Ultrasonic gun cleaning

[3Coyotes]

My son brought his stainless ultrasound tub and Hornady gun parts cleaner to the house yesterday. He's been using this setup for a while to clean our S&W 669 he uses for testing his hand loads. he decided that cleaning a couple of my guns would be a workable Father's Day gift.

The SR9c and SR22 were the candidates of choice since they are my go-to range guns with several thousand rounds each downrange with only conventional cleaning. As a note, I usually clean my guns after each outing so cleanliness was only an issue in hard to reach spots like the striker channel on the SR9c.

I was a little uncomfortable dunking the slides in the water and solution mix, but watching the blackish gray residue float away from the parts was interesting at least. We let the parts sit in the sun for a while afterward and then gave them a good shot of nitro-solvent to displace any remaining liquid. After reassembly, everything seemed to cycle more smoothly and now the next range trip will tell more.

I'm not sold enough to make this my go-to cleaning method, but it does get the crud out. Does anyone else have experience with ultrasound cleaning?

 

[Slowhand]

Re: Ultrasound Gun Cleaning

I have a friend that works at Palmetto Arms just down the road from my house. They buy and sell loads of used firearm and use the same method to help clean off the really grunge looking stuff. So far, so good.

 

[3Coyotes]

The tub he had was sized nicely for pistols, but a rifle barrel, not so much. I am also a little concerned about dropping any nonmetallic lowers into the soup. Might be harmless, might bring out some unwanted discoloration. I'm not interested in taking that chance.

 

[SkipD]

I cleaned all sorts of things in ultrasonic cleaners during my career working on industrial process controls. The most common thing we cleaned ultrasonically was ink pen systems that consisted of plastic tubing and metallic pens (some with jewel tips). We never had any degradation of the pen systems themselves, but it was amazing how quickly the solidified ink was dissolved.

 

[3Coyotes]

It was cool to watch the spent residues dance away from the parts themselves. The Hornady cleaner had to be formulated to "safely" do it's magic.

 

[SkipD]

If you want to see something really disgusting, clean a metal watch band (the kind with little spring-loaded links) in an ultrasonic cleaner. That reminds me - I should do mine.

 

[SkipD]

My watch band now looks just like new. The soapy water in the ultrasonic cleaner is now black. :

 

[TRIGGER_1]

How long does the gun cleaning process take from the time you put the gun parts in till you take them out...... :-\

 

[SkipD]

How long does the gun cleaning process take from the time you put the gun parts in till you take them out...... :-\

Generically speaking, there are variables including the intensity of the ultrasonic vibration that gets into the fluid, the density and thickness of what's being removed, and the fluid used (its ability to act as a solvent). My filthy watch band needed about 20 minutes in the ultrasonic bath. I'm using an old Bransonic B2200R-1 (private labelled for Fisher Scientific) like this one and was using soapy water as a medium.

 

[3Coyotes]

20 minutes to an hour if it's crusty. We were using Hornady s and less than a half hour.

 

[TRIGGER_1]

Will they clean silver too......Like coins and candle holders...... :-\

 

[SkipD]

Will they clean silver too......Like coins and candle holders...... :-\

I doubt that ordinary black staining of silver would be cleaned with ordinary water-based solvents which are most often used in ultrasonic cleaners. However, if there was foreign stuff (like caked-on mud, for example) coating the silver, that would be fairly easily loosened by the ultrasonic vibrations.