Ultrasonic carb cleaning

I have been testing different methods of cleaning carburetors for rebuilding. So far I have tried Berrymans Chemtool, mineral spirits, soda blasting, aerosole carb cleaner, and finally ultrasonic cleaning. I relly like the ultrasonic cleaner for alot of reasons. It's effective, no harsh chemicals, and its relatively fast. Here's a couple of videos of my little ultrasonic in action.

s915.photobucket.com/albums/ac360/jtshar...rent=Ultrasonic1.flv

Notice the plumes of gunk forming around the part. Keep your volume down!

You say relatively quickly. How long is that? Could your unit work on a head or cylinder unit? Did you make your sonic cleaner yourself, and how did you do it?

Galactica wrote:

You say relatively quickly. How long is that? Could your unit work on a head or cylinder unit? Did you make your sonic cleaner yourself, and how did you do it?

The cleaning action is quite effective within 15 minutes. My particular unit would not work for a head or cylinder block based only on the size. If you had a large enough tank, then you could clean just about anything. I will say that you wouldn't want to purchase a larger unit as an individual hobbiest. The larger units easly get into the $10,000 range. I didn't make my own cleaner. It is a Branson 1200 which is a small older unit that is about $200 IIRC. I was lucky enough to get this one as a freebie. My father worked in the maintence department at the production facility for James Avery Jewlers for the last 5 years of his working life. They would periodically replace these pieces of equipment and donate the used pieces to employees. Dad had no use for this, so I lucked out.

I bet that some of the more electrical savvy members could work out a way of building a similar unit. It appears to be a small piezo-electric? unit glued to the bottom of a stainless tub, that is controlled by some fairly simple electronics. Quite remarkable actually. My unit is very bare-bones. No heater or timer or frequecy control, but after about 15 minutes, it will turn room temp. water into bathwater (100F) due to the vibrations. Hope this helps.

Very interesting unit.

Galactica wrote:

Very interesting unit.

x2.....can you post up pics of the cleaner?

I know this isn't as high tech, but what I have done in the past is tape a container with parts and cleaning solution to the motor part of a bench grinder, turn it on and have a makeshift ultra sonic cleaner. It worked pretty good as opposed to just letting the parts soak.

Tony wrote:

I know this isn't as high tech, but what I have done in the past is tape a container with parts and cleaning solution to the motor part of a bench grinder, turn it on and have a makeshift ultra sonic cleaner. It worked pretty good as opposed to just letting the parts soak.

now THATS using your head for more than a hat rack.....excellent idea.....

I've used ultrasonic cleaners before and they are great, but pricey. So we make do with what we have...

How do that saying go? "Necessity is the mother of invention."

keith1 wrote:

Galactica wrote:

Very interesting unit.

x2.....can you post up pics of the cleaner?

Here's a link to their website.
www.bransonic.com/
The model that I have is older and discontinued. The closest thing that they have now is the model 1510. I think that it retails for about $350.

I'll get some pics tomorrow. My camera phone doesn't like artifical light, and the picture right now would be poo.

Tony wrote:

I know this isn't as high tech, but what I have done in the past is tape a container with parts and cleaning solution to the motor part of a bench grinder, turn it on and have a makeshift ultra sonic cleaner. It worked pretty good as opposed to just letting the parts soak.

Really good idea Tony. The constant agitation helps alot. The ultrasonic is just agitation on an epic level. However, at the frequencies that the ultrasonic operates, there is alot more going on than simple agitation.

testarossa wrote:

Tony wrote:

I know this isn't as high tech, but what I have done in the past is tape a container with parts and cleaning solution to the motor part of a bench grinder, turn it on and have a makeshift ultra sonic cleaner. It worked pretty good as opposed to just letting the parts soak.

Really good idea Tony. The constant agitation helps alot. The ultrasonic is just agitation on an epic level. However, at the frequencies that the ultrasonic operates, there is alot more going on than simple agitation.

Agreed. It's more an alternative to just soaking.

As promised, here is a pic of my little ultrasonic cleaner next to something that you should be familiar with for scale.