Ultrasonic addiction, cannot stop.

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seabee

seabee

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Hi All. I have been wanting an ultrasonic cleaner for a long time but any thing big enough to hold more than a pair of glasses is super expensive. I came across a "parts only" one on EBay that wasn't being bid on and figured I would take a chance, pull it apart and fix it myself.

A few solders and 3 inches of teflon tape and I now have a very expensive medical-grade Ultrasonic Cleaner for my garage! It's a 2.5 gallon Midimark Soniclean M250 usually used in dentist offices and for surgery equipment etc.

I tested it out with aluminum foil. Once it started to eat holes through it I knew it was working and began finding everything that I could put in it.

First went the wrenches. Then the screwdrivers. Then the wife's jewelry. My Glasses. Some bolts....... Once you get on a roll, it's hard to stop.

Since I am rebuilding my carb I decided what the hell, throw that in there too before I start dissecting it. Here's some pics.



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Nice score. Here is the one we have at work. I think that I'm the only one who uses it. A couple of weeks ago I had an entire rear end housing in there for about 6 hours.
 

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OMG that is awesome!

What type of solution do you use at work? I've only used tap water with a splash of simple green so far and it has worked pretty well.
 
Ya beat me to it. I was going to suggest Simple Green too. Looks like a nice cleaner. tmm
 
72ScampTramp said:
how do these work? Do these work for cleaning up hardware and bolts really good?
Click to expand...

"Ultrasonic cleaning uses high frequency sound waves to agitate in a liquid. Cavitation bubbles induced by the agitation act on contaminants adhering to substrates"-Wiki


It's great for bolts. Since the frequency goes through glass you can also use mason jars to keep things separated.

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Here's a video of it on http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x287/illkron/?action=view&current=5c2d45c4.mp4
 
Badart said:
Yep. The guy that sold us ours said that you could even clean electronics in it as long is it was deionized water.
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Did the sales rep say anything about the finish on guns like Glock's Tennifer or Sprinfield's melonite? I used it on my stainless conversion barrel but I'm a little weary of throwing the hole slide in there.
 
seabee said:
Did the sales rep say anything about the finish on guns like Glock's Tennifer or Sprinfield's melonite? I used it on my stainless conversion barrel but I'm a little weary of throwing the hole slide in there.
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He didn't specify. He just told me that they are great for cleaning guns.
 
they are also used to clean brass instruments, like trumpets.
after years of use, a crud can build up inside...ultrasonic cleans
it and looks brand new.....
 
seabee said:
................I came across a "parts only" one on EBay that wasn't being bid on and figured I would take a chance, pull it apart and fix it myself.
Click to expand...

I have a fair understanding of how these work, and I think I could repair one, assuming it didn't need something terribly expensive, like a bad transducer

Could you elaborate on how you searched for this, what brands/ models are good "suspects" and so on?
 
67Dart273 said:
I have a fair understanding of how these work, and I think I could repair one, assuming it didn't need something terribly expensive, like a bad transducer

Could you elaborate on how you searched for this, what brands/ models are good "suspects" and so on?
Click to expand...

I had been searching Ebay and craigslist sporadically and just happen to see this one ending at a weird hourwhich was just dumb luck I think. After reading http://deiwhy.blogspot.com/2008/12/diy-ultrasonic-cleaner.html I thought I could replace transducers (about $30 a piece on Ebay) or if I really got stumped would just send it to my Old Man, who could probably repair the Hubble Telescope with a soldering Iron and a multi-meter.

My guess is the most expensive electronic parts in them are the processing boards. .My original plan was to convert a stainless deep fryer with the board and transducers from a cheap or damaged cleaner.

The medical industrial ones are super pricey and I imagine they have the better parts. Just the baskets for them start at $200 so I imagine the quality of the innards would be better than most. I thought about taking the innards of one and epoxying the transducers to the bottom of a stainless deep sink or buffet tray.

Units that don't power up would be worth looking for. For me,Power supplies are the easiest thing I know how to fix. Once the boards, diodes, etc.. come in to play I'm lost.
 
Thanks a lot. I've certainly wanted one, but as you already know, they ARE expensive.
 
72ScampTramp said:
anyone tried the smaller one from harbor freigt
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I haven't tried it but I've seen lots of Youtube vids of guys cleaning brass etc. and it looks like it works really well.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJY9UCXqXrA"]Ultrasonic Cleaner - YouTube[/ame]
 
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