Ok, so it’s not the most expensive mistake I’ve made. But they’re not exactly a dime a dozen.
I was out of cleaning solution for my ultra sonic cleaner. Looking around on the web I found a few references to using a recipe in ultra sonic cleaners to clean up dirty brass.
The recipe calls for water, vinegar, salt, and soap. The quantities are a quart of water, a cup of vinegar, a tbsp of salt, and a tbsp of dish soap. Now at first this seemed somewhat reasonable. After all, in mild solutions that can clean up most metallic items. However, in hindsight it wasn’t the smartest move. Being involved in hobby electronics I have occasionally etched circuit boards using a mixed of vinegar, salt, and hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer. The salt and vinegar being the ingredients need to properly etch when supplied with a little heat.
Turns out that it also works perfectly to etch stainless steel as well. The photos below are pictures around the heating element of a Lyman Ultrasonic cleaner. At first I didn’t notice anything unusual. However after allowing the mixture to warm up I turned the cleaner on. It ran for a few seconds before tripping the GFCI outlet. Knowing something was up I looked around and noticed water under the cleaner. I unplugged everything and noticed the cleaner was leaking. After emptying it out I found the holes below.
Some lessons you learn the hard way. Anyhow, don’t use vinegar in your ultra sonic cleaners…
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