Ultrasonic bath fluid?

[Milkmaster]

Today I brought home an old ultrasonic cleaning bath no longer being used at work. It has the vibration control and a heat control on it. Both functions work. It will hold about a half gallon of fluid. I thought I might use it to clean shotgun trigger groups, chokes, gas system parts etc.

So what would be a good fluid to use in it? I can use regular old "safety clean" fluid from our regular parts cleaner, but that stuff has been so robbed of its good components that it barely cleans greasy stuff at work. I am not too keen on the idea of using the heat function too agressively with flammable fluids. Any of you have experience with such ultrasonic baths and found a fluid that is both successsful and safe?

 

[dfariswheel]

There's two ways to go: Solvent based or water based.
Water based can be as simple as a kitchen liquid cleaner to more aggressive cleaners like Simply Green or Greased Lightning.

WARNING: Many of the aggressive soap cleaners can and WILL attack and seriously damage aluminum and some gun finishes.
Read the label and test it carefully before using it on a gun. Any solution that will attack something will do it faster in an ultrasonic cleaner.
Soap cleaners require a water rinse and drying to prevent rust.
It's usually not necessary to rinse using the ultrasonic, a plunge and shake in a sink of hot water will do.
You can dry by using a hair dryer which doesn't get too hot like a heat gun does.
You must use a good lubricant to coat all surfaces after using a water based cleaner.
I used to use an airbrush to spray in a mist of CLP Breakfree, which spreads to cover everything.

Most solvent type cleaners are at least nominally flammable. One that works well and isn't overly flammable is cheap paint thinner.
Just pay attention and keep an eye on it while using it.

One excellent cleaner is Cylinder & Slide Shop's "Dunk-Kit". This is a bucket of a cleaner solvent mixed with a lubricant.
You can use it as a dip for the gun, or use it in an ultrasonic unit.
This cleans the gun and leaves a coat of lubricant on all surfaces.

Whatever you use, you'll still have to manually clean the bore and chambers to remove copper and lkead fouling.
Also note that whatever you use will quickly or eventually remove any painted markings or sight highlights.

 

[gennro]

I use just plain ol simple green and water in my ultrasonic cleaner, but I use it mainly for greasy engine parts.

 

[Virginian]

Varsol. Non corrosive and really works great, but watch the temperature.

 

[303 hunter]

Greased lightning is a great cleaner/de-greaser, but it discolors aluminum and brass. Harbor Freight tools sells a powder ultrasonic cleaner that mixes with water. It's cheap,and works well. I use it to clean brass quite a bit. It even cleans the primer pockets.

 

[AABEN]

I use Lyman case cleaner for my ultra turbo cleaner 16 OZ 9.49 will make about 6 cleaning that is about 1000 round per mix so 6000 rd. It takes about 5 min per cleaning if rill bad 8min and no noise.