Questions for expierienced ultrasonic cleaner users

[Ricko1966]

I just bought a fairly big ultrasonic cleaner. I heard they are the latest and greatest for cleaning carbureator bodies for rebuilds. I've read you should never allow parts or baskets to touch the sides or bottom of the pan.I've read that best results are when your parts are in the middle of the solution. I've also read to preheat my cleaning solution instead of letting the unit bring it to temp. So here's what I'm thinking, lay 2 wood slats over the top of the pan opening and use all thread with double nuts top and bottom to hang the carbureators in the center,side to side and top to bottom,second Idea was hang with fishing line from wood slats. Planning on using 50/50 pinesol and water. Thoughts?advice?

 

[83Stepper]

Everything we've used in the ultrasonic cleaners at my last place, semi-conductor company where I was the lead senior maintenance tech, were all at room temp and not suspended in the cleansing solution. Our tolerances and cross contamination issues were very very minute. Tolerances of less than half the thickness of a human hair over a 22" span measured at 7 different points and cross-contamination levels less than 0.01ppb. But yes, if you're looking for a full-on clean on all surfaces you'll want it to be suspended in the solution and rotating it once the cleaning power seems to be slowing down.

 

[Camar068]

Not positive, but the reason you don't want metal to metal on the tank is it could mess up the ultrasonic drivers (expensive to replace). Other than that, I've always put my stuff in a plastic basket with the parts not touching. Heating the fluid before hand helps if your unit doesn't have a heater built in. Ultrasonic will heat up over time, but having heat immediately speeds up the process.

I like to use dawn in the fluid, it works very quickly. But on the aluminum heads it did leave a funky pattern on them. It was only on the surface so I wasn't worried about it.

U/S cleaners are awesome, you can work on something else while it does it's magic.

 

[Ricko1966]

Not positive, but the reason you don't want metal to metal on the tank is it could mess up the ultrasonic drivers (expensive to replace). Other than that, I've always put my stuff in a plastic basket with the parts not touching. Heating the fluid before hand helps if your unit doesn't have a heater built in. Ultrasonic will heat up over time, but having heat immediately speeds up the process.

I like to use dawn in the fluid, it works very quickly. But on the aluminum heads it did leave a funky pattern on them. It was only on the surface so I wasn't worried about it.

U/S cleaners are awesome, you can work on something else while it does it's magic.

My unit has a heater, but supposedly preheating makes life easier on the tool itself, I read that placing parts directly in the tub is hard on the drivers and wears holes in the tub. So that's a little explanation as to my questions. This is what I bought haven't even put water in it yet to play with it.Specificaly bought it for rebuilding carbs,I probably will find other uses,but that's the intended use. Hanging the carbs in it is the best idea I can come up with.

 

[CalSgt]

We used to use 110 volt “stingers” to pre heat the sonic cleaners we had. Heat makes a big difference in the cleaning power on sonic machines.

https://a.co/d/gc0TPGa

We didn’t worry too much about having everything perfect, we just put everything in the dunk basket and pressed start.

We had a smaller unit that fit about 6 Revolvers, and another that fit about 4 Ruger mini 14 rifles. The weapons were all stainless and we used a 1:7 ratio of simple green to water. We would pull the cleaned weapons and go straight to rinsing them in the sink with hot water, if any of the carbon was stuck and allowed to dry it was impossible to scrub it off. A quick rinse solves that.

I never put any aluminum in ours, but I do know powerful ultra sonic cleaners can pit aluminum.

I say just go for it, either throw the carb bodies in the basket or suspend them in an aluminum safe solution and see how it goes.

 

[CalSgt]

Also…. When cleaning small parts you can fill a ziplock with the parts and cleaning solution so you don’t have to mix/waste gallons of solution for a small job

 

[Camar068]

I wasn't expecting to use it for engine parts and such when I got mine. I was expecting the use it to clean my rifles.

Also…. When cleaning small parts you can fill a ziplock with the parts and cleaning solution so you don’t have to mix/waste gallons of solution for a small job

I work in a hospital and they use these to clean surgical instruments. Before I got mine, I've done the zip-loc trick before with my watch for about 10 minutes to get the sweat cleaned out of the band.