I'm finally getting around to cleaning old returned Lego sets that were opened and built. Recently washed, cleaned and built the Voltron set, but it was missing a bunch of pieces. I've started on the mountain cave. When I got it over a year ago, it smelled like smoke. But it looks like the smell has dissipated. I washed it using a few plastic tubes and dish detergent. I used smaller plastic bins with holes in it to swish and swirl the lego. I tried drying them by laying them out on old beach towels, but there's always water left in the crevices. So, I put just enough of them on a towel that I can grab the four corners and give it a good shake. There's something satisfying about the sound of shaking lego in a towel, it's not the same as a box. I haven't come across and crusty Lego yet, are there any new techniques?
My main purpose of the post was looking for a lego sorter, but did not see any available big enough except for Etsy, but it was too expensive. I also saw this but it's too small. It would be great if there was one that would fit on top of a 5 gal bucket. I was thinking it would be another great way to clean them and pretend you sluicing for gold. LOL.