Ultrasonic cleaners.

[pgrbff]

I have a small one from lidl. I buy chemicals online from a company called allendale. They also sell a lot of machines of varying sizes. I'd buy a bigger one from them but since Brexit it has become uneconomical to buy frim the UK.

 

[pe2dave]

I've had one for a few years. Very useful, on few occasions? E.g. jewellery, small stuff.
Mine is small, but I'd caution buying cheapest you can find?

 

[martin.pearson]

Something I have toyed with buying a couple of times but never got round to actually buying, maybe the thought of past cleaning & maintenance put me off lol. Before I was medically discharged from the RN my last job was running 3 workshops at Faslane Base. One of those was the component cleaning bay which amongst a lot of other equipment had the largest Ultrasonic cleaning tank in the UK (at the time).
Never ceased to amaze me just how good a job it did, the state some of the stuff that went in there was in was unbelievable, quite often said to myself this is never going to come out clean lol

 

[pe2dave]

And they seem to get into every nook and cranny.
My watchstrap (metal) is my favourite, comes out sparkling.

 

[Fergie 307]

What liquid would you use for this? Water I presume.

I use acetone to clean my spray gun (only use water based product) - I suppose acetone in an ultrasonic is a no no?! Whoosh

(I think La Scholar has an ultrasonic cleaner for jewellery, but beyond that, I have no idea about them other than seeing them frequently used on various restoration videos).

cheers

Just put the parts in a suitable sized jar with a right fitting lid.. Water in the bath of the cleaner and then whatever solvent in the jar with the parts. I use jam jars for cleaning watch parts

 

[pe2dave]

@Fergie 307 - The instructions with mine were clear on using the basket to hold items? The rationale I guess was to ensure the ultrasonic waves have easy access to the items being cleaned. Will your glass jar block ultrasonics?

 

[pgrbff]

I have also read that not using a basket can damage the transducer, especially heavy items.

 

[voyager]

i use em every other day for cleaning digital printheads, i have 2
a watson marlow that i paid about £1000 for and a cheapo of amazon for £160, tbh they are pretty much similar in performance.
if cleaning your spraygun, i tend to use Gunwash thats available from the paint suppliers as its non caustic and wont discolour the alu in the gun.

 

[Ollie78]

i use em every other day for cleaning digital printheads, i have 2
a watson marlow that i paid about £1000 for and a cheapo of amazon for £160, tbh they are pretty much similar in performance.
if cleaning your spraygun, i tend to use Gunwash thats available from the paint suppliers as its non caustic and wont discolour the alu in the gun.

I normally flush it with gunwash anyway.
Do you put the gunwash straight in the main bowl or put it in another container in the water ?

Ollie

 

[Ollie78]

Well, I bought one.

Thanks for all the advice, it looks like most people who have them are happy.

After much checking of eBay and Amazon I ordered a 15 litre 360w CO-Z version with knobs for £130 off Amazon.
After reading many reviews the failure rate looks similar with all of them.
If they work people are delighted, if they break they are mad. Hopefully Amazon will sort it out if it blows up straight away.

I will do an update or little review when I have had a chance to use it.

Cheers

Ollie

 

[rob1693]

I have an industrial langford sonomatic that's really good don't know what they cost mine found its way into van on a job disconnecting machines at a firm that had gone bust

 

[TheTiddles]

I have also read that not using a basket can damage the transducer, especially heavy items.

The transducer is stuck to the pan, the vibration couples into the metal then through the liquid, which hits the hard item and makes the bubbles that do the magic.

I guess if theres an item on the pan itself it can get excited and drive vibration back to the transducer which is not a good thing as it’ll fight it. If you’re testing a body for its vibration modes (the different ways it shakes) you use a “stinger” that is a short, thin rod acting in the direction of your excitation, that stops much of the vibrations of the body coming back onto your exciter. In small things that can be a microscopic length of filament wire, on a bridge it’s a chunky steel rod, same principle only the decimal point moves

 

[voyager]

Do you put the gunwash straight in the main bowl or put it in another container in the water ?

Ollie

i just put the gunwash straight in, when im finished i filter the old gunwash and then store it for next use.

 

[Fergie 307]

@Fergie 307 - The instructions with mine were clear on using the basket to hold items? The rationale I guess was to ensure the ultrasonic waves have easy access to the items being cleaned. Will your glass jar block ultrasonics?

In a word no. Just put enough of your chosen solvent in th jar to fully cover the components. Ideally I would say your jar needs to be big enough that you can cover the components without the jar being more than 2/3 full. Make sure the lid is tightly on the jar. I then place the jar directly in the pan and ensure the water comes up to at least the level of the solvent in your jar. Once you turn it on You will see the solvent in the jar bubbling in exactly the same way as the water in the tank. I use a maximum of about 30 centigrade, and have never had any issues. I typically leave dirty watch movement parts to soak in their jar for 24 hours, using Coleman fuel as a solvent. Then 15 minutes at 30 degrees wash.. Take the parts out and dry them, then repeat but using a different jar and pure alcohol. Obviously the solvent you use and whether you need to rinse after depends entirely on what you are seeking to remove. If what you are cleaning is very dirty then I have used a piece of stainless mesh of appropriate size, just bend the corners so it stands proud of the bottom of the jar. Any dirt then falls through the mesh and collects at the bottom of the jar, so you can remove your nice clean parts without risking them Getting contaminated again with the dirt you have just removed.

 

[Ollie78]

Thanks Voyager, glad this works safely, there seems to be some fear that the cavitation can cause solvents to spontaneously combust or something.

Ollie

 

[pgrbff]

Have a look at Allendale ultrasonics. Not only do they have a variety of machines but also different solutions for different jobs.

 

[martin.pearson]

i use em every other day for cleaning digital printheads, i have 2
a watson marlow that i paid about £1000 for and a cheapo of amazon for £160, tbh they are pretty much similar in performance.
if cleaning your spraygun, i tend to use Gunwash thats available from the paint suppliers as its non caustic and wont discolour the alu in the gun.

What printheads are you cleaning with them? I read somewhere (years ago) that they would destroy the membrane between colours on certain printheads so left it at that & never bought one.

 

[pe2dave]

In a word no. Just put enough of your chosen solvent in th jar to fully cover the components. Ideally I would say your jar needs to be big enough that you can cover the components without the jar being more than 2/3 full. Make sure the lid is tightly on the jar. I then place the jar directly in the pan and ensure the water comes up to at least the level of the solvent in your jar. Once you turn it on You will see the solvent in the jar bubbling in exactly the same way as the water in the tank. I use a maximum of about 30 centigrade, and have never had any issues. I typically leave dirty watch movement parts to soak in their jar for 24 hours, using Coleman fuel as a solvent. Then 15 minutes at 30 degrees wash.. Take the parts out and dry them, then repeat but using a different jar and pure alcohol. Obviously the solvent you use and whether you need to rinse after depends entirely on what you are seeking to remove. If what you are cleaning is very dirty then I have used a piece of stainless mesh of appropriate size, just bend the corners so it stands proud of the bottom of the jar. Any dirt then falls through the mesh and collects at the bottom of the jar, so you can remove your nice clean parts without risking them Getting contaminated again with the dirt you have just removed.

It would seem we have quite different tanks. Many of the points your make above do not apply to mine?

I can only suggest a new user follow the instructions for their particular tank.

 

[TheTiddles]

Thanks Voyager, glad this works safely, there seems to be some fear that the cavitation can cause solvents to spontaneously combust or something.

Ollie

Cavitation likely won’t, but I’d not have a heated bath of anything flammable next to a source of ignition personally. Others have differing risk appetites, I’d stick it in a bag.

 

[Ollie78]

Right, I have recieved the ultrasonic beast and had a little go with it.

Here it is.

As I removed it from the box the spot weld on the handle of the lid popped off one side immediately which didn`t fill me with confidence !

This is the offending item that I hate cleaning ( as you can see by its condition ).

I stripped a few more bits off and put the small parts in a jar of thinners as I only had a little bit left. I put the jar in the water along with the body of the gun.

I filled up the tank with plain water including one kettle of boiling, set the heater to 35 degrees ish and let it run for the full 30 minutes.
After the 30 minutes I was quite impressed, the little parts in the jar were very good it had even cleaned the fine gauze from the inline filter which surprised me as they get very gummed up and I normally just change them quite regularly.
The gun body itself was not as good but much cleaner than before and the paint on it had softened so I gave it a brush with a nylon brush and chucked it all back in for another cycle.

This time the gun was very good.

So I reassembled it ready for its next use.

In conclusion I am very pleased with it, if I had used gunwash the entire body would have been spotless in one cycle. Or even with some form of detergent or something in the water.
It made cleaning the fiddly annoying bits very easy indeed and will make me more inclined to give it a proper cleaning more often. I think I am going to try some other things in it like rusty old tools and see what it can do with those, I am scrounging up various tubs and jam jars as I think keeeping the nasty stuff contained in smaller vessels is the way to go.

Ollie