes are tough old engines. Wish they still made them!

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LoL, I drive one to work everyday, my old '85 F-150.

One of my friends burned down his house and garage to the ground about 20 years with one of these pails, so be careful. (Sorry Willie... your idea isn't new by any means... though thanks for sharing!)

If you read the warning on a shop vac I'm sure it will say not to suck up anything volatile, flammable, hot, etc.


He was using a setup to suck diesel out of a fuel tank in a car. The whole setup went up in flames. They were lucky to get out alive.

What happened? The thought was that while the diesel was going in the pail the vacuum was getting a bit of it and the fumes. It was enough to atomize it and sparks from the motor was all it took.

Agree VF, it's one of those things that one could certainly laden with warnings and legal disclaimers. But like pretty much doing anything on machinery, one is wise (and lives long) to keep ones wits about them. I would never attempt to use this method with volatile liquids, such as gasoline, and I would be wary using it for hot diesel fuel as the fumes are far more excitable than stone cold diesel. :yup

Love your the idea Willie. I'm afraid my safety guys would have a fit if the caught me using something like this. I have a recovery 1" recovery pump that works well. Have done the same with the hose tricks. Nothing like servicing a 40 gallon hydraulic tank and not getting a drop of oil on the ground.

caterpillarmech said:

Love your the idea Willie. I'm afraid my safety guys would have a fit if the caught me using something like this. I have a recovery 1" recovery pump that works well. Have done the same with the hose tricks. Nothing like servicing a 40 gallon hydraulic tank and not getting a drop of oil on the ground.

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I'm thinking instead of using the shop vac maybe I should install my shop air powered vacuum device in the bucket. That way there is no electric motor to cause sparks. I should make up a drawing of this tool and post it unless someone else has done that. It's a simple thing to make, just a small piece of bar stock with a few well placed holes. I was shown how to make it probably close to 40 years ago by a Hough, any one remember them, equipment mechanic. Those had the hydraulic tank mounted high up behind the cab. With the vane type pumps being gravity fed would try to drain all the oil every time you needed to replace an oring or hose. Using this tool you could remove any hyd. hose or component and hardly spill a drop of oil. That is unless someone turned off the shop compressor!

willie59 said:

LoL, I drive one to work everyday, my old '85 F-150.

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The problem with them around here is the motors last forever but the road salt eats the bodies away from around them. We have had to scrap at least half a dozen in the last 8 years of that vintage that still ran great as the cabs were to the point they were no longer safe. Worse yet is the 97's and up are rusting out even faster!

The sucker works with those small air vacs. We have been using them for a long time. You can use those portable air tanks as a bucket.

if this has been sugested im sorry, put a couple of fitting and a clear hose on the side and you can see you need to dump it before it ends up in the vac.(sight glass of sorts)

Fantastic new member here so I can't start my own post yet
search barrel bung for another great tip

second thought a sight glass is too much bs. the suck buckets simplicity is everything it needs

Or a clear / translucent white suck bucket.

When my mum was in the hospital, she was equipped with a clear mini-suck bucket. When I saw it, I had a small chuckle to myself thinking of Willies suck bucket. The nurses didn't quite take to the name unfortunately. =-) (Backup suck bucket when she was in the ICU).

Alex.

LoL, and I wager those cost a helluva lot more than mine Axle.

Axle, nothing against your Mum but I'd rather clean willie's suck bucket than your's

I would not wager against you.
As for cleaning those; it amounted to throwing the canister away and twisting in a new one. Quite the eye opener to the amount of "disposable" items in a hospital anymore and the frequency at which they are tossed.

Alex.

Just joined up today, mainly to say thanks for this idea & some others I've borrowed.
I work on refrigeration & air conditioning plant, and one of the perennial problems is blocked condensate drains. Up until my current employer, a 'D' size cylinder of Nitrogen was the normal method. Either blow the blockage (usually sludge mould) out, or suck it out using a Venturi effect.
This employer refuses to buy 'D's due to the cost being almost the same as for an 'E' size. So having found this thread courtesy of another forum I made a suck bucket from a 20L paint bucket & a long length of 1/2" garden hose.
The long hose enables me to get to those awkward places, like ceiling mounted fan coils, without having to lift & balance awkward equipment up the step ladder.

My bucket lid didn't have a pour spout, so I cut a 40mm hole that the end of my vac. hose fits into.
The only issue I have found with this is that the vacuum manages to suck the bucket almost flat.
I've found by experimentation that the lower I have the vac hose in the bucket, the worse this effect is. However, I can't avoid it happening, just improve how long it takes.
Has anyone else come across this & if so, is there a solution?

kshansen said:

I'm thinking instead of using the shop vac maybe I should install my shop air powered vacuum device in the bucket. That way there is no electric motor to cause sparks. I should make up a drawing of this tool and post it unless someone else has done that. It's a simple thing to make, just a small piece of bar stock with a few well placed holes...

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Please do, it sounds like a great tool.