Ultrasonic Cleaners

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crocty

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I'm considering an ultrasonic cleaner, now I'm curious what you guys are using out there. Solvent? Machine? How's it working for. You?
 
Cleans but likely will not polish anything. Most people use a bit of vinager due to the price of solvents, havent tried it but from my research it works well enough. Most reloaders seem to only use sonic cleaners to supplement their tumbling process not to replace their tumblers. I use a cheap frankford one. Mostly just use it for cleaning smaller gun parts. You can visibly see the carbon and fowling disipating. I'm likely going to save for a rotary tumbler.
 
crocty said:
I'm considering an ultrasonic cleaner, now I'm curious what you guys are using out there. Solvent? Machine? How's it working for. You?
Click to expand...

Hornady has a model that can fit an entire AR that's priced in the $600 ballpark (Al Simmons had it on sale for $400). I bought a 3 liter model for use in South America since our condo doesn't have a balcony, so no more carb cleaner, that can easily do a field-stripped pistol or an AR bolt.. Can also do mags. Your best bet is to get the L&R cleaning and lubricating solutions. I did a lot of homework thinking I'll need to ghetto the solutions, but it turns out I'll be able to get proper solutions down here. L&R is used by an experienced smith whom I'd trust with my guns any day of the week and you get a lot of bang for the buck even though you'll spend a few bucks initially. Remember that you can reuse the solution several times, so don't throw it out after one wash. One gallon of each will last your typical shooter many years and will pay for itself over the alternatives.

A 3 liter heated model will run about $200 locally and you wouldn't be saving much (if any) cash over having one shipped from China. At least, if you buy locally, you have someone to visit and complain in case it doesn't work as well as it should. Amazon has reasonable pricing on the cleaners, so I'd be looking that way first.

Please note that the lubricating solution is more for rust protection and that I'd still run small amounts of lube where needed.
 
I had the Hornady Hot Tub first - a great little machine that fits an AR upper (as mentioned above), except I don't have an AR in Canada.. So it was better suited for parts, small carbines and handguns. For long arms I had to rotate the barrels and run the machine twice for cleaning and twice for lube - so it took twice as long and still didn't cover all the barrels.

As a typical Canadian gun nut, I have more long arms than handguns, so I sold the Hot Tub for Lyman's Power Pro Ultrasonic. It's double the price, but can fit double the gun(s)! It also appears to be a higher quality build - being all steel and using industrial parts. The Hot Tub is all plastic except for the coated tub.

The Hornady and Lyman's cleaning solution and Lyman's Lubrication work great, but they aren't cheap. All available on Amazon and slightly cheaper than most LGS with free shipping. I'll reuse the solution 4-5 times with basic filtration, before replacing the distilled water and new solution. Depends how dirty it gets.

I've cleaned most of my firearms in the Power Pro now. I may be more anal than most when it comes to cleaning firearms, so I give them a good scrub by hand, running patches and brushes down the bore to loosen up lead and copper, then I run it in the ultrasonic for a thorough clean (completely disassembled). Even after cleaning by hand you can see the ultrasonic doing its part, getting into the nooks and cranny's and hard to reach places. The combined heat and solution further loosens lead/copper, which I occasionally do another couple passes with a patch to get that perfect shiny bore.

This is a must-read article for Ultrasonic gun cleaning - http ://stevejenkins.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Ultrasonic_Cleaning_of_Firearms.pdf
 
I only use an ultrasonic for cleaning my brass. I have Lyman unit with a heater. I tend to de-cap first, then clean in the Lyman then prime and finish the process. I find a little bit of lemon juice or vinegar with a few drops of dawn work fine as a solution.

The biggest thing I found is to dry the cases on a towel after cleaning (and rubbing the pile with another towel on top) to avoid tarnishing and water spots. You can do this in the oven as well, but the towel works for me. Just lay them out and rub with another towel. Cases don't get purdy / sparkly with ultrsonic, but they do get clean.
 
I've been tempted to pickup one of these units for general cleaning as well as firearm parts. How good does it remove the carbon from revolver cylinders and AR BCGs? Humm, that Amazon one looks like a good size for a decent price.
 
Trinimon said:
I've been tempted to pickup one of these units for general cleaning as well as firearm parts. How good does it remove the carbon from revolver cylinders and AR BCGs? Humm, that Amazon one looks like a good size for a decent price.
Click to expand...

I've only cleaned a revolver once with my ultrasonic. It had the typical carbon buildup on the outside of the cylinder that I previously didn't remove. From my experienced it didn't remove the carbon entirely, but it did loosen it up enough that it all came off fairly easy with a brass brush afterwards.
 
kb007 said:
I only use an ultrasonic for cleaning my brass. I have Lyman unit with a heater. I tend to de-cap first, then clean in the Lyman then prime and finish the process. I find a little bit of lemon juice or vinegar with a few drops of dawn work fine as a solution.

The biggest thing I found is to dry the cases on a towel after cleaning (and rubbing the pile with another towel on top) to avoid tarnishing and water spots. You can do this in the oven as well, but the towel works for me. Just lay them out and rub with another towel. Cases don't get purdy / sparkly with ultrsonic, but they do get clean.
Click to expand...
I've read about using lemon juice, never tried it ,going to give it a try.
 
Good Quality ultrasonic cleaners work amazing, 400 watt+ transducers are decent quality. I use my 10L to clean everything, complete firearms (with grips removed), bolts, trigger groups, small engine parts, etc. I've used it for brass just to see how well it works, and it does an amazing job but I can't stand the drying step so I'm still tumbling my brass the old school way.

These things will clean in areas you cannot reach. I use it to clean complete revolvers, it cleans everything, carbon fouling, lead fouling, makes my cylinders spotless without ever touching the gun with anything remotely abrasive.

As for cleaning solution, it depends on whats being cleaned. Guns and gun parts go in a tank full of a home made Ed's red type solution. Carburetors and other greasy tools or engine parts get Release All or a Simple green/water mix.


Here are before and after pictures of the carburetor off of my Argo. This is the result of a 15 minute cycle in water and Simple Green at 50 degrees.




 
I got one from Ebay from a Canadian seller.
It's a 3L one with a heater, It was around $100.
The wife and I use it all the time, not just for Firearms.
 
I originally bought mine to replace tumbling, and just as another person posted, It ended up supplementing my reloading process. I find I need to use really hot water (usually boiling) hot to get the best cleaning. I do use the hornady cleaning solvent. In general I do get clean primer pockets in most of my cases. This is the main reason I use an ultrasonic cleaner. I still end up tumbling my brass, as it tarnishes when it dried, and I like my brass shiny.
 
Trinimon said:
I've been tempted to pickup one of these units for general cleaning as well as firearm parts. How good does it remove the carbon from revolver cylinders and AR BCGs? Humm, that Amazon one looks like a good size for a decent price.
Click to expand...

The one that I have, from Amazon (Kendal), makes cleaning your carbon ed up firearms alot easier.It's no miracle cleaner but it cuts your cleaning time in half for sure.After a couple of cycles ,with a little bit of simple green in the water ,and it's mostly just a quick brush and wipe to get the hard stuff off.The parts come out quite warm so blow off with an air gun and a little rem oil and you're good to gunk em' up again!
 
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