I know these have many industry applications. Does anyone use this just for regular gun cleaning? If so, what do you use for equipment and solution.

Do you use it to clean simply field striped handguns and disassembled rifle parts?

I did for a little while. I have a Chicago brand ultrasonic that I bought years ago from Harbor Freight. I think I gave $40 for it. I use a mixture of Simple Green and water, and it does an outstanding job.

Now, I only use it for detail strips and inspections. I just don't care about spotless any more with modern semi-automatic pistols. Just make sure that if you do use the ultrasonic, the water gets sufficiently hot before you use it, you get all of the water off of the part when it comes out, and you properly lubricate all metal surfaces when the part is dried.

I have a Hornady Lock and Load that I can put an entire upper receiver in. It just sits I really don't have much use for it. I can't remember the last time I actually used it but yes I do have one. I suppose if I ever knew I was getting it inspected I'm I dropped my rifle in it before the inspection.

I was thinking it would just be faster and easier to do a pistol that way. Less cleaning time and cleaner.

But if you have one and don't use it, seems like perhaps it's really not that much of a time saver or much of an improvement over cleaning by hand.

Why does it sit idle?

I have the Hornady Lock and Load and love it. It does an outstanding job at getting parts clean. I use the Hornady cleaning solution. I also use it to clean brass for reloading and it does a great job. There are some things you can’t put in an ultrasonic cleaner. I think you can’t put blued guns and I won’t put my S&W Airweight in as I heard it can harm it. I clean my suppressor baffles in the ultrasonic cleaner and it works great, but I was told by AAC not to put a welded suppressor in it because it can take off the finish of the suppressor.

I'm thinking ultrasonic would be a good way to go for cleaning my P320 FCU. Anyone have any experience?

I've used one that belongs to a friend, to clean a couple of particularly groady used Glocks. It worked well for that.

I think mine is a Hornady, too, and I do use a solution for firearms cleaning and a separate solution for brass cleaning.

I would caution you about putting aluminum parts in there. I have tested it and found that black, anodized aluminum will turn navy blue after a few times in the tank. I also recommend Simple Green's aircraft and aluminum cleaner rather than their regular formula. The regular is too aggressive, and if you miss a spot cleaning it off, you can get pitting of the aluminum. No issues with cleaning blue guns in my ultrasonic tank that I have found.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGWolf:
I was thinking it would just be faster and easier to do a pistol that way. Less cleaning time and cleaner.

But if you have one and don't use it, seems like perhaps it's really not that much of a time saver or much of an improvement over cleaning by hand.

Why does it sit idle?

Mine sits idle because its not worth it to me, except in detail cleaning where I'm going to spend some serious time inspecting parts, changing springs, etc. That is every 10k or so. By the time I get the solution out, pour it in, add water, allow it to heat up, put the parts in, run it a couple of cycles, get the parts out, check/double check/triple check that I have all of the solution out of the nooks and crannies, and lube every square inch because putting it in the ultrasonic strips off all lube, I can hand clean five or six pistols.

With no more than I'm going to do to "clean" working guns anyway, it just doesn't make good sense to use the ultrasonic for day to day cleaning.

After several training sessions, I'll strip the gun apart, wipe it down, run a bore snake down the barrel, relube and reassemble. Every several thousand rounds, I'll actually punch the bore with a brush and solvent. Every 10k, I'll detail the gun and inspect. My level of clean is more a wipe down and lube. Properly lubricated is way more important than Marine Corps clean.

This goes for competition guns, and duty guns.

I've used my wife's ultrasonic jewelry cleaner a couple of times for internal parts and barrels, which is about the largest pieces that will fit in its basin. Seems to work well enough that I've considered buying a larger unit for my own wholly selfish needs (as my wife puts it). Certainly if I had kept my 320 an ultrasonic bath would have been my method of choice for getting the fire control assembly cleaned, just so I wouldn't have to ever again disassemble that kit of parts ever again.

at one point i had 2 of them. One had the dirty breakfree and the other had clean breakfree. Dirty guns went into number 1, and ran overnight on the heat. (of course, this did nothing for plastic guns as it heated the oil up quite a bit. I was afraid to leave them in there overnight.) Then i wiped all the parts and set them into tank number two overnight on heat and cleaning cycle. It worked. Grime came right off, things cleaned right up. But is was a fuck ton of a mess with the oil. I tried water cleaning solutions but the guns aways looked dry, faded, filmy. Plus you can use that stuff on anything that contains aluminum like Smith and Wesson 642's. At the time it ruled out a fair number of my pistols. So now I do it the old fashioned way. It works as well and can be just as relaxing.

If you are interested in seeing how it worked. I posted photos of guns i had fired lead through, all hitting over 1k before i ran out of bullets, or they had issues. All the metal parts were cleaned in the above tanks. Using the manor described. You can see those pics, and how dirty the guns were in this thread.
https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...180083244#3180083244

Go buy yourself a few gallon jugs of distilled water from the grocery store, Mix with simple green.

Distilled water won’t cause anything to rust.
Also don’t put anything anodized in there like say a 50 dollar charging handle.. unless you want it to go from black to shiny

I do like Jones and only use mine once a year when I detail strip and inspect my pistols.

Simple Green Aviation, which is what I use mixed with water, is non corrosive where regular Simple Green can be.

Heat is the key, as mine will just about boil the water, so when parts are removed they pretty much flash dry so no liquid is left anywhere.

Mine is a seven gallon industrial unit, so a five to ten minute swim is more than enough to get the parts spotless.