Recommend Ultrasonic Cleaner Solution

[SlugLife]

...less than one glub. :-D

Seriously, for 3L a couple of oz of liquid soap and 1oz of glycol should be enough.

But if you would like to experiment and post your findings that would also be good thing. ;-)

Will glob away .... but not too much.

I have too many projects at the moment, but if I do figure anything out, I'll report back.

For the greasy automotive parts, I originally got mine to clean carburetors, 6L size.
I was cleaning motorcycle chain a few weeks back. Non O-ring style. Put the chain in a gallon can of WD40. Set the gallon can in the cleaner. Filled the cleaner with water to the normal level. The gallon jug of WD40 was in a water bath. Neat part about the sound waves is they go right through the thin walls of the gallon jug. With it running you could see the WD40 rolling about as it cleaned the chain. After a 30 minute wash it was the cleanest I had seen that chain in nearly 10 years of use and prior cleanings.

Thought I found a new way of doing it. Later found out others had been doing something almost the same. Part in a zip lock bag with solution of choice. Zip lock bag in the water bath of the cleaner.

The good part about doing it this way is you don't get the ultrasonic cleaner dirtied up or contaminated with different chemicals. The extra wall the sound waves have to go through takes away a little power. But when starting with something really nasty, it doesn't really matter. Even if just using it as a pre-cleaner for messy parts it will keep the actual cleaner from getting too messy.

Nice, I like the inner-container idea.

Just yesterday I wanted to clean a 30oz tumbler (insulated cup), however when it's sideways, the vibrations weren't really getting in the cup. So I put the cup in upside-down, and used aquarium tubing to suck most of the air out of the cup. I seemed to work fairly well that way.

 

[broncobowsher]

The insulated cup has the disadvantage that the walls are insulated. That will absorb the sound waves and not transmit much (if any) energy through them. The metal container (fairly thin) appears to transmit sound through the walls fairly well. Even the zip lock bag appears to have a minor reduction in power transmitted through it. Not sure if it is real or imagined. Maybe it is just the cleaning solution gets a lot higher level of contamination since it is a small volume compared to not using a bag, giving the appearance there is some insulating from the bag?

 

[grf88]

I have found that plastic containers absorb some of the energy while glass containers seem to transmit it very well. You can do a simple test with aluminum foil to see how much perforation you get in a set time.

 

[broncobowsher]

I had not though about glass. I take it fairly thin walled glass? I might be doing some experimenting this afternoon.

 

[BoltSnap]

I had not though about glass. I take it fairly thin walled glass? I might be doing some experimenting this afternoon.

Glass measuring cups or beakers used in labs. Just make sure that you use a size appropriate for what you are going to put in it. The solution level in the beaker should be at the same level as the solution level line on the sonic.

 

[rsingler]

And make sure you're not resting your beaker on the bottom of the tank. It's not good for the transducers, I'm told. That's why the mesh baskets have little feet.
Best is if you can actually float your container in the bath.

 

[SlugLife]

The insulated cup has the disadvantage that the walls are insulated. That will absorb the sound waves and not transmit much (if any) energy through them. The metal container (fairly thin) appears to transmit sound through the walls fairly well. Even the zip lock bag appears to have a minor reduction in power transmitted through it. Not sure if it is real or imagined. Maybe it is just the cleaning solution gets a lot higher level of contamination since it is a small volume compared to not using a bag, giving the appearance there is some insulating from the bag?

The reason for the cup in the solution, was I was attempting to clean the tumbler. It had coffee residue in it, which wouldn't come off with intense scrubbing.

And make sure you're not resting your beaker on the bottom of the tank. It's not good for the transducers, I'm told. That's why the mesh baskets have little feet.
Best is if you can actually float your container in the bath.

I didn't think about floating it, but that makes sense. A glass jar I could seal would be a good option, and I have a number of those.