Ultrasonic Cleaners: which one?

[John Wayne]

Hornady has a new ultrasonic cleaner out targeted at reloaders looking to clean the insides of cases. It appears to be nothing more than a slightly higher priced version of generic US cleaners sold on eBay, but it did get me thinking about the merits of US cleaning.

I'm interested in an ultrasonic cleaner, primarily for cleaning handgun parts (I have a tumbler for brass).

What results can I expect from the $39 and $79 Harbor Freight models? (http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?keyword=ultrasonic)

I would love to be able to drop handgun barrels, revolver cylinders, etc. in the tank and have them cleaned without scrubbing or breathing solvent vapors. I cannot, however, afford a $500 lab-grade contraption.

Will either of these US cleaners mentioned above do a decent job (i.e., I don't have to go back and clean the parts by hand afterwards) for cleaning gun parts, and/or a few casings?

EDIT:

OK, maybe a better question would be: for those of you that have an ultrasonic cleaner under $100, how well does it work? What features are absolutely necessary, and how cheap can I go?

 

[renegade1alpha]

Personally I am a little scared to use anything like that on any of my guns. I just stick with good old fashioned elbow grease to clean my guns. Besides, I kinda enjoy watching tv, drinking a cup of coffee while cleaning my guns.

 

[John Wayne]

Many professional gunsmiths use ultrasonic cleaners to save time. They are also used to clean jewelry, CDs, and sunglasses. I'm not concerned with it hurting the finish on my guns.

I enjoyed cleaning guns when I wasn't busy, didn't shoot often, and only had one that needed cleaning at a time. Now that none of those apply, I would like an easier option. A Ruger Mark II after several bricks of ammo is not a fun gun to clean.

Cleaning for hours gets old fast. Breathing brake cleaner vapor isn't fun either. Ultrasonic cleaning has several advantages, but I don't want to waste my money on a cheap unit if I'm going to have to manually clean parts in addition to the US cleaning.

 

[kingmt]

A coffee can on the washing machine does a great job & is about as cheap as you can go.

 

[Al Thompson]

JW, I have used a high dollar ultra-sonic. It worked well, but if you had serious fouling, you still had to brush it off. On revolvers, you still had to take the side plate off to let the dirt escape.

HTH

 

[marktx]

I bought the $79 ( $63 after coupon ) ultrasonic cleaner at Harbor Freight and it works great. Have really only used it on AR and HK bolts that hadn't been cleaned for a very long time with lots of black gunk built up on them. The whole AR bolt/carrier will fit in the thing, comes out very nice and clean. The HK91 bolt/carrier is a little too long to fit in at once but if still works just fine. You just gotta be sure to get the water out of the bolt and oil it up afterword which really just means spraying it down good with some WD-40.

Get yourself a 20% off coupon for Harbor Freight, they can be found in the backs of some gun magazines and a lot of car magazines.

Make sure you get a thing of the cleaning media when you get the machine.

 

[johnds]

I came into possession of a hand me down ultrasonic unit from my friendly dentist. Nice unit but the manual timer was broke and he had to use the plug to turn it on and off. No problem for me. It does a great job cleaning brass in a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and water. I was disappointed to find out that I had to use a aqueous, water based, fluid as a cleaner or the ultra sonic part of the cleaning does not work. You just can't fill the unit with a high quality gun cleaning fluid and expect it to work. I bought a gallon of Brownells ultrasonic cleaner but only used it once. I felt really nervous about field stripping my 1911 and dropping it in water to get cleaned. I did an OK job of cleaning but I spend a while getting things oiled up so I did not have to worry about rust. That was the last time I dunked a gun. I now have the cleaned brass in town now though. If you clean brass just make sure you de-prime it first so the pockets will get clean as well.

Johnds