A couple of years ago, I was visiting a customer’s plant that had rows of screw machines making brass pipe fittings. The finished parts come off each machine, down a chute and collected in a basket. When each basket was full, the machine operator dipped the basket of parts in a bucket of solvent to clean off the cutting lubricants, then they carefully balanced the basket on the edge of the bucket to let the parts drain. As I looked around the plant, all of the other machines had similar solvent buckets with baskets full of parts balanced precariously on top. Some had cardboard on the floor catch the solvent dips, some had the baskets leaning against stools or the machines to help stabilize them. What should be a simple cleaning operation, was messy and cumbersome. That’s when I came up with the idea for our Dip and drain wire mesh basket.