ShoestringRacer

I've wanted an ultrasonic cleaner for quite a while for nitro and gas engine parts as well as some other items. (I know about cooking up parts in the crockpot with antifreeze). Can anyone recommend a good brand one? I know I want a heated one. There was a nice Cole-Parmeron eBay but that went for close to $400.00 - a little too high for me. Harbor Freight does have a Chicage Electric one for $80.00 butyou know about HF.

Any advice on cleaning solution(s) and or where to obtain them?

thanks

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

I never owned one personally but we had them at work for many years and used a white vinegar solution in them

The vinegar works good with the aluminum because it does not corrode it. White vinegar makes aluminum shiny new looking

Jezmo

Mine is the large HF one (it is heated); I think I paid about 100.00 for it, and it has served me well.  In an industrial environment it probably wouldn't survive  long (the quality is definitely suspect), but since I rarely use it except for the occasional airplane part it seems to work quite well. It's been humming along for about two years now.

Motorboy

See the link about ultrasonic cleaner who i cleaned the engine parts in the cheap Aoyue ultrasonic cleaner: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=7962214 , there are the movie in Youtube

The important are the cleaning stuff for ultrasonic cleaner added in the warm water to get cleaning effect and save short time to clean the parts.

Campgems

A word of advise about vinegar, it will eat bearing like you wouldn't believe. I used to repair and do a special modification on gemstone faceting machines. Icould tell as soon as I opened the box if the guy or gal had been using vinegar to assist the stone polishing, The upper spindle bearing would be a rusted mess. I tried several "fixes" on one comercial cutters machine, starting with stainless steel bearings, Then I added an ancel cover with a $20 special corosive proof oil seal. Two weeks later the bearings were toast again. The combo of vinegar and the polishing compound was eating the cast alluminum spindle housing also. Now, maybe this guy was fibbing to me and was using something more acidic that standard vinegar, but he sure could eat up a set of bearings with what ever it was.

If you strip the engine to only aluminum, you are probably OK, but any steel parts along with the aluminum will set up electrosis andstart things going down hill from there.

On the cleaner, geta big tank one, the HFisprobably good. Get afew Salsa glassjars. Youput a basicsoap solution or UScleaner in the tank, then put you individual cleaner for the part you are cleaning in the salsa jar and suspend it in thetank. Make sure you don'ttouch the bottom or sides. You get almost 100% transferthrough the glass to "special cleaner" in thejar, Just make sure you don't get thetwosolutions mixed though, It is a good idea to keepa tight cover on the salsajar.

Don't turn them on dry, it will kill the transducer in a flash. That meansyou have to watch that you don't forget to turn the heater off as it will steam out the liquid over night.More that once I wouldget to the storeearly to get some bench work done before I opened andfind that the nightbefore, I had left the heater on and the cleanerwas bone dry.What a mess to clean up

There is aultrasonicthat I used to sell in my store, a Crest. It was a good value, and I think Enco sells them. Ido think that the HFone would do you just fine. And the heater is a must. You have to plan ahead and start it heating at least a couple hours before using it, but it greatly improves the cleaning.

By the way, the next thing you need is a steam cleaner. Take the part out of the cleaner and hit it with the steam long enough to get it up to 212 and it will dry and any residual soap or oil will be gone.

Don

w8ye

My Feedback: (16)

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=890-9509 $378.95

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=95563 $79.95

Campgems

Yep, you can go through three or four of the HFones before you have paid for the Enco one. When I used to sell them, they were a lot less then.

20 20 hind sight, I had a lady come into the store and ask if I wanted to by some equipment her husband had,he had passed away and he used to do clock repairs. Included was a L and R if I remember the brand correctly Ultrasonic that was big enough to take the workings of a grandfather clock. It was big enough to put a DA100 in whole. I think I sold it for $90. Sure wish I had it now though. Actually, I don't really need it, I've got one of the two quart Crest units and a three quart doble element L & R. Both set in the garage collecting dust. When the daughter comes down, she always ask me to clean her rings. Twenty minutes before she leaves. No way to mix the solutions and get them up to temp as well as the get the steamer up to temp before she leaves. Oh well, it saves me some work

Don

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Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

I use water and dawn dish soap in mine.  Dawn has a little bit of degreaser in it.  Just strong enough to work on carbs.  I use it on car (68 mustang convertable) , motorcycle (85 FLHTC), walbro, glow carbs, whatever.  Much easier to dispose of the cleaning fluid and takes just a little longer cleaning out the passages.  Mine is about a gallon capacity and is a DoAll Ultrasonic Cleaner.  I got it at a scrap sale where I used to work about 20 years ago.    One of the best tools in my shop.  If you leave it on for about an hour the water heats up on its own and does an even better job of cleaning.  When you first turn it on you will imediately see the jets and small passages start flushing out.  I will change the water 2 or 3 times until I dont get the trails coming out of the passages anymore.  Get a good one if you're going to do a lot of engine carb work.   Otherwise, a case of WD40 is cheaper.   I plan on starting a side business at home repairing engines locally.  Between the good vibrations and the sour crock pot, I can make an engine look and run like new.

Just recently I took a motorcycle carb that had been sitting up with fuel in it for 6 years and was able to clean it out in about 2 hours in the sonic bath.
Edwin