Ultra Sonic Cleaners?

[Daniel Rohr Minnesota Guitar Repair]

I grabbed one from Harbor Freight, the $89 dollar 2.5 liter. I like it – stainless steel tub, heat setting, decent fitting cover, detachable cord. I’ve used it to knock the big chunks of oxidation off flat pieces and bridges with the powder they sell there. I’ve also used it with the Bora rust remover (Amazon from Doug’s list on the affiliate links) and that works just fine.

It has a plastic lift out tray but small parts slip through it. I would find some kind of stainless mesh to line it with.

[Thom Abell String Theory Guitar Repair]

Thanks, Daniel. I’ll check that out!

[Dan Horn Treeline]

Hey There, a little late but I thought I’d mention that I was given one recently from a dental hygienist. They were getting rid of a few of them for some reason. It came with a wire basket and 2 glass beakers. Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to give it a try yet but If you know any dentists! …. It’s worth an ask. They also gave me a lot of dental picks. Super handy. I have too many and been giving them away.

Good luck, cheers. Dan

[Rick Liftig luthier wannabe… slowly gettinthere]

The trick to using ultrasonic cleaners is the solution that you use in it. The US cleaner will also be volatilizing these solutions (due to vibration) so you want to keep it lidded – you also need to avoid using flammable solvents (you don’t want them volatilized!). Most of the time, a high detergent solution is your go to. One technique is to use some non-sudsing detergent in the bath water, and the actual solvent\cleaning agent in the small beaker. This decreases the amount of agent that you need. The detergent in the bath water is a ‘coupling agent’ to allow the ultrasonic waves to propagate more efficiently..

As Dan alluded to, most ultrasonic cleaners use a basket or beakers to hold your parts off the floor of the cleaner (never rest them on the floor of the cleaner.). And note that when a US cleaner dies, it may still buzz, but not produce any cavitation – beware buying used (you know how I l found that out, right?). Overall, they’re handy devices to have around – not a necessity, but handy.

One more thing… parts with flaking plating may end up looking pretty ugly when done. They’ll be clean, but ugly. And forget about preserving patina. But the US cleaner is an absolute necessity if you are going to be re-plating.