ultrasonic cleaner

[colbyjack]

well i broke down and bought a ultra sonic cleaner today from harbor freight. ran $79 for the unit plus tax and insurance plan with cleaner set me at $101.

wow it works awesome on dirty 1911 mags. thinking bout running the whole 1911 in there. its got a heater and the mag base pads didnt like the heat so much. nothing wrong but you wouldnt want to leave them in there for a long time.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/hawgz/newgunstuff001.jpg
-chris

[Southern Son]

I have been thinking about getting one, but they are not so easy to find for such a good price here in OZ.

[colbyjack]

I have been thinking about getting one, but they are not so easy to find for such a good price here in OZ.


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95563


-chris

[Johnch]

Just an FYI as I use one a little bigger on gun , nasty brass , reels and car parts

Some types of Aluminum do poorly in those cleaners
It will sort of desolve the Aluminum after a while
Anodizing will also come off if you leave the part in for extended times

The steel parts where they mould a part out of fine metal dust and then heat it
Will also dissolve if the part is low quality and you leave it in for an extended time

I found this out the hard way over the years by ruining parts and reel bodies

John

[GLL]

What liquid do you use in that one ? ? ?

It seems to be frothing pretty good ! :)

Jerry

[colbyjack]

i just put distilled water in there and put 1/2 teaspoon of harbor freight ultrasonic cleaner powder. -chris

[Meatco1]

Citranox will work great when it comes to cleaning brass, but whatever you do, DO NOT use it to clean your1911. Or, it will come out in the white!!!

Richard

[colbyjack]

Citranox will work great when it comes to cleaning brass, but whatever you do, DO NOT use it to clean your1911. Or, it will come out in the white!!!

Richard

hows that will it strip the paint? serious im courious to what i can and cant put in this thing. my 1911 has a parkarized slide and a duracoat frame. -chris

[Meatco1]

Hello ColbyJ

I've had my UltraSonic for about a year now, and use it often to clean used brass. For that purpose, I use a product called Citranox, and dilute it way down with distilled water (4 tbls per gal. of d. water). The brass will come out much brighter than new (both inside & out), and the primer pocket comes out absolutely bright (no primer residue at all)

I once dropped a new 4 cavity 429421 mold into the Ultrasonic, thinking to clean the crud off. Big mistake, it took it down to the white in less than 10 min.

As far as stripping parkarizing off, I haven't tried it, but from what I've seen, it would do it pretty darn quick. Duracoat might be a different story though.

If you're going to clean you entire pistol using a Ultrasonic, be safe, and drop in a small blued part first to test. Otherwise, you may end up with a very clean, down to the white, pistol

You can buy Citranox here:
http://www.amazon.com/Alconox-Acidic-Cleaner-Detergent-Citranox/dp/B0000WU82I/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1215314442&sr=8-1

But remember, while it's very, very, good for used brass, watches, jewelry, ect., it is just to strong for blueing.

Richard

[colbyjack]

will the stainless 625 hold up in there? and how often do you change the solution? or how dirty can i get it before i need to change? -chris

[Meatco1]

You won't have any problems with stainless, there is no coating to come off.

When using Citranox to clean brass, it is a 2 step process. First clean the brass with the Citranox solution, then dump the very dirty solution in the sink (one time use). Next, (and very important) fill your ultrasonic with distilled water, and redo the brass to flush all the Citranox solution off the cleaned brass. Surprising just how dirty the distilled water comes out 15 min. later.

Richard

[Naphtali]

Is there available -- at under $400 -- an ultrasonic cleaning tank apparatus with vibrating engine satisfactory for long guns, say about 30 x 10 inches of interior space?

[Meatco1]

Naphtali:

Not that I'm aware of.

Richard

[colbyjack]

think i could put a dual air bubbler in my tank to help agitate the load? since it dont vibrate but the heat does work. just cleaned my moon clips water looks dirty as heck.

thinking bout trying simple green and water some time. -chris

[dragonrider]

I use simple green in my ultrasonic cleaner, works good, but I have yet to put any blued parts in it so I can't say what would happen.

[redgum]

I have been thinking about getting one, but they are not so easy to find for such a good price here in OZ.

Perhaps you should get hold of a cheap "foot spa"
I bought one new for around AU$40 nut you see them at garage sales and the like for a few bucks. The plan was to use it as a brass tumbler/cleaner. That wasn't so successful but then it wasn't a waste either, as it turns out the foot spa makes a neat ultrasonic cleaner for all sorts of nick nacks. I just haven't been game to try any solvents and the like in it as the tub is only plastic.

[jonk]

I just got one as well. On 6mm bench rest's sight, they said to use a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and water. Then a second bath with baking soda, then a rinse bath.

Worked pretty well but not so well I'm not open to suggestions for improvement. I also have concerns over the long term acidity etching the cases time after time.

[dromia]

Colbyjack what capacity is your unit?

[colbyjack]

Colbyjack what capacity is your unit?

2.5 litre -chris

[abunaitoo]

How many shells will fit in the 2.5L cleaner?????
I clean mostly rifle brass. 30.06, 308, 7.5.....
How long does it take?????

[walltube]

colbyjack's gizmo ought to be the device of the century as a rust removal tool using 'EVAPORUST' as a medium.

Oh my, another budget buster on the horizon... :)

[dromia]

2.5 litre -chris


Thanks Chris, found the same item over here for £100 delivered, might just spring for one.

[Just Duke]

Off to Haror Freight. [smilie=w:

[cheese1566]

I see Hornady just came out with one...
http://www.hornady.com/store/Lock-N-Load-Sonic-Cleaner-and-Accessories

Good article here too...
http://www.6mmbr.com/ultrasonic.html

I would like a good used one if someone has one collecting dust.

[abunaitoo]

Perhaps you should get hold of a cheap "foot spa"
I bought one new for around AU$40 nut you see them at garage sales and the like for a few bucks. The plan was to use it as a brass tumbler/cleaner. That wasn't so successful but then it wasn't a waste either, as it turns out the foot spa makes a neat ultrasonic cleaner for all sorts of nick nacks. I just haven't been game to try any solvents and the like in it as the tub is only plastic.

I have one of those. Never thought of trying it to clean brass.
Can you add more information???
What solution did you use???
How well did it clean?????
How many cases did you clean at a time????
Any other info would be helpful.

[jhrosier]

Why do you need to use distilled water instead of tap water?

Jack

[hornsurgeon]

MAJOR WARNING TO ALL!!!!!

DO NOT USE ANY CLEANERS THAT CONTAIN AMMONIA ON BRASS!!!!!

ammonia will create a crystal structure within the brass making it quite brittle. this leads to cracked, split, cases. worst case(and i have seen this), the entire primer pocket crumbles on firing with very bad consiquenses. using an ammonia based cleaner in an ultrasonic cleaner will greatly speed up this process.

i repair musical instruments in my other reality, and you should see the havoc these cleaners can cause. cracked tubing and parts everywhere. now think about how much more pressure is in your rifle or pistol case upon firing.

[kingstrider]

Ultrasonics are great to have. Just beware when cleaning steel or iron parts as they can cut through the bottom of the unit over time. Don't ask how I know, but using the basket will eliminate this problem.

[Buckshot]

...............I bought that HF Ultrasonic several months ago and just used it for the first time a few weeks back. I'd had a VZ24 rebarreled to 308 with a military Mauser contour barrel. All the parts I'd taken off were just as they'd been as the rifle was shipped from Century Arms Eg: gummy stiff cosmolene embeded with dirt and crud in all the corners, nooks and crannies.

I also used the soap powder stuff from HF mixed with hot water and poured into the unit. I then dumped the parts in, turned on the heater and set the timer for 480 seconds (8 minutes) and hit the 'Go' button. The surface of the water got those tiny little waves from the vibration and almost immediately streams of murky gray smokish looking streamers started rising up off the parts.

The operation button is set in seconds, by the minute and one press displays 60. Press it again and you get 120, then 180, 240 etc. Max is 480. It shuts off when the electronic timer runs down. I stood there watching during the first cycle to see what that would accomplish. The floorplate had been the cleanest part to begin with so I took it out (it was hot :-)). There was still a bit of crud in one of the slots the follower spring fits into so I set it back in and set it for another 8 minutes.

At the completion of that cycle the floorplate was clean. Squeaky clean. All the other parts had crud lying there around them and the water was fairly murky. I ran it another couple of cycles while dinking around with other stuff. The unit has a plastic tray that lays in the bottom of the tank. It has a place for some type of handle at either end but mine didn't have the handles so I made a couple simple ones out of wire. I lifted the tray with the parts on it out of the cleaner.

The trigger/sear assembly still had a little clump of petrified grease/oil/cosmolene/dirt stuck up on top of the trigger that's under the sear. I used a jewelers screwdriver to punch it out and it WAS like concrete. Other then that the parts and pieces were VERY clean. In fact since they were so clean, hot and wet I figured they's start rusting pretty quickly so I sprayed them all well with WD-40, then wiped them down and oiled them.

Just for fun I took a scrap piece of 2" wide 1/8" thick HR 1018 steel and squirted some 10w spindle oil on it and wiped it all over with a piece of paper towel so it was shiny with oil all over, and laid it into the cleaner and set it for 120 seconds. At the end of the 2 minutes the piece of steel was squeaky clean. When I dumped the water out there was a pretty obvious grease ring around the stainless steel tank. It was easily wiped out with a paper towel.

I recall reading on some gunboard about someone experiemnting with an ultrasonic cleaner and using various liquid cleaners. Naturally now I don't recall which he'd found best as I read the piece out of simple interest, not having an ultrasonic cleaner of my own at the time. The powder stuff from HF reminds me very much of the old TSP, when it actually contained trisodium phosphate. I haven't tried it this way yet but I'd bet for general parts cleaning ie: detail cleaning a pistol, rifle, or other collection of smallish parts you could use regular old laundry or dish detergent and it'd do a fine job.

Mine was on sale at HF and I had one of their 20% off coupons so it cost me about $62 bucks or so IIRC.

..............Buckshot

[montana_charlie]

I use a 2% solution of Micro-90 for dirty brass and iron bullet moulds.
For aluminum moulds, I use 2% of Surface Cleanse 930.

They are detergents, and items need to be rinsed off after cleaning.

I received (generously sized) free samples of both cleaners quite a long time ago. I siphon the solution into a plastic bottle after cleaning a batch. For the next use, I let the settled crud stay in the bottom of the bottle, and discard it after filling the machine.

Doing it this way, the samples have lasted a long time.
After four or five uses, enough crud has been discarded that the remaining solution doesn't fill the machine to the level I want.
So, that is when I make up a new batch.

You may find a free sample opportunity here...
http://www.ipcol.com/shopcontent.asp?type=metalworking

When you finish cleaning an iron mould with Micro-90, the metal is left absolutely bare. It will flash rust quickly after a hot rinse unless you are ready with a flame (on the stove) to erradicate the moisture, or go immediately to casting with it.

CM

[Edubya]

I've read about this: "cream of tartar can also be used to clean brass and copper cookware. When cream of tartar is added to water, a suspension results, which can clean coins very well. The solution loosens the surface dirt and grime on the coins, which can then be easily wiped clean. Cream of tartar and vinegar create a powerful cleaning agent used to clean encrusted pots, pans and stovetops." I've not tried it yet but thought that one of you guys with the ultra sound units might be able to get some real good out of it.
I've kept the quoted portion above for reference for some time, I'm not sure where it came from. My wife uses this stuff in some of her baking, she told me that it is a basic ingredient in baking soda, so it must not be dangerous.
EW

[lwknight]

Where can you get cream of tarter?
I went to a pharmacy years ago, ( they can get just about any chemicals) and to my dismay was told that cream of tarter was by prescription only. Whats up with that?

[ANeat]

You can get cream of tartar at about any grocery store where the baking/spices are. White vinegar works also. Both are just weak acids.

Also for you guys using Ultrasonic cleaners you arent supposed to have anything on the bottom of the tank. It loads down the transducer and will cause it to burn out prematurely.

Most ultrasonic cleaners come with some type of basket/container to suspend objects off the bottom of the tank.

http://www.bransonic.com/pdf/B200_Manual.pdf

[Edubya]

Where can you get cream of tarter?
I went to a pharmacy years ago, ( they can get just about any chemicals) and to my dismay was told that cream of tarter was by prescription only. Whats up with that?
Any grocery store in the "Seasoning Section", probably pretty close to the baking soda.
Do a Google search on "Cream of Tartar", maybe even on "cream of tartar cleaning brass". You'll be surprised at how simple this stuff is.
EW