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Ultrasonic cleaners

MajesticPinball

Site Supporter
Joined
Jan 11, 2018
Messages
2,292
Location
Essex
Alias
James Reed
Evening all. Now that I finally have a workshop I can crack on and hopefully start to do better and better restorations. Hand polishing every single piece of every mech is hugely time consuming and something I'm looking to save some time with so I'm looking at adding a Ultrasonic cleaner to my stash of gizmos but have a few questions. How effective are they? Are they worth it? What can go in and what can't? Any recommendations? Would be cool to see some pictures of before/after cleaning some parts to get an idea of the sort of results to expect

James
 
They are defo worth having if you’re restoring a lot of games. They clean, not polish though. For instance. You’ve got a whole games worth of filthy black dusty coils. Stick em all in at once and bingo. Nice and clean. Gets in all the nooks you wouldn’t otherwise get to.
put a piece of tarnished metal in there. It will still be tarnished. I have a tumbler and an ultra sonic cleaner.
Of course you could just soak everything in the sink with soapy water and get similar results.
For me the advantage is it cleans in all the tiny gaps you can’t access otherwise.
 
I got the same cleaner Jim recommended. It’s really good. Although you won’t fit anything large in it
 
I have both an ultrasonic cleaner and a tumbler.
I use both for cleaning brass (do my own ammo)
The tumbler wins hands down in this department.
It polishes brass superbly. I use a walnut media with a drop of media polish when tumbling.
👍
 
Thanks everyone, will definately look into getting one then, will check out some videos and obsessively watch reviews for a week or so solid 😂 Anything to cut down on cleaning time is a huge bonus
 
I'm planning to start a full restoration of a Whirlwind shortly and so also looking to invest in an ultrasonic cleaner. What I can't yet decide is what size to go for. The smaller ones are quite reasonably priced but it gets expensive once you start looking at the larger ones. What size would people suggest is most useful for pinball parts?
 
I'm impressed with the results I've seen using Evaporust in a sealed soil stack pipe to remove rust and general crud. Seems to be long-term reusable too. Some restorers report moving to Evaporust from a tumbler not sure if it overlaps with u/sonic cleaner too. It has a cult - https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/cult-of-evaporust
 
It certainly looks like magic stuff reading that Pinside thread. So now we need a tumbler, ultrasonic cleaner AND a tub of Evaporust :)
 
People that have an ultrasonic cleaner, what size did you all go for? Can't seem to find anywhere that has a 6L in stock and it seems like they're getting quite pricey at that size. Would anyone recommend 3L or is that too small for general mechs?
 
I think we've both been doing the same research :D

Loads of sellers on ebay advertising 2/3/6 litre versions but nobody has any 6l available, and when you go above 3l the prices seem to jump up significantly too.
If you read on Pinside they'll tell you anything less than 22L is not worth having, but as a first-timer in the world of Ultrasonics I decided to go for the 3L version and see how I get on with that. What is interesting is that most sellers had it advertised for the same price of £82.99, now I've bought it they've ALL gone up to £86.99. Definitely something weird going on there, perhaps they are all the same seller under different accounts.
 
I think we've both been doing the same research :D

Loads of sellers on ebay advertising 2/3/6 litre versions but nobody has any 6l available, and when you go above 3l the prices seem to jump up significantly too.
If you read on Pinside they'll tell you anything less than 22L is not worth having, but as a first-timer in the world of Ultrasonics I decided to go for the 3L version and see how I get on with that. What is interesting is that most sellers had it advertised for the same price of £82.99, now I've bought it they've ALL gone up to £86.99. Definitely something weird going on there, perhaps they are all the same seller under different accounts.
I did find it odd that all sellers are using the same pictures and somehow all the same sizes are out of stock, there's no way I can afford a 22L one so I was going to push the boat out to a 6L but now I'm starting to think 3L is going to be my only option at the moment. Seems they're all listed with make an offer so I'll just offer what you paid 😂
 
Did you order one? Mine arrived today, I ordered last Thursday from an ebay seller called fushophere, and it arrived this morning.
It only fits 2 litres of fluid so I'm not sure quite what definition of Litres they are working to, but it seems decent enough:

JkL4G50VpmTS32BPNsgPN-Ft5fATD2KTnmaLSdyfQL2ojzLh-mEX3dqjqbl9bvV9guwYoYKDceEt9Uf4Ln6rOocFp4EPbp0s1M1d3AmQy-fbSHaYkWmFXtV4rBl3tVQANXh1v7PhPiQ=w2400


Obviously now I'm just going round the house finding anything and everything that can possibly be cleaned! Need to work out the best cleaning fluid to use, at the moment a squirt of washing up liquid in water seems to work on a lot of things but I'm sure there must be something that works even better.
 
Did you order one? Mine arrived today, I ordered last Thursday from an ebay seller called fushophere, and it arrived this morning.
It only fits 2 litres of fluid so I'm not sure quite what definition of Litres they are working to, but it seems decent enough:

JkL4G50VpmTS32BPNsgPN-Ft5fATD2KTnmaLSdyfQL2ojzLh-mEX3dqjqbl9bvV9guwYoYKDceEt9Uf4Ln6rOocFp4EPbp0s1M1d3AmQy-fbSHaYkWmFXtV4rBl3tVQANXh1v7PhPiQ=w2400


Obviously now I'm just going round the house finding anything and everything that can possibly be cleaned! Need to work out the best cleaning fluid to use, at the moment a squirt of washing up liquid in water seems to work on a lot of things but I'm sure there must be something that works even better.
No not yet, seller is ignoring my offer... Will buy from the same person you did, would be interesting to see some before/afters of the random things you've been cleaning
 
Did you order one? Mine arrived today, I ordered last Thursday from an ebay seller called fushophere, and it arrived this morning.
It only fits 2 litres of fluid so I'm not sure quite what definition of Litres they are working to, but it seems decent enough:

JkL4G50VpmTS32BPNsgPN-Ft5fATD2KTnmaLSdyfQL2ojzLh-mEX3dqjqbl9bvV9guwYoYKDceEt9Uf4Ln6rOocFp4EPbp0s1M1d3AmQy-fbSHaYkWmFXtV4rBl3tVQANXh1v7PhPiQ=w2400


Obviously now I'm just going round the house finding anything and everything that can possibly be cleaned! Need to work out the best cleaning fluid to use, at the moment a squirt of washing up liquid in water seems to work on a lot of things but I'm sure there must be something that works even better.

I got the 2L one thinking a 2L bottle of pop is a decent size. Then when it arrived I thought that’s smaller than I pictured so be for I complained I tried it out and it does hold dead on 2L. Surprising what u can fit in it. Funnily enough I have it on at the mo cleaning air brushes
 
Mine arrived today and must say so far I'm not gagged by the results. Tried a few pinball parts (metal and plastic) 2p coins, tea stained spoons etc. Ran them all for 6 minutes 3 times at 60° in water with dish soap and degreaser added and must say I had no noticeable results. There's also now a strange tarnished spot at the bottom of the bath. Am I doing something wrong or could there be a problem with the unit?
 

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I use them to clean water damaged mobile phone PCBs - I leave those in for 60 mins. The heat should be up high too for the maximum effect.
 
Yes similar - my thought was it's down to the cleaning solution of which I'm still on the washing up liquid. I've found that small wiring looms seem to come up nicely, but has limited or no effect on other parts.
 
Yes similar - my thought was it's down to the cleaning solution of which I'm still on the washing up liquid. I've found that small wiring looms seem to come up nicely, but has limited or no effect on other parts.

Washing up liquid will only do so much get some road traffic film remover I use that on all pin stuff now great stuff
 
I find the ultrasonic great for cleaning almost all pin parts and particularly pcbs.
This is the ultrasonic bath I bought. No longer available from this seller, but you might find it elsewhere:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0187427KQ/ref=pe_3187911_189395841_TE_dp_1

It has a wider, shallower tank than many of the other 6 litre units - Tank Size: 30x15x15cm(LxWxH)

For cleaning boards I normally remove any relays or switches and remove any socketed devices. I fill the ultrasonic tank with about 100ml of this degreaser
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Concentr...094447?hash=item2343f6aaef:g:DnAAAOSwmhJZt-1H
and 6 litres of warm water (50C). Set the heater to 50C, the ultrasonic to about 50% and run for about 5 minutes. Turn the board over if only half will fit in the tank and repeat. You will lose any paper serial number labels on the boards. I find that degreaser a lot more effective and easier to wash off than washing up liquid which a lot of folks recommend.

I wash the board thoroughly then with warm tapwater and a brush, shake off the excess and then dry the board thoroughly with a compressed air jet and leave for a hour or two somewhere warm before refitting any removed parts and testing.

Don't put any gas plasma displays in the ultrasonic or they will die! Also avoid any screen printed parts such as pop bumber plastics or drop targets. It’s great for small plastics like the retaining nuts/rubbers for the playfield plastics. If you start with the cleaner parts and work towards the dirtier ones you can put a lot of parts through before renewing the tank fill.

I'll post a couple of before and after pcb photos as soon as I can find them.
 
Below is a quote from pinside which is good advice, especially for the burn you have at the bottom of the tank

highly recommend glass jars/corning, to hold small parts for cleaning, separate cleaning solutions based on parts and needs. That way, a tank with water can clean several different separate types.
Keeping pieces off the bottom prevent burn, and clean better.
Small particles of metal, or other, can scratch polished surfaces, so depending on the work, changing solution when needed is important.
 
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