Ultrasonic Cleaners

willywonka519 said:
Are there any firearm parts that cannot go in these cleaners? Ie. Rubber grips, parts from an ar15 bolt, etc..
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To add to what's already been said, nothing that's PAINTED either, it will come right off.


I use the Hornady mostly for gun cleaning and some brass, with the one shot solution.
It works very well, and because of the stainless "tub" cleanup is a breeze.
It does a really good job cleaning dirty guns and loosening up stubborn deposits that would normally be difficult to get.
Would recommend.
 
Hmm, I've never used mine for anything other than cases. If you use it for parts assemblies like a BCG do you have to strip it down completely to all the individual small parts or can you simply throw a bcg in as it comes out of the gun?
 
kb007 said:
Hmm, I've never used mine for anything other than cases. If you use it for parts assemblies like a BCG do you have to strip it down completely to all the individual small parts or can you simply throw a bcg in as it comes out of the gun?
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It takes 30s to take out the firing pin and the bolt. Might as well do. Will get a better cleaning out of it. May wanna do it every other cleaning if you're feeling lazy but the parts dry quicker if you strip them down properly.
 
kb007 said:
Hmm, I've never used mine for anything other than cases. If you use it for parts assemblies like a BCG do you have to strip it down completely to all the individual small parts or can you simply throw a bcg in as it comes out of the gun?
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I do this often, especially when I'm short on time. I even throw complete pistols in my cleaner with nothing more than the grips removed. I always agitate everything before I remove it from the tank to flush all the sediment out. Then I just blast everything dry with the air compressor. I use a CLP in my tank so I don't have to lube or protect any further before placing the gun back into the safe.
 
I use a generic brand unit for pre-cleaning range brass and other small parts. I usually just use hot tap water and laundry soap and run cycles while I'm doing something else. For really dirty brass it will clean off a ton of dirt, grit, grime...but won't make them sparkling like-new shiny. Usually clean enough to give a quick wipe and go to go through a die. On parts with "fresh" carbon residue, it does a good job and definitely gets into the hard to reach places. If it doesn't clean them outright (either clean enough or so that all that is needed is to wipe it down with a rag) it definitely helps reduce the amount of scrubbing that would otherwise be needed.

I would prefer a bigger unit, one with a hotter heater and that has a longer timer.

All that said the brass never gets as clean as with a vibe/tumbler with media...so sometimes I'll run the brass through the sonic cleaner to get the worst of it, then through a vibe/tumbler to really clean up the cases.
 
mastermind said:
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
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I`m thinking going this route for cleaning my guns . Can someone give me a link to where I can buy lubricating solution mentioned in the article ? Maybe a spray solution I can but to lubricate the gun after using the ultrasonic bath .
 
I have the Hornady sonic cleaner. I use the one shot cleaner but it doesn't seem to clean the best. Last couple of batches of brass I did I used a cup of white vinegar with a spoon of dish soap and half a tea spoon of salt then topping the rest up with warm water. Brass and primer pockets come out cleaner than with the one shot solution. I then rince the brass and put it in my toaster over at 200 degrees for about 45 min.
 
I use one to clean small parts of a rifle while I'm concentrating on cleaning the receiver and bore. I also use it to clean brass.

Ultrasonic cleaners are a "get what you paid for" proposition. Those cheaper Franklins and the like might seem like a good deal and a cheap entry point but unless the water/solution gets warm enough you aren't really maximizing the benefits of a cleaner. Anything with a plastic well won't get warm enough...IMHO anyway.
 
This is the one I have:

https://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/ultrasonics/turbosonic-casecleaner.php

Good little unit with a heater built in. The MSRP is $160 Cdn, but I grabbed mine at (un-named big box sports store) on sale for $99 about a year and a half ago.

2.5 L capacity.

I just use the Lyman chemicals for it. They weren't that expensive, don't recall how much. They're highly concentrated, so even if you're going with the "heavy clean" solution, it's 1 part chemical to 20 parts distilled water. Two different chemicals, 1 for brass/bronze metals, 1 for steel.

For reference:

For brass, once the unit is heated, throw in the brass, and a deep cleaning cycle takes 6 minutes. Done. Beats letting them rattle around in a tumbler for a few hours. The unit comes with a lift out plastic basket, so I pull the brass out, dump the batch on a couple layer thick bed of paper towel, then blast them with my air compressor to dry them quickly. You can re-use the same water solution until it becomes visibly dirty - which takes a surprisingly long time.

For other uses:

I just bought a TT33 recently (umm, a month or so ago? something like that). It came with the usual thick coating of cosmoline. This afternoon I finally got around to cleaning it. I stripped down the gun, took the handle scales off, and dumped all the parts, including the frame and two magazines, in a 2 litre solution using the steel cleaning concentrate (Lyman stuff). I ran it through two 6 minute cycles. I had my doubts at first, because, you know, cosmoline... But when I took all the parts out and blew them off with the air compressor, they were... Spectacular. The cosmo was just gone. The water in the machine was goopy as heck, but the gun? Spotless. I checked everything over, oiled it, and, well, that was it.

I have Red Rifle "issues" - I've tried a pile of different methods for removing cosmo. All work in the end. But suffice to say, anything small enough to fit in this machine in the future, is going in there.
 
I use the Hornady Magnum ultrasonic cleaner with their cleaning solution. It has a heater. With 2 or 3 30 minute cycles it gets brass very clean and very shiny. I'm going to stop using the tumbler now. Tumblers are too messy IMO.
 
What makes vinegar work so well is that it is a surficant. My recipe is vinegar, a little dish soap, and a few splashes of nail polish remover (acetone). I heat the vinegar to near boiling before I add the other ingredients. By the nature of how the ultrasonic cleaner works, it will also heat the solution so it will stay hot until you're done. When the brass is done (usually 24 minutes for 50 cases) I dunk them in water, mixed with baking soda, to neutralize the acid, then one final rinse in clean water. They come out extremely clean with next to no residue. Quickly remove them from the water, shake em dry in a towel, and then wipe off the moisture on the outside of the case to prevent tarnishing. A light bake in the oven on its lowest setting will speed up the drying time significantly, especially if you have a convection oven, however they do come out more tarnished looking when compared to just leaving them out to dry.

Acetone you get at the hardware store, or 90% rubbing alcohol, would also work well, with no need to dry the cases afterwards, however you must do it outside.

Ultrasonic really cleans cases well, but I don't like the tarnished/dull finish so I have invested in a small wet tumbler, with stainless pins.
 
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I have this system in my shop, cost me about 55k installed

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I have the Hornady hot tub it works great I have a few pistols and AR's cleaning is a breeze and although I do pay attention to making sure the rifle or pistol is disassembled rinsed clean in Hot water and blow dried . I have a compressor in my gun room to blow dry the parts and re oil . I do like the heater function and have found that you need to use this wisely as it can remove nitrated finishes and paint if to high of a heat setting is used .
 
I have a hornady ultrasonic for cleaning brass. some lemishine, dishsoap added, seems to do the job.
I deprime, clean, then trim.
While trimming, I spin them on some steel wool which shines them up nice.
 
My brother has one, they are a handy machine that will clean everything from jewelry , coins, carbs or for us gun stuff. The place he bought his machine sells a variety of cleaning solutions depending on what you need. They do make a gun & brass specific cleaner.
If you buy one thats 6-10 litre capacity it will be good for a wider variety of things that can fit in it.
 
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