My Missus in Her attempts to keep me at my workbench and out of trouble, when not employed in the means to support my hobbies, and her attempts to surpass Imelda Marcos in the shoe collection department, ocassionally buys me little items on my wish list. This is a delayed (read back ordered) Father's Day gift. Tis a small ultrasound parts cleaner which I've been wanting but was too cheap to buy myself. The small bath will take up to an 85 ft long car and should take the biggest steam or diesel mechanisms out there. Also came with a small parts basket for the fine stuff and the tub under the bigger plastic basket shown is stainless steel. Hmm stainless steel and difficult to strip paint from nooks and crannies. May just be the trick for using Chameleon or ELO, or other water cleanup strippers. As far as those brand new in box, super saturated with oil locos, the whole mechanism can now go in the bath, sans body shell of course, with some water and a little Dawn dish detergent to de oil everything including the motor. Rinse with clear water and after a thorough dry time relube properly.. Ahh life just got better.:teeth: :teeth:
Looks good John. I've been using one for quite some time now . It's been resurrected from my dental practice to my model railroad workbench. It's seen quite alot of use in 40 years. Stay cool and run steam.......
The secret is drying it out before repowering. And a thorough rinse so no residue remains. Actually the secret to cleaning computer parts that have gotten dirty, or sooted up in a fire. Water, detergent, and ultrasound bath. Followed by a thorough rinse and completely drying it out. Blow out the excess moisture with compressed air and allow a day or two to be sure of completely dry. Relube and fire it up. Also the reason I specified Dawn dish detergent. Mild yet a good degreaser and no petro based solvents to disolve any varnish on the motor windings. Use a warm, not hot water, bath to help loosen dirt and oils with the detergent.
John I've seen those in a catalog. I'm with Jeremiah....how does it work?????? Can you put a stripping solution in it...and if so, how would you clean it??????...please, tell us more. Very interesting product.....
Long ago and far away... Before environmental considerations and especially before OSHA, we would use flammable solvents and other NO-NOs in ultrasonic cleaners. Then again it was in an industrial setting and we did have fire extinguishers, etc. available. If you KNOW what you are doing, if the tank is a solid Stainless Steel, if you don't mind invalidating your homeowners insurance if the place burns down, than you too can experiment with exotic chemicals. Then again, the building that our lab was located in was an ex-solvent storage room, seperate from and with extra thick walls facing the main building and a blow-off roof to release the energy. Having given the legal disclaimers: some room humidifiers/vaporizers use ultrasonics. While these are convertable, they are plastic and rubber and need a secondary container to hold the object and solution. Cheaper (if from a thrift shop) but less effective. Back in the dark ages (60's) DuPont used to tout various Freon componds for cleaning motors, even showing them running while immersed (not under load tho). Water/detergent won't harm a motor electrically, but it will cause rusting to bearing surfaces if the oil is stripped off, usually after looong immersions. Bob in IDaho
I do not reccomend the use of the plastic insert basket with any stripping solution, simply because I don't know what type of plastic it is and whether it would be damaged by the stripper. The main bath that the baskets go into is of stainless steel thus will not be affected by water clean up (read water soluble here) strippers. And it is easy to clean up by simply wiping out or rinsing the stainless steel tub. First I would recommend the usual stripping jar method and soft brush. Then if you are having problems with the tiny nooks and crannies, grillwork etc. go the the ultrasound bath. The manufactor of this particular parts cleaner states that the bath needs to be at least 70% full to not have warranty issues. Here is probably the best method and the one I would recommend as does the manufacturer. Get a tall narrow jar that will fit your shell and also fit in the cleaner bath. Suggest something like a green olive jar. Put the shell in the jar place your stripper in the jar to cover, put the lid back on the jar, and then place in the ultrasound bath with the tank filled to about 20% capacity with plain water. Turn it on and set back. The ultrasound waves will pentrate the jar and do thier thing. And no bath to clean up and no fumes. Do not use a petroleum based cleaner. You can also mix paint with this thing by placing the paint bottle with the lid tightly screwed down in the water bath and let it rip. Now the model I have is the smallest one but there are larger units out there. Price is under $100 and MicroMark carries them.
