Grinder drain no longer a pain

I dreaded draining the water out of my benchtop wet/dry grinder because it emptied all over my bench. To solve this messy problem, I redrilled the drain hole to 7/16", tapped it with my 1/4" pipe tap, and threaded in a 1/4" nylon male hose barb. 

Next, I slipped a piece of 5/16" clear vinyl tubing (just long enough to hang over the edge of my bench) onto the hose barb. Finally, I bent a short piece of coat-hanger wire into an “S” shape, with one end of it wrapped around the end of the vinyl tubing, and the other end free to hang in an open hole at the back of the reservoir.

When it comes time to drain the grinder, I unhook the free end of the tubing and drape it over the edge of my bench where the contents run into a waiting waste bucket. After the draining, I return the hook to the hole and refill the reservoir with fresh water. Because water seeks its own level, I can read the water level inside the reservoir by looking at the water level in the tubing.

—Donald Plahn, Marshalltown, Iowa