Ultrasonic Cleaners On Firearms

Does anyone use ultrasonic cleaners on their firearms and if you do what brand and types of additives? I recently saw a thread where the user posted his use of a ultrasonic cleaner that really looked like it got into places that are REALLY hard to get at if you even can. I spent 23 years in the military and am a stickler on field stripping and weapon cleaning. The ultrasonic cleaners I googled up are really inexpensive, maybe I am looking for a new toy!

I used the large one from Harbor Freight *gasp* to successfully clean my 2206. It went in whole without the grips into a hot water/Dawn solution. My lord, what a bunch of crud was left sitting underneath the plastic tray. It's a pity it's not big enough to hold the Automag frame.

I routinely use mine for small parts up to and including BCGs. It does a great job of removing fouling especially in the hard to reach areas. The trick is to ensure you throughly dry each part following every ultrasonic treatment followed of course by a lite lube. Been doing this since I was a young troop with no issues...

Post script: I’ve had great success using Distilled water and a little Dawn...

I have one and use it for other things but not guns. Don't do aluminum or anodizing in one. I'm not sure how you would get under the side plate of a revolver to get rid of all moisture or how you could be certain to get the internals of a slide assembly dry in a pistol. Maybe someone who does this could help on that subject. By the way, make sure you get one with adequate cleaning and heating watts. I haven't looked a prices lately but last time I checked, something decent was going to be around $200. maybe they have come down since then. I'm on my third one and it is probably four years old.

I have one and have done my revolvers and semi autos without any issue. I have found I can clean my guns ( from 1 range trip) just as quickly by hand unless I get a really dirty one. So new acquisitions that are obvious shooters get dunked immediately. The results are fantastic. Small parts to rifles like the BCG are worth using it for as well.


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All about the liquids

I have a large 5 gallon medical industry heated ultrasound. Found on Ebay.

Usually filled with a water-based solution mfg. for general ultrasonic use. Lots to choose from.

I suspend much smaller containers with more vigorous chemicals in the water solution.

Ed's Red is a favorite....but be careful of any flammable liquid. Always keep the smaller container covered to reduce surface misting/evaporation of the liquid and the attendant fire risk.

Every used revolver has its grips and sideplate removed and gets a good ultrasonic cleaning for an hour or so, and then soaks in the liquid for a few days after turning off the power to the machine.

Keep covered!

Great first step with a new-to-me revolver.

Will it clean extractor channel and firing pin channel without disassembly? Will leave moisture in them and cost rust issues?

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If Q above is directed at me, I have no semiautos.

And, Ed's Red has no water....all oil derivatives. ATF, odorless kerosene, acetone, etc. Google is your friend.

Just be careful of what you use for a cleaning solution. A friend of mine put one of his model 41 mags in one and used Hornady one shot case cleaner and it stripped the bluing off it.

I like dropping slides into my HF ultrasonic.
Also use a synthetic oil bath instead of water...
then lay it out on a cloth to air-dry.

Mine sees more motorcycle parts than gun stuff tho
Hence the oil bath...

Do I need to completely disassemble the slide from my 659 before putting it in an ultrasonic cleaner? If it helps, I have a Harbor Freight cleaner and I would be using Hornady One Shot cleaning solution. No idea if that matters.

One of my favorite pistols in a result of my gunsmith "doing me a favor" and throwing a newly acquired but filthy Model 39-2 into his ultrasonic cleaner. He was prepared to buy me another pistol to replace the one he thought he had ruined, I took the opportunity to upgrade all the springs and turn it into a fine shooter.



After this experience I subsequently bought a battered up ex-PD 6904 and had him perform the same service (except not by accident!), in this case we reblued the slide as well.



They make for a cool looking pair of shooters and conversation pieces at the range.



The lesson learned here is a word of caution to be careful what you put in there, and at the same time you can have some fun with it.

I have a gun cleaning service and use one. My solution is water with Simple Green. Heat it up to 140F and run parts for about 15 minutes. Works great on trigger assembly's out of shotguns. Cleaned an original 1873 the other day that I believe had never been cleaned. Threw all the internals in the bath and 15 minutes later, they looked great.

/\ Nice example of lemonade from lemons.

I use compressed air to blow out moisture post ultrasonic cleaning, as my choice is always water based solutions. Some of the petroleum brews give me the willies in an electric device. I have not noticed any rust issues, but I am also a data point of one.

I have used the ultrasonic cleaner for some pistols and parts. It works well but......... some of the earlier models S/A the M41, M52, M39, M59, etc have “blind holes” with springs and plungers. The M41 has a blind hole that holds the extractor spring and plunger, the 39, 59 series have blind holes that hold the spring plunger for the safety and the 52 has an additional blind hole in the slide for the bushing lock. Any pistol with blind holes will hold moisture And debris After ultrasonic cleaning and it cannot be removed unless You remove the spring/plunger assembly. So, yes ultrasonic cleaning can be used but be careful.

I bought the Hornady cleaner when they first hit the market, so I have been using it for years. the model that I have isn't even available any more, but is still works. I clean every gun part that will fit in the cleaner with it, frames and slides included. I am stickler for gun cleaning, so I take everything apart as far as possible. After they come out of the cleaner, I rinse and blow dry with compressed air. I probably spend more time cleaning guns than shooting them. Hornady has brass case cleaner and gun parts cleaner. DO NOT use brass case cleaner on gun parts.

SPEEDGUNNER said:

The lesson learned here is a word of caution to be careful what you put in there, and at the same time you can have some fun with it.

Click to expand...

Man, that's cooler than a fan, SPEEDGUNNER! Thanks for showing them off - and for the thoughtful lesson. HardToHandle is right: a fine example of making lemonade!

I have a heated 30Liter tank which is just shy of 8 gallons.

My cleaning solution is water based using a gallon of Simple Green's aircraft cleaner then topped up to the close to the fill level so it's about a 6:1 ratio

This is the stuff I use...


I go with a water based solution because quite often the parts cleaned are on their way to the blast cabinet for re-finish and it is very important to not allow any contaminants in the blast media. So not only is the tank for general cleaning but to thoroughly degrease any parts destined for media blasting.

Any weapon destined for tank cleaning first gets detail stripped right down to the bones. I don't put assembled guns in the tank nor assembled slide or frames. Whether the solution is water based or solvent based, No amount of blow drying will ever get all the fluid out of all the recesses nor all the junk/dirt that is now in solution trapped in some recess like the firing pin channel or the safety plungers under the backsight or under the mag catch nut for example.

My 5906 in the tank for initial cleaning...


Painted elements... Leave anything with paint on it in there for more than a minute or two and the paint will be gone. This affects the white dots or outlines on your sights and the red dots on the frame. Oh, and by the way, don't put night sights in the tank

Aluminum parts... The test to see if the ultrasonic transducers in your tank are working as they should is to suspend a strip or two of kitchen aluminum foil in the tank and run it. In short order, the foil should be covered in dents holes and pitting and if you leave it in there long enough it will disintegrate. So yeah, these things will eat aluminum. The tank will also eat anodizing off aluminum so if I need to clean an aluminum frame in the tank I will hold the frame inverted by the bottom of the magwell and swish the dirty bits in the tank for just a few seconds once or twice. That is sufficient to loosen or remove any gunk on the frame and whatever is left (if anything) will be taken care of as I dry if off. Never ever leave aluminum parts immersed in the tank unattended.

A side note... Never ever run the tank dry. Without a fill in the tank running it dry will kill the transducers and ruin the device.

In the end the tank is quite handy to have and is somewhat of a labor saving device that helps the detail cleaning go much quicker. But...It does not negate the need disassemble the weapon and clean individual bits by hand prior to reassembly.

Cheers
Bill

My wife bakes a lot of bread and I time cleaning to her baking. When she is done with the baking and has turned off the oven, I take the gun parts out of the cleaning solution I put them in the oven to dry. (I let the oven cool a bit before putting in the gun parts and all plastic parts are removed.) When the metal parts come out of the oven, all moisture is gone. They then receive a good oiling.

I don't own one but a friend has told me he uses a solution of Ballistol and water. After the water evaporates it leaves behind an oily film. Can anyone tell me how well they work on revolver cylinders and forcing cones?