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.
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.
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.
"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. Here's a video of it on http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x287/illkron/?action=view¤t=5c2d45c4.mp4
Yep. The guy that sold us ours said that you could even clean electronics in it as long is it was deionized water.
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.
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.....
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?
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.
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]
