Ultrasonic cleaners

[Guest]

Apologies if this has been discussed already and is buried within the anals of these fora!

I've invested in a H&S Infinity dual. I'm thinking about an ultrsonic cleaner. Has anyone done this please? My questions (without inviting 'funny' comments) are:

Does one have to strip the airbrush and put all the bits ionside the cleaner or can it go in, say, with only the needle seperated.

If there are rubber seals, are these affected?

Would it be safe to use this type of cleaner after each day's airbrushing?

Thanks

[Guest]

I put my Iwata in my ultrasonic at the end of each day. I usually just pull the needle and put the brush in. I strip it down to parts once a week and it sprays just fine. A little dish washing detergent and away you go. Hope this helps.

Ray

[downscale model art]

same as ray. its fine with the seals too.

[Guest]

Best to strip down to get the best results Aidan.

Only use mine for specs as I did not find the results in the Ultra as good as dropping the nozzle into a small container of airbrush cleaner like Vallejo. Found that the external bits were ok but seems that the utrasonic waves do not penetrate the internal parts ie the tunnel where the needle sits. How ever for some it seems to work so must have another go.

Agree with Ray about a teaspoon of washing up liquid. I would not bother with the seaweed extraction liquid as I found it no better and very expensive than clean water.

Believe if you stick your fingers in you get really clean finger nails. They look really good when your fingers start dropping off

Laurie

[Guest]

Thanks Ray and Laurie - conflicting reports but that's life!

[Guest]

I have a "JPL Ultra 2000 Compact Ultrasonic Cleaner" which I bought from Amazon in March last year. It cost £31.98 it is now available at £22 (Grrr...) at

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=jpl ultra 2000&tag=mh0a9-21&index=aps&hvadid=4031997699&ref=pd_sl_8pbq3l4dp m_pp

It takes my (normal size) AB and all its bits. I don't remove any "O" rings. On advice elsewhere I add a tiny drop of washing up liquid (I don't think the special liquid is necessary). I think this reduces the surface tension of the water and makes it flow more easily into crevices, but that is a guess.

I use it after every session but my modelling is a slow process so a session lasts for no more than 20 minutes about once a month and I don't want to leave it partly uncleaned for as long as a month. I first remove the needle, nozzle, aircap and colour cup, wipe the needle and the colour cup and put the other parts to soak in airbrush cleaner while I use the little AB bottle brush (soaked in cleaner) to clean the passage between the front and up to the seal which is between the front and the trigger. I then use an inter-dental brush to clean the nozzle and a pointed piece of paper towel to wipe the inside of the air cap. Then all those parts including the needle and the body (except for the handle) go into warm water in the U/S cleaner. It takes about 4 minutes before switching off automatically. Very satisfactory. I don't get blockages any more (except when I fail to notice that the paint is rather thick and needed more mixing or shaking).

I have tried it to clean the kitchen food mixer rotating part, false teeth and my electric razor but with no any visible effect.

You ask about stripping the AB. I do (as mentioned). When I started modelling 1 1/2 years ago I got a lot of frustrating blockages due to not cleaning thoroughly enough. My H & S Infinity CR Plus has seals (PTF) that are suitable for enamels and lacquers, so ultrasounding would not affect them. I don't think that the cheaper rubber seals would be affected either. On repeated cleaning, H & D told me that it was safe to ultrasound my AB as often as I liked, even twice in a row. They also advised that putting a rubber mat under the AB body would prevent the appearance of the body being scraped/rubbed against the metal base of the cleaner. In fact, I made a little plasticard cradle. Their ABs are beautifully made.

[Guest]

I have a "JPL Ultra 2000 Compact Ultrasonic Cleaner" which I bought from Amazon in March last year. It cost £31.98 it is now available at £22 (Grrr...) athttp://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=jpl ultra 2000&tag=mh0a9-21&index=aps&hvadid=4031997699&ref=pd_sl_8pbq3l4dp m_pp

It takes my (normal size) AB and all its bits. I don't remove any "O" rings. On advice elsewhere I add a tiny drop of washing up liquid (I don't think the special liquid is necessary). I think this reduces the surface tension of the water and makes it flow more easily into crevices, but that is a guess.

I use it after every session but my modelling is a slow process so a session lasts for no more than 20 minutes about once a month and I don't want to leave it partly uncleaned for as long as a month. I first remove the needle, nozzle, aircap and colour cup, wipe the needle and the colour cup and put the other parts to soak in airbrush cleaner while I use the little AB bottle brush (soaked in cleaner) to clean the passage between the front and up to the seal which is between the front and the trigger. I then use an inter-dental brush to clean the nozzle and a pointed piece of paper towel to wipe the inside of the air cap. Then all those parts including the needle and the body (except for the handle) go into warm water in the U/S cleaner. It takes about 4 minutes before switching off automatically. Very satisfactory. I don't get blockages any more (except when I fail to notice that the paint is rather thick and needed more mixing or shaking).

I have tried it to clean the kitchen food mixer rotating part, false teeth and my electric razor but with no any visible effect.

You ask about stripping the AB. I do (as mentioned). When I started modelling 1 1/2 years ago I got a lot of frustrating blockages due to not cleaning thoroughly enough. My H & S Infinity CR Plus has seals (PTF) that are suitable for enamels and lacquers, so ultrasounding would not affect them. I don't think that the cheaper rubber seals would be affected either. On repeated cleaning, H & D told me that it was safe to ultrasound my AB as often as I liked, even twice in a row. They also advised that putting a rubber mat under the AB body would prevent the appearance of the body being scraped/rubbed against the metal base of the cleaner. In fact, I made a little plasticard cradle. Their ABs are beautifully made.

Thank you Steve for a full and comprehensive reply.

[john i am]

I use iwata tr2 and iwata tr0 for fine work after every use flush with airbrush cleaner using blowback method wipe nozzle with cotton bud then flush and blowback with water until water runs clear airbrushes work 1st time every time using these methods . About every three months I strip airbrushes to the bones deep clean with cotton buds and dental brushes immerse into sonic cleaner for about 10 mins leave to dry lube needles and and reassemble having used this process for awhile now I'm very happy to say that I have not encountered any problems whatsoever with my airbrushes .the mystifying thing with sonic cleaners I feel is that you can't actually see them working they just do in my opinion work hope this helps cheers John

[john i am]

Forgot to add no cleaners or detergents are added to the water in my sonic cleaner and also as the old saying goes prevention is better than a cure so if you clean your brush after every session you should not encounter any problems

[eddiesolo]

I have a "JPL Ultra 2000 Compact Ultrasonic Cleaner" which I bought from Amazon in March last year. It cost £31.98 it is now available at £22 (Grrr...) athttp://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=jpl ultra 2000&tag=mh0a9-21&index=aps&hvadid=4031997699&ref=pd_sl_8pbq3l4dp m_pp

It takes my (normal size) AB and all its bits. I don't remove any "O" rings. On advice elsewhere I add a tiny drop of washing up liquid (I don't think the special liquid is necessary). I think this reduces the surface tension of the water and makes it flow more easily into crevices, but that is a guess.

I use it after every session but my modelling is a slow process so a session lasts for no more than 20 minutes about once a month and I don't want to leave it partly uncleaned for as long as a month. I first remove the needle, nozzle, aircap and colour cup, wipe the needle and the colour cup and put the other parts to soak in airbrush cleaner while I use the little AB bottle brush (soaked in cleaner) to clean the passage between the front and up to the seal which is between the front and the trigger. I then use an inter-dental brush to clean the nozzle and a pointed piece of paper towel to wipe the inside of the air cap. Then all those parts including the needle and the body (except for the handle) go into warm water in the U/S cleaner. It takes about 4 minutes before switching off automatically. Very satisfactory. I don't get blockages any more (except when I fail to notice that the paint is rather thick and needed more mixing or shaking).

I have tried it to clean the kitchen food mixer rotating part, false teeth and my electric razor but with no any visible effect.

You ask about stripping the AB. I do (as mentioned). When I started modelling 1 1/2 years ago I got a lot of frustrating blockages due to not cleaning thoroughly enough. My H & S Infinity CR Plus has seals (PTF) that are suitable for enamels and lacquers, so ultrasounding would not affect them. I don't think that the cheaper rubber seals would be affected either. On repeated cleaning, H & D told me that it was safe to ultrasound my AB as often as I liked, even twice in a row. They also advised that putting a rubber mat under the AB body would prevent the appearance of the body being scraped/rubbed against the metal base of the cleaner. In fact, I made a little plasticard cradle. Their ABs are beautifully made.

Steve, just ordered the same one from Amazon-looks great so thank you for that.

Si

[The Migrant]

Some really useful advice here. There are other threads on this subject here:-

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/community/threads/ultrasonic-cleaners.25390/#post-194005

and here:-

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/community/threads/ultrasonic-cleaners-for-airbrushes.2434/#post-95600