Hornady Ultrasonic Cleaner

Taylor-Made

Taylor-Made

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I have decided to buy an Ultrasonic cleaner mainly for brass, and on occasion small gun parts. I was looking at the Hornady and after doing some googling it appears it is made by a jewelery cleaner company named "Gemoro."

My question is directed at folks with experience with the 1.2 qt Hornady. Is it big enough for brass and small gun parts or should a guy look at going to the Gemoro 2.6 qt unit? The 2.6 qt unit also has a built in heater as well. All in all the reviews of Gemoro on the intraweb are very positive.
 
The fluid in any ultrasonic cleaner is heated due to the rapid vibration of the water molecules...

The hornady unit is big enough for most brass and gun parts however it wont fit a complete full size 1911... for those who wish to clean slides frames etc.

On thing to remember about ultrasonic cleaners as they are cleaners they are not polishers... your brass wont come out shiny like a tumbler with abrasives.
 
Read this article on cleaning brass with an ultrasonic cleaner. It has a recipe for clean and shiny brass. May help you decide to purchase the larger unit.

http://www.6mmbr.com/ultrasonic.html
 
just get this bad-boy right here ;) you can clean lots of brass, probably your whole rifle too! 27 liters

h ttp://cgi.ebay.com/Industrial-1000-W-27-Liters-HEATED-ULTRASONIC-CLEANER-/220679825201?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33618ae731#ht_7091wt_1141
 
don't cheap out guys, just spend some $$$ and buy at least a 10 litre cleaner. you can put more brass, a few guns in there if you like! what are you going to clean with those tiny cleaners? a watch? necklace ? few pieces of brass?

spend the money, it will last you a long time and you won't have to upgrade! if you can spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on firearms, you can spend around $500-600 on a decent ultrasonic cleaner. you will love it!!
 
As Mr Shultz mentioned I did briefly look into bigger tanks for immersing the entire gun but I simply can't bring myself to make that kind of a purchase. Chances are I will be very impressed and end up buying a bigger one down the road so that I can continue my legacy of buying twice because I went cheap the first time!

I'm leaning towards the 2.6 qt. As the 6mmbr article indicates solution isn't overly expensive.

Thx for the links gents
 
If you're going to use it a lot, you'll want the bigger tank. I bought the Hornady to clean the mud out of range brass and that was my driving purpose, but it's tiny. An AR bolt barely fits in it diagonally. Having one, I'll likely find new things to clean with it.

The Hornady cleaning fluid is hard to find - seems to be sold out if/when stocked (only 1 of 3 Cabela's I visited in the US had fluid on the shelf).
 
I bought one from Harbor freight tools 2.4 qrt, it does work however it is PITA since the cycles are 8 min max so every 8 min trip to the basement to switch on and the bath usually takes around 50 min, so it takes a lot of trips to do this plus different solutions vinegar first then baking soda then water, so I have decided to buy rotary tumbler and go with SS media (pins) just put cases in + ss media plus dish sope and some dishwasher detergent and 2 hr later all done no attending needed and prime pockets are crystal clean wheres with ultrasonic cleaners cases on the edges were not as clean as the one in the middle
Paul.W
 
after seeing this post I decided to give it a try. I have a nice ultrasonic cleaner in the lab so I stayed late and tried it out using something along the lines of the cheap and easy recipe in the link above.

Made 2.5% acetic acid solution
Used "Alkinox" a type of alkaline lab soap to neutralize the acid and wash further.
Finished up with DI water

Overall I'm pretty impressed. Certainly works as advertised. Would be a lot of work for a high volume shooter though. Next time I'll de-prime all the brass first. I don't have a de-priming die, can only do with the resize operation.

PS good source for deals (sometimes) is labx.com - they are a sort of ebay for lab equipment and the good ultrasonic cleaners like the Bransonic work much better than the cheapies IMO.
 
what about some of the units on ebay? there's some that are around 2 liters and cost about $50. are these any good? whats the difference in performance between heated and non heated ones?
 
Does anyone know where in Canada you can buy the Hornady cleaner solution. Not the US cleaner (I have a Harbor Freight like one), just the solution. I wonder if it works as good as or better than the home brew solutions.

It's just that personally I can't stand the smell of vinegar. I have to use the stuff outside on my back deck because the smell just offends me.
 
If vinegar (acetic acid) is offensive, you could try citric acid. A lot of photography guys use it for their developer stop solution.

I probably have some kicking around the lab I could try and make a cleaning solution with.
 
Taylor-Made said:
I have decided to buy an Ultrasonic cleaner mainly for brass, and on occasion small gun parts. I was looking at the Hornady and after doing some googling it appears it is made by a jewelery cleaner company named "Gemoro."
Click to expand...

More likely, Gemoro and Hornady are buying ultrasonic cleaners from the same offshore supplier, and putting their respective stickers on them.

IIRC from my readings, the small units have a short duty cycle to keep the transducer from overheating and destroying itself. Check the duty cycle ratings if you can find them. A good one costs.

Get a basket to keep the parts off the bottom or from leaning on the side of the tank. It stops the transducer from effectively transmitting energy through the fluid. Another way to shorten the life of your cleaner. Suspending the parts with wire works too. Gotta keep it of the walls and bottom though.

If you can, listen to one run before you buy. I've heard some that would drive you out of the room with the high pitched noise. Others were much more civilized.

Cheers
Trev
 
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