Ultrasonic gun cleaning

[jimbo]

Anyone used this? Looks like it may be good for older guns

 

[Gordo]

Fine for steel parts, but would hesitate to try one on anything made of aluminum.
A friend of mine used to build custom ultrasonic cleaners, and when tuning the signal generators, he used aluminum foil to test the strength of the signal going out to the pizzo drivers.
He knew they were right when the aluminum foil dissolved...

I made one once, and used my stereo receiver to drive it.
Worked fine with country music, but when I tried rock, I blew the receiver

.
Haven't found an equal to that late '70s Sony yet...

 

[Guns308]

I did a quick search on them to see how much one might go for...no dice, they are send a quote only for pricing. I bet its more than $1500. Hornady has a rifle length one they sell, the process can't be all that harmful. I could see a manufacturer having one to clean up before assembly or before various steps to assure precise measurements after certain steps.

 

[jimbo]

I did a quick search on them to see how much one might go for...no dice, they are send a quote only for pricing. I bet its more than $1500. Hornady has a rifle length one they sell, the process can't be all that harmful. I could see a manufacturer having one to clean up before assembly or before various steps to assure precise measurements after certain steps.

Range USA has one of these and charges $100 for 1 handgun. I'm not sure about rifles.

 

[jimbo]

Range USA Cleaning

Gun Cleaning | Range USA

rangeusa.com

 

[TheDan]

Fine for steel parts, but would hesitate to try one on anything made of aluminum.
A friend of mine used to build custom ultrasonic cleaners, and when tuning the signal generators, he used aluminum foil to test the strength of the signal going out to the pizzo drivers.
He knew they were right when the aluminum foil dissolved...

The cavitation does blow holes in foil, but it's harmless to solid parts. Ultrasonic cleaners are often used on circuit boards that have foil thin traces, but since they are bonded to a board it doesn't harm them.

The problem with aluminum is many detergents are caustic. You have to use an aluminum safe cleaner (or just plain water) when you put aluminum in.


A gun would have to be pretty dirty for me to run it through an ultrasonic. Doesn't really seem worth the effort.

 

[Gordo]

I've been using mineral spirits in my little cleaner, and haven't burned the house down,
YET !
(don't try this at home)

 

[DACMagic]

Unless it's presentation grade for some collection, I'd pass. At least they showed you have to rinse it after and then re-lubricate it, but then it's all oily again...so why not just oil the areas that need it?

 

[DACMagic]

The cavitation does blow holes in foil, but it's harmless to solid parts. Ultrasonic cleaners are often used on circuit boards that have foil thin traces, but since they are bonded to a board it doesn't harm them.

The problem with aluminum is many detergents are caustic. You have to use an aluminum safe cleaner (or just plain water) when you put aluminum in.


A gun would have to be pretty dirty for me to run it through an ultrasonic. Doesn't really seem worth the effort.

Ultrasonic cleaners cause cavitation? Interesting...Cavitation blows holes in pretty much everything independent of material hardness...

I think you're dead-on with the detergents, I think even some toilet-bowl cleaners don't blend well with aluminum foil, but I only heard that from a friend.

 

[Gordo]

Cleaners like Simple Green, and that Purple stuff that some hardware stores sell, will take the dye out of cheap anodizing.
Thinking something like baby shampoo would work well, without the fire hazard of mineral spirits.

 

[1911'S 4 Me]

I've known of people using Dawn dw liquid.
Saw it on yatube so must be all true.

 

[jimbo]

When I was in the Army basic training at Fort Polk during the 60's, we cleaned our M14 in the shower then dried and oiled it.

 

[Grumps21]

I used dawn in mine and it worked just fine, I’ve since bought some detergent Hornaday sells specifically for this application, but I haven’t tried it out yet. I’ve thrown my strikers in there, slide without the barrel, then frame. The water was black when done

 

[TheDan]

Ultrasonic cleaners cause cavitation?

Yes, the primary cleaning action in an ultrasonic is from the shockwaves of all the tiny implosions.

Thinking something like baby shampoo would work well

Would probably work great, and I'm guessing it's aluminum safe. Just water works fine, but adding some sort of surfactant increases the efficiency by wetting out the part better.

Soap of course is a cheap and readily available surfactant, but soap isn't really soap unless it was made with lye. That's bad for aluminum, but fortunately there's plenty of non-soap "soap" out there.

 

[Tnhawk]

When I was in the Army basic training at Fort Polk during the 60's, we cleaned our M14 in the shower then dried and oiled it.

I cleaned my M14 many times during BCT at Polk in 69, but never in the shower.