Ultrasonic cleaning

[Koukalaka]

At Popguns the other day, I saw that they offer ultrasonic cleaning of handguns. Anyone tried this? If this involves the entire firearm sitting in a bath of solvent, I'd be a little nervous about excess liquid staying inside and gumming up the action.

If it does work...has anyone tried it at home? My grandpa used to have an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner...I wonder if one were to fill the thing up with Rem Oil and drop in a handgun....

 

[Kimbertrace]

It works, I took a handgun to a fellow ingo'er and used it to removed durakoat.

 

[Clay]

My parents are veterinarians, and have a good ultrasonic cleaner they use for their instruments. Many a gun part have made it into the cleaner with no problems. Now, the stuff they use isn't caustic/corrosive and doesn't strip paint, but all the dirt comes off very nicely.

 

[XMil]

I'll have to try this. I bought the Mrs. an ultrasonic cleaner for xmas. FWIW, it works very well with just water.

 

[Joe Williams]

You shouldn't have anything left behind to gum up your gun. In fact, not only should it come out clean as a whistle, but also bone dry (as far oils go). The solvent will evaporate. Everything will need a good oiling to protect it and ensure proper function.

 

[mercop]

We had one for our department. Not for me. I will clean my gun the old fashioned way.

 

[BE Mike]

I've cleaned a few items with ultrasonic cleaners and with parts washers. The ultrasonic cleaners work very well, especially with things like rifle bolts which have a lot of hard-to-reach nooks and crannies. The only drawback I've found is that a lot of the solvents used are hygroscopic, so the guns and/or parts must be lubricated very well after they are dried or you will have trouble with rust.

 

[Chance]

Be careful!

Do not use any flammable solvents in an ultrasonic cleaner. The ultrasonic action generates heat, not good! I usually just use hot water and a few drops of dish soap and get great results. I have a Branson Ultrasonics unit and what goes in comes out squeaky clean!

 

[GregD]

This is something that I have been wanting to try, I think it would be great for rifle bolts and trigger groups. Harbor Freight has to models, both under $60.

 

[IndyGunworks]

interesting to see a gunstore doing this..... how much was pops charging?

 

[indybrad]

interesting to see a gunstore doing this..... how much was pops charging?

Probably too much

 

[gmiller]

My astronomy club had some filters that had some gunk on them. A guy put them in an ultrasonic cleaner and it stripped the paint right off, but didn't hurt the gunk a bit.

So I'm curious as to how these would do for a gun that isn't already reasonably clean before you put it in.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

We have an ultrasonic cleaner here at work. It's also a heated one...

We hardly ever use it for anything "official", though. Mostly, we put our eyeglasses in it and get all the gunk out from the nose pieces. HAH!

But, every once in a while, I've been known to bring in some gunky gun parts for cleaning. It generally works pretty well.

And when I pull the stuff out, I stick them in our drying oven that we use for regenerating silica gel desiccant.

Works like a charm!

-J-

 

[Chance]

Don't expect great results with a jewelry cleaner. Ultrasonics are great but a real unit is expensive. My cleaner retails at about $500. The Harbor Freight unit is not a high quility one.