Ultrasonic Aluminum Test - With Photo's

[marinakorp]

Originally Posted by billt

The frosting is actually caused by microscopic cavitation by the Ultrasonic cleaning action itself. This type of cavitation can, and does pit the Aluminum because it is a very soft material, and not very dense. This type of erosion also takes place on Aluminum propellers on outboard motors. I've also seen it inside water pump housings on automotive water pumps. This type of action does not occur with heavier, more dense metals like brass, steel, and the like. I put this thread here because this type of cleaning is gaining in popularity among handgun shooters. Feel free to move it if you feel it would be better served elsewhere. Bill T.

When they would test to see if an ultrasonic was working well in the dentists office, they would place a piece of aluminum foil in the batch and turn it on... if the holes appeared in the aluminum...it was still working well

[wboggs]

Originally Posted by billt

This is the unit I purchased. It's not an expensive one, ($80.00), but works well and also heats the water. The unit has no ill effect on steel or brass. It cleans the inside of cartridge brass so well after polishing in ground corn cob you can't tell it from new.

Bill, I like what I see you saying about cleaning brass; tumbling alone just doesn't clean the insides very well. So do you do the ultrasonic cleaning before you tumble them? And does the brass come out clean inside after the ultrasonic or does the tumbler finish cleaning the insides? I imagine then it cleans out primer pockets real nice too. Do you add anything to the water to clean brass? What is the make and model of your unit and/or where did you get it?

Oh and how long does it take to clean brass?

[billt]

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=95563

This is the unit I purchased. If you have a Harbor Freight Store in your area, be sure to print out and take the on line ad with the price because they are marked $99.99 on the shelf. I brought the ad in and got it for $79.99. It will clean brass very good, but the unit isn't big enough to clean large amounts. The plastic tray they give you doesn't have very high walls, and you shouldn't let the objects you are cleaning touch the sides of the unit. You can find plastic strainers at Wal-Mart that work good and will allow you to put more cases in. If you deprime and resize first, the cleaner will clean both the inside and the outside, as well as the inside of the primer pockets. They will be clean, but not shiny. After you tumble afterward they will really shine up nice. You can see how clean they get the inside after about 10 minutes by shining a flashlight in the inside of the case. The bottom by the flash hole has a nice brass color to it, not black and sooty. I just added some Palmolive Dish Soap and turned the heat on. After 2, 8 minute cycles they were pretty clean. Harbor Freight also sells an Ultrasonic Cleaning Powder. It's on the shelf next to the cleaners. I bought some and put a little in. I haven't tried it without it, so I can't really say how good the powder itself works. So far it's worked well. It's not an industrial quality unit, but it wasn't very expensive either. Bill T.

[wboggs]

Thanks Bill, that sounds good.

[netw0rkpenguin]

The solution you place the material to be cleaned is water or some kind of special oil?

I have XDs glocks and ARs and I'd be afraid to put in a polymer frame, and this test shows its bad for aluminum too... Not to mention putting any fire arm into a water bath seems like a bad idea.

[billt]

The solution I used to perform the test was filtered tap water with some Palmolive dish washing liquid mixed in. There is a company called Cylinder & Slide that manufactures a product called "Poly Dunk It". It allows you to completely submerge a Polymer handgun in it to clean it, (no ultrasound). They have a formula for both metal and Polymer guns. The only problem I see is you would need compressed air to blow it all out, or else you would have a dripping mess on your hands. I'll see if I can find a link and post it for you.

https://shop.cylinder-slide.com/ccp5...?&pg=cat&ref=4

This is the product I was refering to. Bill T.

[netw0rkpenguin]

Thank you, that'd be good. Compressed air isn't a problem, I have a tiny 1HP, 1 gallon compressor that should do the job.