Ultrasonic cleaners

[ScubaSigGuy]

Has anyone used an ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning their firearms and or parts? I have used them in the past with great success on other types of parts. If you have used one for this application and have feedback I would love to hear it. Thanks.

[mr surveyor]

I still have an ultra-sonic cleaner in the drawer of an old drafting table. I haven't cleaned drafting pins since doing touch up on a pre-autocad map in the mid 90's. Actually, the last time I used it was an attempt to clean up some parts of a couple of Abu Garcia reels and other reels, of which some of the parts were nylon gears. They cleaned up quite well. I would think gun parts, even older parts with old hardened laquer would be better off soaked in a solvent though. My u-s cleaner only holds a few ounces of liquid so it is not made for very large parts.

[G.C.Montgomery]

Hasaanyone used an ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning their firearms and or parts? I have used them in the past with great success on other types of parts. If you have used one for this application and have feedback I would love to hear it. Thanks.

Actually, Top Gun has had one for a couple months. It works well for most customers' guns. For hard use guns however, there is still no substitute for the proper application of a "toothbrush and elbow grease." In either case, the cleaning process is considerably easier using the ultrasonic cleaner.

[mr surveyor]

how large are these u-s cleaners, and do they safely use flammable solvents? Sounds like something ideal to de-gunk cosmoline from old SKS or AK's actions.

[HankB]

Most sonic cleaners are pretty small, or pretty expensive.

A chemist friend of mine used to bring handguns in to work ( ) and after removing the grips, dunk them in a BIG sonic bath he had in the lab.

He usually had a big jar he'd filled with some solvent cocktail (he used words like "azeotrope") and then set the jar in the water-filled sonic bath - the sound waves were conducted through the water, the glass, and into the solvent, and he was able to clean things up without gunking up the bath.

Worked well for removing gunky schmutz from the pistol's nooks and crannies, but had no effect on leading or copper fouling in the barrel.

As an aside, he had an old mechanical pocket watch he used to clean the same way every year or two, but he'd add a few drops of some type of instument oil to the bath. Once the solvent evaporated, the parts had a miniscule coat of oil, which he proclaimed was "just right" to keep the watch running.

[KBCraig]

I wouldn't use Ed's Red or any other acetone-based schtuff in an ultrasonic, because the acetone has a low vapor point. I can just see an acetone fog rising off the cleaning unit, hunting around for a source of ignition...

[pbandjelly]

Ah, the glories of U/S.
it makes pictures of your babies.
It breaks up your kidney stones.
It tells of incoming icebergs.

and now, it cleans yer gunses, too!

never saw an x-ray tube do that!