Just recieved a email from HF and in it I found this little jewel,a fair sized 9.5" by 5.5" ultrasonic cleaner for $59.99
just the ticket for cleaning the dirt, gunk and grease off those parts we slave over with dish soap & tooth brushs.
We had one similar to it at my last job that we used for delicate parts…what a time saver it was.
Keep in mind that, although the “scrubbing action” of the UH frequency in these devices is beneficial, it’s the correct solvent or solution used for the cleaning that’s still THE most important ingredient.
You can try degreasing a metal part all you want with plain water. However, until you put the part in a grease-cutting solvent like acetone or trichloroethylene, you’ll still end up with a greasy metal part…that’s wet. Proper ventilation is also a good idea, too.
Tom
I have one of these and I like it a lot. My preferred cleaning fluid is window cleaner.
Also be advised that there are some materials that can not be put into such a device. Some plastics are strong but brittle if that makes sense and the vibration will cause them to crack
I use generic household ammonia in mine, (L&R) and use it for everything from degreasing to striping paint from brass locos. They create a lot of heat so you really don’t want to use anything combustible in them.
My other hobby is restoring old clocks and they have been used for that for many, many years now. If you go to a clock supply dealer you can get regular “clock cleaning solution” in concentrate, also L&R makes a good cleaning concentrate.
I have had excellent success with the Generic ammonia though and it’s cheap, but don’t use it in the kitchen without a cover or the wife will scream bloody murder because of the ammonia fumes it puts off when it gets hot.
But they’ll clean “every” crack and crevice better than you ever could manually.
Mark
Mark,
Yes and no. I depends upon the manufacturer and cleaner. The brand I used at my old job (Branson) gave you the option of apply heat or not AND what temperature you wanted to heat the bath to. So, we could use “flammable” solvents (degreasers) like acetone and ethanol safely.
And, as I mentioned before, I would strongly encourage folks to use a well-ventilated area when using a ultrasonic cleaner - whether it uses heat as part of the cleaning process or not.
Tom
I am familiar with the heaters as the L&R machines offer those as well, but, the process of the agitation itself creates heat much the sasme way a microwave oven works by agitating the molecules.
As for the ventilation issue that’s pretty much a common sense thing, if you have to be told you probably shouldn’t be using it to begin with, especially if you are using any solvents.
As for using acetone or ethanol in them, they are so combustive without being agitated because of their evaporative qualities it seems to me that someone at your place of employment needed to read the warning labels.
That stuff is dangerous in a pan in the driveway let alone using it in an ultrasonic cleaner. Where did you work, Daredevils, Inc???
Mark
Mark,
My last job was in the medical field and the methods we used were approved. The degreasing we did was done in individual beakers in VERY small amounts - i.e. 20ml or less. The temperture of the soapy water in the US bath was always in the 25 - 30C range. All ultrasonic cleaning was done underneath a fume hood.
Yes, the US process does create heat but the water surrounding the individual beakers also serves as a heat sink. Very different than placing acetone or ethanol directly in microwave.
Tom
The flash point of these materials is similar to or less than gasoline; would you heat and agitate gasoline?
[:O] [:O] [:O]
The product manual for the particular cleaner referenced is shown here: http://manuals.harborfreight.com/manuals/95000-95999/95563.pdf
Among other things, it states that:
Use only lukewarm water. 11. Excessively hot water will damage the transducer. Do not use penetrating oils in the Cleaner as they may damage the Cleaner and any materials being cleaned. Never use volatile solvents, gasoline, or other flammable liquids.
It also states:
Fill the Cleaner with water or an appropriate ultrasonic cleaning fluid. Specially formulated ultrasonic cleaning materials are safe for most materials. Plastic safe cleaning fluids are recommended.
Finally the good advice:
To prevent serious injury, read and understand all warnings and instructions before use.
I know I am new here, but I am familiar with this kind of product. I own the predecesor to this unit, a 40 watt, single transmitter, shallow ultrasonic cleaner. I bought it to save money on a pricier unit. It works quite well with warm water with a cheap detergent (like dawn, or lemon joy). Hot water will damage the transducer, AND, hot water starts to cavitate too easily, so won’t clean as well, as counterintuitive as that is. I bought the unit for making my work with watches and clocks go a bit easier. IT works like a charm for that. BUT, none of the watch cleaning solutions want to be placed in the bath. they want WATER in the bath, a beaker or similar container to hold the parts and cleaning solutions. Those solutions come in both ammoniated and non ammoniated formulae. in a 40 W unit, like the one mentioned, it’s better to have a basket to hold the parts. don’t let the parts rest on the bottom of the unit, reflection could easily damage the unit (like putting metal objects in the microwave). I wound out buying a better unit (like the K+R) to see if it worked faster. It does. Anyway, the idea is to put your parts in a basket, or beaker. Only water, or soapy water in the bath, and for cleaning solutions, use a beaker to hold special solutions and parts. Fume hoods are MANDATORY for any VOC solution, and recommended for even simple machine part cleaning as the metals can also off-gas. read the HAZMAT sheets on aluminum and steel - it’s an eye opener.
In our lab, we used a large tank US unit with controlable time and temperature. The manual specified not to put combustable cleaning liquids into it unless they were in a closed container. So, we put our prototype circuit boards into food savers along with the flux solvent (usually Isopropyl Alcohol with a little bit of Dawn Liquid), sealed the lid, then floated the container in the reccomended amount of water. In something like 22 years, the only trouble was when the transducer burned out. Somebody wasn’t filling the tank to the correct water level.
We never put the alcohol directly into the tank. The isolation with the plastic did seem to require a longer time for de-fluxing, though.
If you get one, remember to keep the tank clean.