OK, I bought one of those cheapie Ultrasonic Cleaners at HF on sale
for $25.

What's a good "general purpose" cleaning solution to use for small
parts. (example: gears, bearings, small mechanisms, 2 cycle carb.
bodies, etc)

I know you can buy $pecialized fluids mail order but I want to use
something homemade from common ingrediants like acetone, paint
thinner, simple green, kerosene. etc.

Any suggestions for an Ultrasonic newbie??

What's a good "general purpose" cleaning solution to use for small
parts. (example: gears, bearings, small mechanisms, 2 cycle carb.
bodies, etc)


I'm lucky enough to have a high power unit with heater, courtesy of an
auction. I use soapy water, liquid dish detergent, simple green would be
great. Sometimes I toss in ammonia. Haven't had the need, but a small amount
of drain cleaner (strong caustic) might be used on something really tuff if
there's no aluminum. I always degrease the parts before putting in the
cleaning tank. This unit is for removing what doesn't come off in the parts
cleaner, you've already used the solvent.

Its amazing what will come off an already cleaned part. But my biggest use
is my glasses, toss them in for twenty seconds and they look like new.

Karl

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message news.com...
Its amazing what will come off an already cleaned part. But my biggest use
is my glasses, toss them in for twenty seconds and they look like new.

Karl

Karl:

Be very careful! I've done this for years with my glasses, too -- and
two days ago, I just ruined a two-year old pair of high-index plastic
lenses -- about half the anti-scratch coating came off, and the
plastic turned yellow. The wierd thing is that I have had these same
glasses in the sonic cleaner at least a dozen times, with no problem
whatsoever. Same cleaning fluid too. I tried to get the rest of
the coating off, and eventually did, but the plastic itself has hazed
a bit and is yellow-ish looking around the edges.

The original damage was done with no more than 5 minutes in the
cleaner, and no heat! I haven't a clue what happened, but they are
completely ruined now. The only possible cause I can think of is that
I have been painting for several days, and maybe the coating had been
softened by solvent fumes; the reason they were in the cleaner was to
get off all the pinpoint paint spots from rolling the ceiling. But
it's never happened before, in similar circumstances.

Now I won't sonic-clean anything but glass lenses again. Damn!

Regards,

Bob

In article , Bob Edwards says...

Now I won't sonic-clean anything but glass lenses again. Damn!

Yep. I've dunked my glass lenses in the ultrasonic at work many
times, because it does a great job of de-greasing them. But
I did find that the polycarbonate lenses developed a fine pattern
of crazes, or cracks, on their surface after a few times of
doing that. Now I only use hot water and soap on them.

Jim


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In article , davefr says...

What's a good "general purpose" cleaning solution to use for small
parts.

If they are very dirty or greasy, WD-40 works well, or kerosene.

I put water in the U/S tank, and put the cleaning solvent and parts
in a plastic beaker, which is suspended off the bottom of the tank.

Acetone is pretty volatile and will evaporate rapidly unless covered,
especially given that the cleaning action works much better if the
solution is warm. I like to dump out the water before each
run and re-fill with hot tap water.

Jim


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Clockies use a mix of ammonia, acetone and oleic acid, diluted with
water. Removing WD40 may take extra work. / mark


jim rozen wrote:

In article , davefr says...


What's a good "general purpose" cleaning solution to use for small
parts.


If they are very dirty or greasy, WD-40 works well, or kerosene.

I put water in the U/S tank, and put the cleaning solvent and parts
in a plastic beaker, which is suspended off the bottom of the tank.

Acetone is pretty volatile and will evaporate rapidly unless covered,
especially given that the cleaning action works much better if the
solution is warm. I like to dump out the water before each
run and re-fill with hot tap water.

Jim

jim rozen wrote:
In article , davefr says...


What's a good "general purpose" cleaning solution to use for small
parts.


If they are very dirty or greasy, WD-40 works well, or kerosene.

I put water in the U/S tank, and put the cleaning solvent and parts
in a plastic beaker, which is suspended off the bottom of the tank.

Acetone is pretty volatile and will evaporate rapidly unless covered,
especially given that the cleaning action works much better if the
solution is warm. I like to dump out the water before each
run and re-fill with hot tap water.

Jim



A good ultrasonic cleaner should generate enough internal friction in
the liqiud to keep it's own bath warm. This might not be true of the
little HF unit, but is genrally true of the larger one quart and up
sizes. My 2-quart unit will bring the water to near boiling in an hour
or so.

Dan Mitchell
============

In article , Daniel A. Mitchell says...

A good ultrasonic cleaner should generate enough internal friction in
the liqiud to keep it's own bath warm.

Yep - but it speeds things up if the bath water starts out
hot.

Jim


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jim rozen wrote:
In article , Daniel A. Mitchell says...


A good ultrasonic cleaner should generate enough internal friction in
the liqiud to keep it's own bath warm.


Yep - but it speeds things up if the bath water starts out
hot.

Jim

My cheapo ultrasonic cleaner uses the SS tub as a heatsink for the
power transistors that agitate it. Heating up the power transistors
will not result in higher reliability.

--Winston

In article , Winston says...

My cheapo ultrasonic cleaner uses the SS tub as a heatsink for the
power transistors that agitate it. Heating up the power transistors
will not result in higher reliability.

If they can't take 80C temperatures they're not that
reliable to begin with.

Jim


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==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at pkmfgvm4 (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
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jim rozen wrote:
In article , Daniel A. Mitchell says...


A good ultrasonic cleaner should generate enough internal friction in
the liqiud to keep it's own bath warm.


Yep - but it speeds things up if the bath water starts out
hot.

Jim



No argument there, and a lot of commercial grade ultrasonic cleaners
have a heating element as well as the sonic generator. Hot fluids clean
a LOT better, but real care must be taken with hot flammable solvents.
The ultrasound also greatly increases evaporation, so a cloud of
flammable solvent vapor is a likely occurrence.

Rigorous fire safety precautions and excellent ventilation are a necessity.

Dan Mitchell
============