Anyone Here Use An Ultrasonic Cleaner ??

[gmpullman]

I recently got back to some painting projects and I recalled some internet advice about using an ultrasonic cleaner to help loosen the jar lids on the small paint bottles.

This got me wondering about weather or not an ultrasonic cleaner is a worthwhile investment for my model railroad uses?

Someone gave me an old, heavy, Branson model with a heater. I tried using it for cleaning a few brass boilers and tenders prior to painting the engines a few months ago.

I honestly don't know if the cleaner did any good or not. I could see using one for several model railroad chores, cleaning air brush parts, gear boxes and presumably the aforementioned brass models prior to painting. Will they strip paint?

The paint jar lid loosening was not very effective. I tried the so-called "aluminum foil test" and ran the cleaner with a length of household foil in the tank for about a minute. Sure enough there were some pin-holes in the foil but they seemed to be concentrated in one area. Are they supposed to be scattered?

So, I wondered if anyone in the MR community uses an ultrasonic cleaner and is it a tool that you find useful? Maybe my Branson has seen better days and a newer model might be warranted.

Thanks and a tip 'O the hat...

Ed

[RR_Mel]

Hi Ed

 

 Bought a high end Ultrasonic Cleaner 15 years ago for work and used it frequently.  The purpose was to clean up portable two-way radios from the Fire Department that were dropped in contaminated water at a fire.  The contaminated water would destroy a radio if not cleaned thoroughly quickly.  The Ultrasonic Cleaner worked very good for that purpose.   

I cleaned many things over the years but using the recommended cleaning fluids it never touched paint.  It would do a bang up job on any electronic devise including motors and gears without disassembly. 

 

I’ve been pondering buying the cleaner from Harbor Freight for some time.  A high end cleaner is up there $$$$.

 

 

 

 

 

Mel

 

Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

[MikeFF]

I have a Branson that is probably 30 years old and works like a champ.  Whenever I have a model for cleaning my wife gets out all her jewelry and has at it.

 

[gmpullman]

Thanks for the replies, Gentlemen

Mike, I just opened my Branson to give it a casual inspection and found a QC inspection date of Dec. 28, 1977 stamped inside! Everything looked OK in there but when it is running it makes a pretty loud buzzing and I don't see any activity in the solution.

Mel, that's interesting about the radios. We have lost a few due to being dropped into tanks but no one ever tried to dry them out, we just thought they were scrap after that. We used several large Branson US cleaners at work, the tanks were probably 24" square. They scrapped them all, some were like new! Probably too big for model use... but what a waste.

They paid Chemtron to haul away a full 55 gal. drum of "Micro90" which is a special detergent for US cleaners. probably worth about $1800! But they had a cleanup campaign and got rid of anything they deemed unnecessary.

This is the model I'm thinking of getting:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J4468J0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_sfl_title_1&smid=AWW17F3I8GBX9

The Branson might still be OK but I figured after 38 years maybe it is time for a newer model.

Thanks again, Ed

[RR_Mel]

I was kicking around getting the one from Harbor Freight but the tank is an inch and a half shorter than I’d like.  The one your looking at is close the same size as the HF tank.  I would like a 11” or 12” long tank, the one I had at work had a 14” x 8” x 6” deep tank.  It paid for it’s self in less than two years.  The Fire Department radios cost $1200 back then and I’m pretty sure we saved well over three dozen portables with the cleaner between the mid 90s until I retired in 2007.  Before we got the cleaner we ended up scraping them when they got dunked, never lost one after the cleaner.

 

I think about getting a cleaner every time I open up a dirty locomotive.

 

 

Mel

 

Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951

 

My Model Railroad   

http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

 

Bakersfield, California

 

I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.