Ultrasonic Cleaning Experiment - The Set Up
A few months ago, at a winter online auction I picked up one of these.
Your basic HF table top ultrasonic cleaner. I got it for about half price of a brand new one and it looked like it had been used once and put back in the box. I've never played with ultrasonic cleaning before but have been intrigued with the idea for small parts cleaning. So for small money I figured it was worth a try.
In discussion about the possible uses with a friend and co-worker we came up with a potential modification to the process that sounded great. He had heard of the idea to use a simple plastic cup to put the parts in and cleaning solution and then set this inside the cleaner filled with plain water. This would confine the dirt and grime to a disposable cup and save the clean up time afterward. The theory was the ultrasonic pulses would easily transfer thru the thin wall of the cup and still provide the cleaning action. Well that settled it and, I would have to try this experiment myself. And since this theory was hatched over lunch at Panera, they became the source of my parts cleaning cup for the experiment.
The subject of the cleaning experiment was at hand as part of my Jeep rebuild project I had been working to clean and rebuild the carburetor and using the tried and true (but slow) method of soaking parts in a gallon can of carb cleaner. Wanting to test a variety of parts and metals I separated the parts into different groups.
This way I would have brass, steel, plated, cast aluminum, etc.
To add some additional variety to the test I chose to try three different cleaning solutions on a similar mixture of parts to see what difference that would make. And, I also chose to use hot tap water in the tub and also to use the heater function of the cleaner to keep the water hot.
1. A 50/50 mix of Simple Green and water.
2. A few drops of Dawn dish detergent and water.
3. Full strength Carb Cleaner from the gallon can.