Ultrasonic Cleaner Fluid

[f350ca]

Just ordered an ultrasonic cleaner. Kept coming up with things it could do. So the question is what do you use for cleaning fluid for different objects.
Say a carburetor, paint gun, clock movement, fountain pen, inkjet printer cartridge, bearings, the plastic mechanism that moves the laser in my CD player, dial indicator movements, the list goes on.
Thanks

[Ed ke6bnl]

I purchased one and only used it once, it is mostly all stainless. and I like the paint gun cleaning, dial indicator. will have to remember to start using it more often.

[Vinny]

I use Clockworks CL #9 cleaner. It comes concentrated and you dilute 9:1. Mainly got it for cleaning dial indicators. You can find it here: http://www.clockworks.com/clock-repair/c...ution.html

[Old Minger]

I've had my Cleaner for about 5 years now and all I can tell you is there is no one magic cleaner that does all. 

For brass I use a product called one shot from Hornady. It's designed for cleaning cartridge cases and is excellent.

For mild steel and stainless, simple green works well, (the high strength purple kind)

For Ali, all I will say is be careful as some products will eat it, I use simple green that is Ali safe, their purple de-greaser will eat Ali.

No recommendation for plastics I'm afraid.

[EdK]

I've only used mine to degrease my Teco clamping set. It came coated with some sort of rust preventive ointment. I used Simple Green Purple diluted to about 10:1.
As has already been mentioned, don't use Simple Green Purple on aluminum.

Ed

[f350ca]

Did some research today, seams to be a myriad of concoctions.
Haven't found a Canadian source for the clock cleaning solution you use Vinny but found a home brew of Oleic acid, acetone, dish soap ammonia and water. Now to find Oleic acid.
The water based degreasers seam popular. One chap said he uses methyl alcohol to clean carburetors. Wonder if aluminum wheel cleaner would work Ed?
For paint guns a couple said they use gun wash in a plastic bag dropped into the tank full of water, rather like that one.
A few interesting cautions, according to one post the ultrasonic will degrade ball bearings, said they tried it to remove the factory lube where a customer wanted some special grease that wasn't compatible with the factory lube. They assume the vibration caused the balls to score the races. The result was noisy bearings. That was one use I had for it.
Apparently I won't be able to do all my jewelry in it, darn. Pearls, jade, amber, amethyst and a few others come apart. Probably due to the bound water in the structure.
One post suggested suspending thin aluminum foil in the tank full of water, and measure how quick it blew holes in the foil to determine the cleaning action of your particular unit. Interesting.
To be honest I hadn't looked into how they actually work. Apparently the ultrasonic vibrations form microscopic bubbles that grow until they collapse, that generates temperatures of 500 deg f, and when the bubble collapses a jet of water breaks through the bubble at up to 400 kph. Its that jet that does the scrubbing. The chance of the jet being directed at the part is small but guess with enough bubbles forming you get lucky.

[EdK]

Which ultrasonic cleaner did you get Greg? There are YouTube videos showing the aluminum foil trick for the HF units.

Ed

[Mayhem]

I've used the Lyman brass cleaner and was surprised at how good the results were.  Generally I just use hot soapy water but have found cloudy ammonia in water to be good also.  Sometimes I place parts in a jar of solvent and then place that is the bath, which also works.  Same as the plastic bag I guess.

For bearings, I have an old chip fryer that rotates the basket (supposedly stops the chips sticking together) and I run it with transmission fluid in it.  Does a good job of cleaning the bearings but I have to leave the lid open.  On the lowest setting the temp gets too hot with the lid closed and smoke pours out of the vent.

[f350ca]

Ordered one direct from China Ed. They all basically look the same.
https://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/0.ht...1702195008

Will check out the video, Thanks

[EdK]

I ran across this Simple Green product that looks just like what you need Greg. It's available in 32oz spray bottles and gallon jugs so you don't have to buy a 5 gallon pail or larger.

http://simplegreen.com/industrial/produc...n-cleaner/

Ed