Ultrasonic Bath

[stealth]

I use a typical kero bath for cleaning parts and an electrolysis setup for derusting bits and pieces for vehicle restoration. That combined with sandblasting etc.

Wondering if anyone has experience using ultrasonic baths for these purposes. Particularly the cheap ones available on ebay. I see they are available in sizes up to 10 litres capacity. There is plenty of stuff on youtube for info and interest but are the cheap small ones capable of doing heavy work or is it a case of getting what you pay for?

[Homestar]

I built one from a kit for my neighbour (he bought the kit the realised he didn't have what it took to make it work). It's one of the bigger ones and works quite well on small stuff. He restores motor bikes so there's a lot of bits and pieces he does with it.

One thing to watch out for is not to use too big a container as it reduces its effectiveness quite a bit. Use the smallest tub to fit the part in. He's got it set up so he can just dangle the transducer in different sizes tubs.

Worth experimenting with IMO, but don't expect too much of them, they have their limitations.

[BMKal]

I've got one of the Supercheap Auto ones, about 10 litre tub I think.

Works quite well for cleaning & de-greasing, but I've never tried it for removing rust from anything. I recently re-built an old chainsaw engine that was in a pretty sorry state - everything came up looking like new after a long enough period in the ultrasonic.

Unfortunately, the model I have has a built-in timer which means that the longest you can leave it running for is about 5 minutes, after which it automatically turns itself off. To get around that, I usually just make sure that I have it running on a bench next to me while I'm doing something else, and I turn it back on again.