Ultrasonic Cleaner for restore?

[Jhogan0101]

Is it worth the investment? All of my metal components have some kind rust on them.
Any one try or have any recommendations?
Was looking at this one
Kendal Commercial Grade 6 Liters 380 Watts HEATED ULTRASONIC CLEANER HB-36MHT https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L9F37JQ/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_6FfFvbTV11DBX

[timmy2]

Good thread here:
Excellent Part Cleaner

[Tremelune]

They are excellent for grime removal on parts with lots of nooks and crannies.

They do not remove rust at all. For that you'd need some kind of abrasion tumbler.

[Jeff Alton]

^^^^ this

We use ours many times every week. Great tool. Will not touch rust. Now looking into a tumbler to go with it.

[Steve@Rennsport]

Soda blaster; its just magic.

[Rawknees'Turbo]

Originally Posted by Tremelune

They are excellent for grime removal on parts with lots of nooks and crannies.

They do not remove rust at all. For that you'd need some kind of abrasion tumbler.

Originally Posted by Jeff Alton

^^^^ this

We use ours many times every week. Great tool. Will not touch rust. Now looking into a tumbler to go with it.

If you mix a little vinegar in with your water & soap solution (say about 1/2 cup per quart - more or less as needed, depending on amount of rust and how long you are willing to run the machine), an ultrasonic washer removes all rust with no trouble at all. I've done that for years on heavily rusted nuts, bolts, washers, steel brackets, etc., and the parts come out looking like new. To prevent instant flash rusting, you just spray them off with brake cleaner when removed, and then treat them with a corrosion preventative like Corrosion X (if it is something that's not getting painted).

[timmy2]

Originally Posted by Rawknees'Turbo

If you mix a little vinegar in with your water & soap solution (say about 1/2 cup per quart - more or less as needed, depending on amount of rust and how long you are willing to run the machine), an ultrasonic washer removes all rust with no trouble at all. I've done that for years on heavily rusted nuts, bolts, washers, steel brackets, etc., and the parts come out looking like new. To prevent instant flash rusting, you just spray them off with brake cleaner when removed, and then treat them with a corrosion preventative like Corrosion X (if it is something that's not getting painted).

Tip of the year for me.
Never thought to add an acid to my ultrasonic for rusty parts.
Even though I have used rust removers that I new were acid based.

Thanks.

[Sebscst]

The vinegar solution works great on rusted parts. I have a cheap harbour freight cleaner and am happy with the results.

[Cornerlot]

No pump failures with any vinegar mixes? I have had 2 parts washer pumps fail due to them being sensitive to certain cleaning solutions. Had one pump live 15 years on mineral spirits, then switched to another modern cleaner and the pump failed in a few months. Put in a new same pump but with the Harbor Freight water based cleaner and that pump failed in 18 months (runs but no flow).

Steve

[Dpmulvan]

For rust removal You want to tumble or media blast. You can build a tumbler for a few hundred bucks, but the media is pricey. Ultrasonic is good for carbs and other engine parts but doesn't remove rust very well. There's a lot of chemistry you can purchase to get great results but it's pricey. I havnt had spectacular results with my ultrasonic home brews. A solvent based parts cleaner and a blast cabinet will get the job done well if you have a decent cfm compressor. I just picked up one of those $100 steam cleaners and that seems to work very well at cleaning a variety of items, going to try it on a 915 caked with grime.

[Tremelune]

Hm. Adding vinegar to an ultrasonic cleaner will help with rust, but only because soaking rusty parts in vinegar will eventually remove it all. In my experience, the rust removal rate of vinegar does not increase when added to an ultrasonic cleaner, and you still wind up with a layer of black oxide to get rid of. Maybe I'm doing it wrong?

[Rawknees'Turbo]

Originally Posted by timmy2

Tip of the year for me.
Never thought to add an acid to my ultrasonic for rusty parts.
Even though I have used rust removers that I new were acid based.

Thanks.

No problem, Dennis. I also wanted to mention that the vinegar mix really helps with removal of coked oil - breaks it right up.

Originally Posted by Cornerlot

No pump failures with any vinegar mixes?

No pump in an ultrasonic cleaner.

Originally Posted by Tremelune

Hm. Adding vinegar to an ultrasonic cleaner will help with rust, but only because soaking rusty parts in vinegar will eventually remove it all. In my experience, the rust removal rate of vinegar does not increase when added to an ultrasonic cleaner, and you still wind up with a layer of black oxide to get rid of. Maybe I'm doing it wrong?

No black oxide on the parts when removed from the ultrasonic cleaner with water, Mean Green (similar to Simple Green), and vinegar mix - the parts come out looking like raw, sandblasted metal. There is no comparison to the speed and overall results of just soaking the parts in vinegar - much quicker and more complete rust removal in the ultrasonic.

Originally Posted by Dpmulvan

Ultrasonic is good for carbs and other engine parts but doesn't remove rust very well.

In my experience, an ultrasonic does an excellent job of removing rust.

[djb25]

Originally Posted by Rawknees'Turbo

If you mix a little vinegar in with your water & soap solution (say about 1/2 cup per quart - more or less as needed, depending on amount of rust and how long you are willing to run the machine), an ultrasonic washer removes all rust with no trouble at all. I've done that for years on heavily rusted nuts, bolts, washers, steel brackets, etc., and the parts come out looking like new. To prevent instant flash rusting, you just spray them off with brake cleaner when removed, and then treat them with a corrosion preventative like Corrosion X (if it is something that's not getting painted).

Wow. I use my ultrasonic cleaner all the time and never heard of this vinegar trick. I'm definitely trying this.

What do you use for soap?

[timmy2]

He said he uses mean green in his last post

[gtc]

One trick to keeping your ultrasonic cleaner's tank clean is to put your parts and cleaning solution in another container (I use those cheap Glad storage containers) and then fill in the tank with water. This works well for an initial cleaning on really greasy parts.

[hcoles]

We used Evapo-Rust and it definitely worked - rust removed and base metal not affected.
I wonder if Evapo-Rust could be put in the ultrasonic cleaner for faster results. There are a number of other places to buy the chemical (or similar) used in Evapo-Rust. The chemical process is called chelation. You can buy the stuff and add your own water. It does take awhile to get the rust off.

[djb25]

I put an old rusty piece of steel in the ultrasonic last night. I used water, dawn dish soap and a cup of "cleaning" vinegar I stole from my wife.

It worked amazingly well. I can't believe I never knew about this. I heard of using vinegar to remove rust, but never thought to use it in the ultrasonic cleaner. Absolutely amazing.

[Tremelune]

For how long? Room temp solution? What machine?

Maybe mine is just crappy, but it does real well on grease:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LR645M/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[djb25]

I have a hornady ultrasonic. I use it to clean brass occasionally, but it lives in the garage. It's the bigger stainless steel one, I'm not sure if they still sell it. It looks like the ones they sell on eBay from china. I think it is maybe 2l or so?

It's heated. It usually runs around 140 degrees. I think I ran the steel for two 90 minute cycles.

Edit:

This is what I have: http://www.cabelas.ca/product/42403/hornady-lock-n-load-magnum-sonic-cleaner

Hornady must have stopped selling it. The website says 3.2 qts, so it's probably three liters.

[djb25]

Here's a photo of the piece of scrap steel I put in the ultrasonic cleaner with the vinegar solution.

I stood the piece up in the basket, so only the end with the tubing was submerged. The whole piece was as rusty as the top.