Ultrasonic cleaner

[dralarms]

Lucked into a big digital ultrasonic cleaner today, what would be the best solution to use for deep cleaning my guns?  This thing holds about 1 and 1/3 gallon. 

[peejman]

We use this in one of the ultrasonic cleaners at work. The 1 liter will last you a long time. 

https://www.coleparmer.com/p/cole-parmer-micro-90-cleaning-solution/504

[dralarms]

34 minutes ago, peejman said:

We use this in one of the ultrasonic cleaners at work. The 1 liter will last you a long time. 

https://www.coleparmer.com/p/cole-parmer-micro-90-cleaning-solution/504

Holy crap that’s some expensive stuff

[jpx2rk]

RCBS makes a concentrate for brass and one for gun parts.  Don't mix the two different solutions up on items being cleaned.  Not used the one for gun parts, just the one for brass, and it works pretty good.

[dralarms]

20 minutes ago, jpx2rk said:

RCBS makes a concentrate for brass and one for gun parts.  Don't mix the two different solutions up on items being cleaned.  Not used the one for gun parts, just the one for brass, and it works pretty good.

Thanks. I’ll look that up

[Pain103]

I think I have the Hornady solution. Ive heard of people just using simple green but wasn’t brave enough to try if. 

[peejman]

1 hour ago, dralarms said:

Holy crap that’s some expensive stuff

$14 for a liter of concentrate that will last you a lifetime?  Not really. It's meant for industrial cleaning tanks that hold 400+ gallons of solution.  I used it in a 3-4 gallon ultrasonic tank for a specific project that lasted about 4 months. We used less than 1/4 of the gallon of concentrate we bought and cleaned about 1000 parts about half the size of a typical pistol slide. 

Simple Green should work fine too. Any sort of alkaline, non-foaming soap will work. 

[dralarms]

33 minutes ago, peejman said:

$14 for a liter of concentrate that will last you a lifetime?  Not really. It's meant for industrial cleaning tanks that hold 400+ gallons of solution.  I used it in a 3-4 gallon ultrasonic tank for a specific project that lasted about 4 months. We used less than 1/4 of the gallon of concentrate we bought and cleaned about 1000 parts about half the size of a typical pistol slide. 

Simple Green should work fine too. Any sort of alkaline, non-foaming soap will work. 

Ok. I saw the 2000.00 price tag and about stroked out. I’ll look again in the morning. 

[Chucktshoes]

18 minutes ago, dralarms said:

Ok. I saw the 2000.00 price tag and about stroked out. I’ll look again in the morning. 

I think that was the price for about a pallet’s worth.

[dralarms]

7 hours ago, Chucktshoes said:

I think that was the price for about a pallet’s worth.

Probably. Site is a little hard to figure out

[GhstFace38]

I use the 2.5L ultrasonic cleaner from Harbor Freight. I use a mixture of water and Simple Green Pro HD aluminum safe cleaner. 

 

My bolt carrier groups have have never been cleaner! 

[DaveTN]

I let my metal gun parts soak overnight in M-Pro 7. They are much easier to clean the next day. I buy this stuff by the gallon and am wondering if I bought a Ultrasonic cleaner, how this would work as a cleaning agent?? It’s non-flammable.

[dralarms]

28 minutes ago, DaveTN said:

I let my metal gun parts soak overnight in M-Pro 7. They are much easier to clean the next day. I buy this stuff by the gallon and am wondering if I bought a Ultrasonic cleaner, how this would work as a cleaning agent?? It’s non-flammable.

I was thinking of getting a gallon of wd-40 to try. 

[DaveTN]

7 minutes ago, dralarms said:

I was thinking of getting a gallon of wd-40 to try. 

WD40 is terrible stuff. It wasn’t allowed in most shops I worked in. You certainly don’t want it in the internals of a gun unless you are going to completely remove all of it and lubricate every part. It’s also flammable and many Ultrasonic units offer heat.

However, that’s high drama in the gun community because people want to use it. All I can say is do your homework.

[peejman]

Ultrasonic agitation will increase the effectiveness of most any solvent. The Harbor Freight type cleaners typically don't have enough power to do much damage. This is the chemical behind M-Pro-7...  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEG_monobutyl_ether

I don't see anything there that would lead me to believe ultrasonic agitation would cause problem. 

 

[dralarms]

4 hours ago, DaveTN said:

WD40 is terrible stuff. It wasn’t allowed in most shops I worked in. You certainly don’t want it in the internals of a gun unless you are going to completely remove all of it and lubricate every part. It’s also flammable and many Ultrasonic units offer heat.

However, that’s high drama in the gun community because people want to use it. All I can say is do your homework.

Agreed. What a good alternative, that I can use in an industrial grade ultrasonic cleaner?

[chances R]

don't know about cleaning in the US, but the RCBS concentrate for brass is great.  I use a tablespoon in my steel pin tumbler and beats the heck out of anything else I have tried.

[peejman]

32 minutes ago, dralarms said:

Agreed. What a good alternative, that I can use in an industrial grade ultrasonic cleaner?

Simple Green. 

[dralarms]

11 minutes ago, peejman said:

Simple Green. 

Is that water based?  I need something that won’t rust my springs

[martin5]

I used to sell ultra sonic when I worked for Crystal-Clean. I remember that a little goes a long way. Last for a long time.

[peejman]

15 hours ago, dralarms said:

Is that water based?  I need something that won’t rust my springs

Yes, it's water based. 

Springs should have a coating to prevent corrosion and not be bare steel. Could be as simple as bluing or black oxide, or could be something fancier like nickel or chrome plating, or even the teflon stuff to make them quieter. 

Ultrasonic agitation is a controlled erosion process. It slowly wears away the surface. The idea is that the crud is softer than the base metal so the crud erodes away without doing any harm to the base metal. But the cleaning action is non-specific, meaning it's always cleaning everywhere. So if a portion of the part isn't dirty, the cleaning action is working on removing the base metal or whatever coating might be there. 

That said, the benchtop machines generally don't have enough power to do any real damage unless you leave parts in them for days. Something soft like bare aluminum or magnesium will be the first to go.  Something hard like a knife or something that's hard chrome plated (not decorative) will be nearly impervious.  

Heat and increasing alkalinity of the solution will speed up the process.