Build-All manufactures industrial parts washers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and has done since 1971. Solvent and aqueous, bench-top to 150 gallons, standard models and built-to-order machines. This page is the starting point — pick the cleaning method first, then the size.
Step one: solvent or aqueous?
Almost every other decision follows from this one.
Solvent parts washers clean with petroleum-based solvent at room temperature. They cut grease and oil fast, leave parts dry with no rinse step, and will not flash-rust bare steel. The trade-offs are real: flammable liquid in the building, VOC emissions, and spent solvent that has to be disposed of or recycled.
Aqueous parts washers clean with heated water and detergent. Low VOC, no flash point, nothing flammable to store. They handle baked-on grease and carbon better than cold solvent does. The trade-offs: parts come out wet, and clean bare metal will flash-rust if you do not protect it.
If you are genuinely undecided, our solvent vs. aqueous comparison works through it properly.
Step two: how much of the work should the machine do?
Manual washing — a tank, a pump and a flow-through brush. The operator does the scrubbing, the machine supplies clean solution and contains the mess. Cheapest to buy, most labour per part. See recirculating parts washers and the BCR-15 benchtop unit.
Agitation washing — parts sit on a platform that oscillates them through the bath. Nobody scrubs. Right for complex castings, blind holes and batches. See agitating and immersion parts washers or watch the AL-8 running.
Immersion soaking — parts sit in solution and the chemistry does the work. The only practical answer for carburetors and anything with internal passages. See the AK6 immersion cleaner.
Step three: size it honestly
Measure the largest part you actually clean, not the largest you can imagine cleaning. Undersized tanks get worked around; oversized tanks waste solution every change. Our range runs from a 5-gallon benchtop unit to 150-gallon floor machines, and we build outside that when the parts demand it.
Sizing guidance is in the parts washer buying guide. For anything the catalog does not cover, see custom parts washers.
Safety and compliance in an industrial setting
Every Build-All solvent washer uses a fusible-link lid that closes automatically in a fire — not an option, standard. For shops running low-flash-point solvent or working in a classified area, we build air-operated washers with no electrical connections at all, which removes the ignition source rather than shielding it. If VOC limits are the constraint, aqueous sidesteps the problem entirely.
What happens after the part is clean
Washing strips the oil film that was protecting the metal. A freshly cleaned steel part can show surface rust the same shift, faster in a humid plant. Plan for it: Build-All stocks rust prevention products, and our sister company Solvent Recycling Systems distributes Cortec VpCI corrosion inhibitors for holding parts between operations.
Keeping it running
A washer is a machine with consumables. We stock replacement pumps, filtration, hoses and brushes, fusible links, drums and cleaning chemicals — for our machines and for other manufacturers’ units too.
See the machines running
Thirty demonstration videos, filmed on our floor: the Build-All video library. Or tell us what you need to clean and we will tell you honestly which machine fits — including when the answer is a smaller one.