Ultra sonic cleaners

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GarySTL

GarySTL

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Thinking of purchasing one for cleaning suppressors and gun parts as well as assembled pistol slides etc. My question is are they safe to use with fiber optic or tritium sights installed? I'm thinking yes on fiber optic, and probably no on tritium.

Am I correct? School me.
 
It shouldn't hurt fibre optic but I'm unsure about tritium sights. I'll ask around.
 
I found several discussions on AR15.com, XDTalk and 1911Forum regarding this. Consensus is that it's not an issue. If you find anything different, please post it.

Thanks
 
I think it should be okay also. The things you shouldn't put in are things like soft stones or jewelry - opals, etc. I wouldn't think tritium sights would be a problem. If you ask the sight maker though... you KNOW they'll say "don't do it" just to protect themselves. Best to find someone that's done it successfully and hear how it went. My two cents.
 
I have never got any good out of an ultrasonic cleaner on gun parts. There is one little transducer in the middle of the tank, and it is not cleaning anything unless the dirt is right over it.

40 years ago until 30 years ago i would go with the wife to the jewelers and they would ultrasonic clean the jewelry she was wearing for free. While we were there, I was somehow obligated to buy more jewelry. Those guys could get jewelry clean, and they took me to the cleaners, too.
 
Clark said:
I have never got any good out of an ultrasonic cleaner on gun parts. There is one little transducer in the middle of the tank, and it is not cleaning anything unless the dirt is right over it.
Click to expand...

That's not true of the current cleaners, mine has two transducers. Another critical issue is that the parts that you want cleaned shouldn't touch the vibrating metal, the cleaning is accomplished by cavitation bubbles bursting. Some of the older/ cheaper designs didn't have enough power to cause cavitation throughout the liquid and were only capable of cleaning parts if they were close to the transducer.
 
I spoke with my former instructor at the gonne-smithing school who is the most experienced gunsmith instructor there. He advised against placing tritium sights an ultrasonic cleaner.
 
I did buy a cleaner. Two transducers and a heater. The transducers are 80 watts each and the heater is 200 watts.The timer goes up to 55 minutes in 5 minute increments which is nice.

$100 with free shipping.

Unfortunately it's not quite big enough for pistol frames, but it will fit slides, bolts etc. I'm planning on cleaning some reloading dies tomorrow. Should easily remove the gunk from the sizing and seating dies.

If it works well I'll probably buy a larger unit in the future.

My dogs don't like it a bit when it's running. They can probably hear it a lot better than I can.
 
So Gary what brand did you buy and where at? I see Harbor Freight has them but I was going to Amazon to look around. So why not jewelry?

So I see the better and larger ones have two transducers and they seem to be rated at 60 watts each.
 
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A small jewelry one, it's about 4" round. I got it at a garage sale for a buck-not sure of the brand offhand. It's buried in my cramped shop somewhere.
 
A word of advice for you guys that are buying these "cheap" ultrasonic cleaners off of the Internet, make sure that the cleaner has a basket for your parts and make sure that the basket does not touch the sides or the bottom of the tub.

Ultrasonic cleaners do their job by creating pressure waves in the liquid, those pressure waves create microscopic bubbles and if anything touches the surface of the tub it will interfere with the efficiency of this cavitation process.
 
macgrumpy said:
A word of advice for you guys that are buying these "cheap" ultrasonic cleaners off of the Internet, make sure that the cleaner has a basket for your parts and make sure that the basket does not touch the sides or the bottom of the tub.

Ultrasonic cleaners do their job by creating pressure waves in the liquid, those pressure waves create microscopic bubbles and if anything touches the surface of the tub it will interfere with the efficiency of this cavitation process.
Click to expand...
Well as far as I could see the "cheap ones" were exactly the same as the more expensive ones including the brand name and the basket. In todays market, they are All made either in China or other overseas places. So where did you buy yours from?
 
What's with the attitude?

You say that they are "exactly" the same but that's not true, that's a generality, you see a box that holds liquid and has a transducer or two and you say that they are exactly the same, that's not accurate. I agree that most are probably made by a few companies and they simply stuck a different sticker on the box but I'm not arguing who makes them or where they come from, in fact, I'm not arguing about anything, I'm simply saying that you need a basket and that the basket and parts shouldn't touch the tub for best results.
 
The name plate photo on the back, exactly same Brand, same Specs and same Wattage. Yes it has a basket. There is no attitude, just stating what I found. I am sorry if I offended you.
 
This is the one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HC4WBQW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It has a basket that rests on the bottom of the tank. Makes a lot of noise when in use from that contact and it's probably wasted energy as well. I took two bamboo skewers and suspended the basket above the tank bottom and it makes a lot less noise, which makes both my wife and I both happy.

The tank is smaller than I'd thought, didn't measure correctly, so I may be in the market for a larger unit in the future. The heater works fine and can be energized without running the transducers.

I cleaned the bolts from my Ruger Mk4 and S&W Victory. They seemed to clean up well.
 
Looks like it has the same "features" as mine, none seem to be really upfront about the internal size. I think mine is 8x4x4 inside but they call it a 3 liter. One buyer on amazon did a demo where he shows its really more like 1.8 Liter!

Yours has more wattage for heating and variable frequency sweeping.
 
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Well I got my eBay purchased 3L (more like 1L inside the tank, if that ) Vevor unit today. Cleaned some jewelry and then some tarnished lead round balls Heater works but I just filled with hot tap water and added a small amount of Dawn, perhaps a teaspoon full. Looks nice and works what more do you want? It was $74 shipped.

Yes its has a basket and it sits on rubber feet, the basket handles fold in or out as you might need.
 
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