Ultrasonic gun cleaning

I use the hornady cleaning solution in a branson ultrasonic. As far as I can tell it does nothing whatsoever.

My experience with US cleaners

Heat varies effectiveness greatly.
Solutions vary greatly relative to materials being cleaned.
Suspending rather than "dropping it in" yields far better results almost regardless of any other particulars.
Even sitting in the mesh baskets - semi suspended - is better than on the bottom but not as good as being independently suspended.

It's a trial and error thing for me after first doing research to try to ensure that I'm not about to damage an item by just guessing.

Couple examples -Heated vinegar returns a significantly different result from room temp vinegar.

Heated Simple Green will almost knock you out.


Some things US cleaners excel at for me:

M-14 trigger groups. Heated solution - suspended, hot water, blow dry and oil! Outstanding.
Black powder cylinders. Hot water and as above.



Todd.

I use a Lyman ultra sonic cleaner with the Lyman firearms parts solution. It pretty amazing how well it works. The trick is to use plenty of solution and HOT water.

I've cleaned a ton of brass and many of my smaller gun parts, like trigger assemblies, bolts/carriers, slides, etc. with very good results. I'm just using the $70 Harbor Freight ultrasonic cleaner, and have been for a couple years. I'm pry going to get a larger more powerful unit in the near future, but the cheapy has been fine thus far.

For parts, the Harbor Freight model has a good "general purpose" frequency. You'll want to scrape off as much of the big goopy filth as you can, ultrasonics seem to have trouble getting globs of grease or cosmoline off. As stated, heat goes a long way in the cleaning process.

As far as solvents go, I'm lucky enough to shoot with a guy who has a P.h.D in chemical solvents and cleaning agents. I asked him what I should use for parts and believe it or not he said Dawn dishwashing detergent (about a Tablespoon or 2 for the model I have, pry 2 qts) and water. For brass, the same thing but add white vinegar. Anywhere from a few tablespoons to 20% depending how bad the brass is. I usually use a healthy pour for fairly dirty brass.

After cleaning parts I rinse them thoroughly with hot water, blow dry, and spray with a heavy coat of oil. Let the oil soak in for a bit then wipe as much off as I can. The ultrasonic will suck all the oil out of the parts so it's imperative to get oil back on them quickly after drying.

I also use the HF one, with Dawn/Lemishine for brass, and Hornady gun parts solution for blued or steel. DO NOT stick blued parts into an acidic brass solution! You will be back to bare metal in no time.

I've used a Crest Ultrasonic cleaners pretty extensively. 2 different models, one was a tabletop model and the other was much larger, so that you could almost put a complete M4 inside and also had an oil bath attached (Crest F1436HT, which is about a $10k setup). Both had heat and use Crest 235 cleaning fluid.

Without heat, I don't think they'd do much of anything on gun parts.

Even with heat, I find it quicker and easier to do it the old fashioned way.

There might be some applications (suppressor cleaning, maybe) where the ultrasonic cleaner is the only way, but generally not so much.

I use my ultra sonic cleaner to clean all my guns. It's big enough for pistols but not rifles. Parts I can remove are put in at 120 degrees. I make a solution of Ed's Red, 1/4 diesel, 1/4 red atf, 1/4 Hoppies #9, 1/4 Koil. Remove the grips and set it in. After it cools down enough to handle, let drain and wipe down. Run a few dry patches down the bore and done.

Does using an ultrasoinc cleaner cause roll pins to walk or screws to back out?

ATLDave said:

Does using an ultrasoinc cleaner cause roll pins to walk or screws to back out?

Click to expand...

It certainly can but they have to already be loose enough to have potentially presented that problem to begin with.

If US cleaning moves a roll pin - there's a fundamental problem with the original fit.


Todd.

I have an ultrasonic cleaner with a heater in it. I use SLIP 2000 Ultra-Clean in it. The Ultra-Clean is a cleaning solution made for ultrasonic cleaners

I have the heater set to 40 degrees centigrade (104F) - and 20 minutes in the cleaner will take off any type of dirt, grease, oil, etc.

I rinse the parts off with water, put them on a towel and use a hair blow dryer to dry them.

kkayser said:

I tried to clean a Winchester 52D "D" trigger assy. I soaked it is carburetor cleaner for 24hrs lifting it out and letting it drain about 25 times. I then blew it out.

It is not nearly clean. So, I'm thinking ultrasonic cleaning. Does anyone have experience cleaning guns (not brass cases) with ultra sonic? Cleaning fluid to use, brands of cleaners, things to watch for, possible damage to guns, bluing... etc?

Click to expand...

What is on this trigger assembly that cannot be cleaned?

Maybe let the assembly soak overnight in Hoppe's #9.

Ultra sonic cleaners can do a great job. I cleaned a number of vintage Lugers using an ultrasonic cleaner. They had been cleaned by hand many times, but you would not believe the crud that came off in the ultrasonic unit. After drying the pieces with a blow dryer (they have NO oil left on them and will rust quickly), you place the pieces back in the unit in an old oil bath. I used slick 2000. That coats all the surfaces extremely will. Take them out after 15 minutes or so and let them drip for a while and wipe down. You will have a very clean gun with good rust protection.

You pretty much have to use a sufficiently de-gassed water-based ultrasonic cleaning solution for the setup to work properly. Cavitation and explosion are the key elements.

http://www.ctgclean.com/blog/techno...-cleaning-fundamental-theory-and-application/

If you are using an oil based solution, all you're doing is giving it a hot oil bath, which you could do in a much cheaper setup.

After I remove from the tank I use some high quality alcohol to assist with drying. The spray with oil as needed. Works for me.

Prolix Lubricant In Ultra Sonic Cleaner

I have just started using Prolix Lubricant to clean my Glocks. Does anyone have any comments about using Prolix over a long period of time? I like the results I'm getting cleaning by hand but am considering using an ultra sonic cleaner with Prolix.

Is anyone using Prolix in a ultra sonic cleaner and what are the results? And can you recommend an ultra sonic cleaner?

Any lidded container large enough to immerse the parts in a solvent, some vinyl tubing, and an aquarium "air-stone" can be used to make a good cleaning system.

Use a compressor or an aquarium air pump to provided the air and the bubbles produce the vibration and circulation to work the dirt free.