Gun Cleaning--ultrasonic

[N3AUA]

Several years ago, S&W had a safety issue recall and while the handgun was at there site they said they would ultrasonic clean the weapon. I called S&W and talked with the dept. and asked what they used in the cleaner and they said Mineral Spirits and it was safe for all finishes, blue/stainless etc. I have been using a L&R Sweep Zone S200 Quantrex S200 dental unit for my cleaning filled with Mineral Spirits. The tank is 12 long x 6 wide X 4 deep and a 6" revolver fits nicely, clean for 3-4 minutes, shake the excess out and dry with an air hose (carefully) so as to not blow parts around the basement. I have used Marvel air tool oil (red) and now am using Mobil 1 synthetic 5-50w. The Air tool oil is made for high heat applications and Mobil 1 probably is also. Try your favorite lube sample in the freezer, most get pretty gummy, and fancy advertising doesn't help in cold weather. The semi auto's have frame areas that i feel are best cleaned by this method.

Any thoughts by others?

Safe shooting,and remember gun control starts with a steady hand.

Paul-N3AUA
NRA Benefactor

[Norbert]

Ooops,

I remember about a friend of mine in Germany who used to clean his Remington New Army Drum in his ultrasonic machine and damaged it somehow after a couple of times. I do not remember exactly (itīs about 15 years back) but somehow the structure was weakened or something was deformed.

You might want to try to find some expert advise before you try it.

Happy Glocking,
Norbert

[N3AUA]

Hello Norbert and thanks for your thoughts.

There are many sizes and power ranges of these cleaners from 4oz. jewelry cleaners to 6 digit industrial types that could probably crack rocks. The one i've been using for several years is 45KHz and 95 watt input without a tank heater and it shifts frequency + or - 2KHz. and was intended for Dentists to clean insturments, tartar, and probably dentures. The cavitation causes millions of tiny bubbles that do the actual cleaning. The one area of concern is to prevent the weapon from sliding around on the bottom of the tank which could scratch the finish (teflon rack on the bottom prevents this). Ive cleaned many Glocks for friends in the Scranton PD and it's impressive to see the crud come out of all the areas that were never possible otherwise with conventional methods, and all of my own are cleaned the same way after every range trip.
I guess the bottom line is it's harmless if used for 3-4 minutes with Mineral Spirits and naturally not while smoking or near an open flame.

Best to you,
Paul
NRA-Benefactor

[TJC]

We have been using one of the commercial ultrasonic gun cleaning units at work for about 3 years now. It is ok and does a fairly good job without any sort of damage.
It is a 2 stage process, 1 to clean and 1 to lubricate the metal surfaces. The lubrication process is not to actually apply lube to the areas that need it, it reapplies the needed material back into the metal as it is supposedly removed by the cleaning process. Without doing that, you are basically "drying out" the metal according the information supplied with the machine.

A word of caution on this. Be very careful how long you leave the gun in the cleaner. You may damage the finish.

We had an ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning circuit card assemblies in our tech shop in the Marines. One of the techs got the brilliant idea of using this to clean his rifle after he came back from the range instead of spending the normal 3 days cleaning it.

He left it in too long (not sure how long exactly). When the rifle came out, the finish was gone and we were looking at a bare metal receiver. Luckily, his Gunny knew the gunsmith in town who had the ability to refinish the rifle. The kid was out $400 for the emergency finishing job, and got every crap detail that came along for the next 8 months (He could have been court martialed.)

Just something to think about.

[VN350X10]

I'm going to assume that it was an M-16 that lost it's finish in the ultrasonic tank. Gotta love epoxy & teflon, it comes off just like paint.(HA HA)
As far as cleaning a Glock with a tank, I'M JEALOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shouldn't hurt a thing. The solvent (min spirits)can't hurt either. Most of the factory rebuilt Glocks I've seen look like thev'e been cleaned in a safty-kleen tank, which is how I clean mine when they get dirty enough to warrent cleaning! Wish I had a 'sonic tank; be just that much more thorough.

uncle albert

[edpmedic]

I have to find out the NYPD have a tank at their range. I was told they put everything into it. I was offered to bring my AR and Glock there to be cleaned.First I am going to see if the finish gets ruined on the AR. I don't think I would worry about the Glock, but got to watch the KHz going through the solution.