Diffusion pump cleaning

[John Taylor]

I just received a diffusion pump that I purchased cheaply on eBay and am wanting to clean it up. Is there any problem with using very fine steel wool to clean all of the inside stainless parts? Will any oil, etc. residue in the steel wool contaminate the pump? Obviously, i would clean the parts thoroughly prior to reassembly to make sure no pieces of steel wool remained.

[John Futter]

John
Steel wool, scotchbrite pads (the green ones), wet and dry sandpaper all good.
Afterwards just give it a very good clean first with acetone and then with ethanol or methanol or isopropal alcohol.

make sure the heater underneath is in very good contact with the bottom of the boiler ---usually a lot of rust around there ---you can use a small amount of fire gum to help here.


The first time you run it it will behave strangely due to outgassing but will settle down after around 20 minutes after switch on

[John Taylor]

Thanks John for the advice. A lot of the staining came off nicely with the acetone, some required steel wool. I will now clean it with isopropanol and reassemble it. Is fire gum a kind of high temp cement? I'm not familiar with it.

[John Futter]

John
The firegum is what people use to asemble Car exhaust systems

Glad to hear the cleaning went well