Sonic Cleaners-toss in pistol parts?

[gifbohane]

I bought a RCBS sonic cleaner. mostly to clean my small pistol parts well.

I am concerned about rust forming in some small holes and crevices from the water.

I have been blowing them out with a compressor but I am still not sure if it will harm the parts.

Oiling the crap out of them seems like it might make it all worse.

Any thoughts?

 

[Varminterror]

I clean brass in my basin, but only clean parts in a glass bowl submerged in the basin, to avoid chemical plating of residual brass onto the parts, also being sure to use a bluing safe, gun parts cleaning solution, never a brass cleaning solvent.

I clean with chemical, rinse and rerun with hot water a few minutes (hot water helps the part dry considerably faster and much more completely), dry with a towel briefly, then run in my brass dryer or hit with a heat gun (depending upon part size), before finally hitting with a foaming CLP product to recoat the part in protective oil.

For some parts, I will purge water by dipping in alcohol before drying mechanically or thermally, but more often than not, I simply don’t need to do so.

 

[gifbohane]

Varmint

Is this how you handle gun parts? And you do onto use a Sonic cleaner?

 

[Blue68f100]

Normally after cleaning parts I put the gun back together oiling as I go. You will get some light surface rust if you don't put some kind of protective coating on. Now some high Manganese steel resist rust very well.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I have a quart bottle of Hoppe #9 that is dedicated to cleaning from small gun parts up to clean whole frames. I put the Hoppes in a seperate container with the Hoppes in it. If I'm cleaning pistol barrels, I put them in a skinny pickle jar and fill it with Hoppes. Then set it in the water in my US cleaner.
Don't screw a lid on it if you using the heat.
I later discovered that the throw away aluminum foil cooking containers filled with Hoppes works really well. I will fill my ultrasonic up only high enough that I know it won't overflow into the hoppes. Then I will hold the aluminum foil container in the water and fill it with hoppes so it is sitting on bottom of the ultra sonic.

This works very well and blued parts come out looking better then they did when they were new. I give it time to heat the Hoppes up before putting the parts in it.
I don't have to worry about rust and if the Hoppes is good and hot when I take the parts out, they almost dry themselves.
Just don't do this in your house, I use my back patio so I don't smell up the house or the garage. In the winter I still use the garage.
The parts will be very clean when you take them out.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I haven't tried this in my 180 watt unit, only my Lyman 60 watt.
But next time I need to throw one of my pistols or revolver in wholesale, it will be in the 180 watt unit. I have two of these and one of the 60 Lyman ultrasonic cleaners.
When I bought this 180 watt unit, I ended up receiving two of them and the seller made me a deal I couldn't refuse to keep it instead of sending it back.
The basket that came with it sucks! Plain and simple, but the deep fryer basket on top is like it's made for this thing.
This is a 3 transducer unit. The basket on top is the deep fryer basket. This thing cost $10.00 more than what my Lyman single transducer costs and is three times more powerful.
I put this scrungy water valve in this thing for 10 minutes and it looked like new when I took it out.
valve dirty valve clean. This is with the solution I use to clean my brass. I think it will work very well for cleaning pistol and revolver parts with Hoppes in a seperate pan inside the basket.
Edit to add: This is a 6 Liter unit but you don't have to put 6 liters of water under the pan.

 

[IlikeSA]

I've used my sonic cleaner to clean parts, but make sure you completely disassemble and leave space between the parts, so they dont rub each other. For the parkerized ones, I have to heavily re-oil them. My cleaning solution is Dawn liquid soap and water. Never had issues with rusting, but I dry them quickly and live in a semi-arid climate.

 

[lordpaxman]

I recently have employed a Hornady magnum sonic cleaner for small parts and things like the Sig P320 FCU. I use Lucas Oil Bore Solvent and Ultrasonic Cleaner, it’s a CLP so they say rust isn’t an issue. I heat up a H2O hot pot with water, fill the basin, then use a freezer ziploc container with just enough CLP to cover and put the ziploc in the basket. The hot water helps warm things up, and the freezer ziploc keeps everything separate from the water. I reclaim the CLP and save it for the next time. So far this has worked well with small parts. I use compressed air on the FCU and re-oil with REM oil if I feel like it. If anyone knows where to get this Lucas oil in quantity I’d love to know. Good luck!

 

[rdnktrkr]

I use the Harbor Freight ultrasonic cleaners, I filled one with Eds red, I like to disassemble a pistol and put it in for a couple of cycles while I clean the barrel then I put the barrel in for a couple of more cycles, shake the excess back into UC, then wipe them down with a rag and reassemble, I put the bolts in from my rifles and clean the rest using Hoppes and wiping them down with the same rag I used earlier, if you keep the rag in a plastic container it will keep enough oil on it to use to wipe anything down. I was impressed when cleaning BCGs from ARs. I always remove wood grips before putting revolvers and 1911s into US.

I bought some beakers to put in the other cleaner so I can put smaller items in it and use different solutions, they are thinner glass and if you suspend them they have a good agitation

 

[dh1633pm]

I use mine to clean all sorts of parts. I have even used it with evaporust to clean rust. DON'T USE evaporust with blued parts unless you intend for the blue to be removed. Mostly I use dawn or a degreaser. Some items that I don't take fully apart for cleaning, when I am done, I sometimes put it in a container of alcohol to help get some of the water out, then blow dry with the compressor. Then lube as needed.