Wife got me a one gallon ultrasonic....

[chatterbait]

So my question is will this help me clean my finds?And what will it clean best if so?

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I've thought about one myself. I am very interested in your results. I've electrolysis and a tumbler, so should I have ultrasonic as well?

 

[chatterbait]

Haha now I'm wondering should I have a tumbler and electrolysis too?

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

My cousin has a small industrial one that someone ran over a cord or something and work allowed him to take home. I put a half dozen or so rings in it once and it did nothing that I could tell. All those stories of a layer of dirt on the bottom of the tank after a cleaning.....well, cant prove it by me.
(and yes, cuz operates one at work so it was running properly)
I'm sure they work, but maybe I just clean my stuff good anyway....?

 

[Brian Finder]

Jewelry stores clean rings and other jewelry with intricate detail. They work very well for that. We had one at a place I used to work at. We used it to clean smaller electronic mechanical parts in it. (pinball and juke box parts) It had a heater to heat the solution which was rubbing alcohol for us.
I think you will have good results with the right solution.
Brian

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Haha now I'm wondering should I have a tumbler and electrolysis too?

I got a "kit" off Amazon the electric stuff, easy to do, for about $15.00. Got a double drum tumbler from Harbor Freight for $53.00.

I've already used the tumbler for the first time. Tried vinegar & salt solution - bad juju bwana! Using aquarium gravel and water with a dash of detergent and it works just fine. Make them coins spendable again.

 

[chatterbait]

Jewelry stores clean rings and other jewelry with intricate detail. They work very well for that. We had one at a place I used to work at. We used it to clean smaller electronic mechanical parts in it. (pinball and juke box parts) It had a heater to heat the solution which was rubbing alcohol for us.
I think you will have good results with the right solution.
Brian

So different solutions for different metals?

 

[Brian Finder]

The rubbing alcohol works good for oily or greasy. For dirty coins and such maybe water and dish soap. For corroded stuff, CLR or something that takes off scale and lime? You can experiment. Use what ever doesn't hurt the material of your ultrasonic cleaning machine.

 

[ChampFerguson/TN]

So different solutions for different metals?

You want to watch metal reactivity as you would with any cleaning solution.

fwiw, in the ultrasonic cleaner I tried everything from soap and water to vinegar to common rubbing alcohol to cousin's industrial formula to letting it run most of the day. And I could still see lots of dirt/crap in the intricacies of the rings (all silver with stones fwiw).


On tumbling, all I do is water and dish soap. My sole objective is to get the bank's coin counter to accept them so I don't care if they sparkle.

 

[Dug]

Tried vinegar & salt solution - bad juju bwana! Using aquarium gravel and water with a dash of detergent and it works just fine.

I have wondered about badly rusted iron pieces tumbled with Vinegar. I use white vinegar with good results on iron if I remove the rust crust first with a rotor disc. Just wondering if the tumbler would take off the crust as well, particularly with vinegar.

 

[marticus]

They work to a good extent provided you use the correct cleaner to what your cleaning and dont mix metals when you clean. I.e like silver and copper coins together. Do seperate metals seperate to each other

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

 

[Truth]

Lemon juice works real well for the black corrosion on silver and I use vinegar and hydrogen peroxide for removing rust off steal, let it soak for two days and it works great


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Detecto]

Ultrasonic cleaning is for items like gold, silver jewelry, etc.

For iron, copper, brass, etc, best to use a rock tumbler.

 

[chatterbait]

Thank you all.