Ultrasonic Cleaners

[bk09]

Been tossin around the idea of getting one of those ultrasonic cleaners to clean my brass and handguns in. I have heard of some firearm finishes bubbling up after putting them in. The front side of my s&w 500 cylinder is about uncleanable with gunslick foaming bore cleaner, hoppes no 9, and rem-oil; and it only has 100 rounds through it. Would I have to worry about ruining the cylinder if I put that in an ultrasonic cleaner, or how about glock parts or a s&w 642? 642 is a lot of aluminum, is this ok to run through one? I don't have an ultrasonic cleaner yet, but it is on my list of things to get after I get back from Canada in early June. Thanks in advance

[wallace11bravo]

I use it for brass. It works great and doesn't peen the brass together. I also throw the cans in there once a year, but never a firearm. It all depends on your finish. Park or bluing should be fine, some others I wouldn't be to sure on.

For firearms, I have a dunk tank that I also use to degrease firearms prior to duracoating. Acetone and simple green is the cleaner of choice, and I have not come across anything that couldn't be removed after an overnight dunk, Just keep your plastics out of it and do not leave any fiberglass in too long. I strip my weapons down once a year and dunk them.

I keep a case of non-residue non-chlorinated Brake cleaner around too. Works great even for polymers. I use it for plastics and to do a final rinse of all parts before they are heated.

[SemperFiGuy]

The Bullet Hole in LaVista has--from time to time--used ultrasonic cleaning for cleaning up their rental handguns.

And---if you should ever look into the rental showcase, their rental guns get Really Grungy.    You'd swear that a hammer and chisel would be needed to remove some of that cakey stuff.   (They must have a 10,000 round minimum requirement before any cleaning is allowed.)

So you might check w/the BH Counter Guys to see what the small details and other caveats of cleaning handguns w/ultrasonic might be.    For example, which cleaning fluids work and which ones are to be avoided.    How long to leave in cleaning tank?    Power settings?    Will it remove lead?   (Nothing does.)   Does it harm plastics and other polymers?   What Bad Stuff happens during U/S cleaning to What Kinds of Handguns???   [Yes.   We know that Glocks can take any Bad Treatment.    I always drag mine behind a tractor before shooting.   Just because I can.] 


sfg

[jonm]

Aluminum is generally a no-no in an ultrasonic bath.

Also, it can ruin the finish on blued guns. So far, my glock slide shows no problems in it but I have a Ruger MK3 bolt with half the bluing missing and a stainless suppressor with the coating (ceracote or guncote iirc) missing.

I used Simple Green when cleaning stuff but I have switched to Purple Power since it is cheaper and works just as well.

[cracked junior]

watch out with purple power.   my grille was flaming up bad.  i was grilling burgers once and went inside to get something.  came back and there was a lot of smoke coming from it.  the tempature gauge was pegged at over 1500 degrees.  burgers didnt take long to cook.   the next day i sprayed purple power all over to remove the grease.   let it sit for a few minutes then rinsed with garden hose.   the grille was gloss black.  now its dull black

also used it to clean my r/c car after a muddy day of racing.  i hung it on the clothes line.  sprayed it and rinse it off with garden hose.  it killed the grass where i cleaned it.  that was last july.  the dead spot is still there. 

[jonm]

I always make sure to rinse and lube all  the stuff I put in the ultrasonic cleaner. Thanks for the heads up though. Simple green is just as bad on aluminum if not rinsed off. That is why it isnt used to clean aircrafts anymore.

[lneuke]

I have an ultrasonic cleaner and it really did a number on my sig mosquito, took some of the finish off of the slide as well as the barrel.  I've also put some nickel plated parts in there and it ate some of the nickel away down to the copper plating (probably just a poor quality plating job).  However...it worked wonders on my stock DPMS AR15 bolt and bolt carrier.  It didn't touch the finish on that and cleaned it better than I could have with anything else.

As long as the part has a good quality finish/plating and you're not using an ultrasonic cleaning fluid that can harm the metal/metal finish(such as sodium hydroxide on aluminum) it'll work great.  It does wonders for cleaning brass, although it won't remove any permanent staining so your brass will stay dull colored.


One last thing, make sure you remove all of the water/cleaning fluid off of your parts as soon as possible to keep them from rusting.  Your parts will come out without any protective oil left and will rust that same day unless all the water is removed.  Then oil them well to prevent any rust in the long run.


For the record, I'm using Blue Wave ultrasonic detergent that I used through my workplace.  A mix of both 25-I as well as Dril-Lum 603 works wonders on just about anything, but the company requires a large minimum order so it's probably not something that many people would come across.

http://www.bluewaveinc.com/b6.htm