Ultrasonic Cleaner: What size and solution?

[masterchiefmurph]

I’m rebuilding my autocockers and there’s more gunk then I have time to clean off some of the smaller parts. The biggest part I would clean is a full body so I need to know the smallest size I can get away with where they could fit in an ultrasonic cleaner. (disassembled)

Following that up, what solution and size do you use?


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[Frmrspec]

Careful.. ultrasonic cleaners don’t play well with anodizing even when using a detergent that is safe for aluminum. But if you break down the marker even a small one intended for jewelry will work just fine..


if it’s really nasty what I usually do is air up the marker and hose it off with hot water.. at absolute most you could grab an old tooth brush to break up the nasty stuff.

[BrickHaus]

I'm not sure I believe it, but my buddy said you should be wary of putting aluminum in the ultrasonic cleaner. It can apparently pit it.

I have the smallest US cleaner you can get, so I really cant attempt to put a full body in mine to verify, but I just toss steel parts like hammers and sears in mine.

For solution, I always have good luck with diluted simple green.

[Frmrspec]

I destroyed my gravel bike cassette by putting it in my ultrasonic cleaner too long.. also on Facebook a guy messed up the ano on his toxic matrix from putting it in an ultrasonic cleaner.

[jetenginekyle]

If you use simple green dont let it soak for extended periods of time, its slow but will affect the ano too.

[Trbo323]

This is the first I've heard of possibly damaging aluminum. I don't own one just I've always heard they work fine

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[XEMON]

Same here ... I've seen another shop use them to clean pre and post ano ...

[Bulldogr6]

From what I've read and understood cast aluminum is the most susceptible to damage if left in an ultrasonic cleaner way too long. Not 100% certain on all types of anodization and how they will react. Ultrasonic cleaners are used extensively in the firearms industry mostly hard anodizing not the pretty stuff like on paintball guns. As long as you use reasonable times and don't use a highly caustic concentrated solution I think you'd be safe. I know a lot of people use simple green but it's not my choice. I use a mild solution of Pine-Sol & water. With the ultrasonic heat is your friend you don't really need a strong solution. No matter what make sure you rinse the hell out of them to get all the solution out of the nooks and crannies. I empty the ultrasonic and fill it with straight water and zap them for another couple minutes.

If I was going to put any of my nice cocker bodies and I would just use water and a splash of dish soap.
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[XEMON]

The variation in composition of cast aluminum is huge, i can see some having excess zinc or manganese pitting if left in caustic for extended period of time.
Note that cast aluminum cannot be anodized, teh only paintball guns coming to mind using cast aluminum are the Tippmann series (powder coated) and some internal valves to lower grade guns (talon/er/...)

[Ratzo]

I know that the WD40 degreaser will strip anno. I was rebuilding a couple old field rental BT Omegas, and stripped the anno off the safeties in my ultrasonic cleaner.
I have a pair of 2.5 liter units from Princess Auto/Harbor Freight.

[Siress]

I can really only aid with cautions based on knowledge of the corrosion reactions, which can be summed up as: Keep the pH at 6±1. The potential in your case is approximately zero, so just make sure your pH is 6±1 where the oxide layer passivates the part in aqueous solution...more on this in a minute). Simple Green has a pH of ~9±0.5 which will eventually corrode the aluminum oxide and the aluminum itself.

For more info, try this random google result for 'aluminum pourbaix diagram'

Now, even in the passivization region you can run into problems if the ultrasonic cleaner is breaking down the oxide layer. For example, if it's exposing the pits of dye that have been ever so slightly oxidized over then you'll get what looks like pitting corrosion.


My general routine for metals is to sonicate with a detergent, rinse, sonicate with degreaser (aviation grade simple green), rinse, then a long (~30min) run in 99% IPA (I do this inside of a plastic bag as the flammable fumes would be dangerous) followed by blow drying with lab-grade clean air to prevent spotting. Shop air usually has iron oxide particles in it, but that probably isn't a big deal for paintball parts.

[Jordan]

Thank goodness Siress cleared that up for everyone.

[Tarsun2]

i have a harborfreight unit and a laboratory grade full size unit i got from work. (if anyone is near NEPA and wants it, its yours).

once, i tried cleaning the ceramic briquettes from the grill in the US cleaner. it turned them into mush. lesson learned.