Harbor Freight Digital Ultrasonic Cleaner

NJFZ1

NJFZ1

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So I had been thinking of a way to clean parts now that I am restoring the RZ350 and decided to give this a try after reading online about it. I don't have a parts washer and didn't really want to be dealing with harsh, smelly chemicals.

This Chicago Electric branded ultrasonic cleaner got good reviews and it's very affordable. Regular price was $99.99, but it was on sale and then I used one of the famous Harbor Freight 20% off coupon so I got it for $62.39. I did decide to add the 1 yr warranty for an extra $11.99 since I got it for a good price.

I have to perfect a cleaning solution, but so far I have tried a shot of laundry detergent to degrease parts. Didn't work that well. Then I tried a shot of some citrus cleaner and that seems to have worked a little better, but then I discovered that I should really run it with hot water (it heats the water by itself, but it's not the default setting).

The front master cylinder was a mess so I stripped in the hopes that it could be salvaged with a rebuilding kit since a new one is $$$. Wish I had taken a before pic, but after 3-4 cycles it's nice and clean :)

One thing to keep in mind is that this is meant for smaller parts as you see that the front master cylinder barely gets covered by the solution. For cleaning bolts and other small parts it works fine. Some people have suggested buying some sort of basket to keep the smaller parts off the bottom. Seems to clean them better that way. There is a plastic try inside of it, but that sits on the bottom of the unit. So far I'm happy with the results.

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So its basically a sonicator. We use them at work allll the time. I use them to de-gunk and clean mass spectrometry parts. Use methanol, or some organic solvent if you can.
 
Jmcculler662 said:
How long does a cleaning cycle usually take?
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There are four (I think) different cycle settings ranging from 3-8 minutes. I used the longest cycle.

CrazyBiker said:
You can't use baking soda like they use for sandblasting?
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It doesn't work the same as sandblasting, but I suppose baking soda with water might be better than water alone.

waldo877 said:
So its basically a sonicator. We use them at work all the time. I use them to de-gunk and clean mass spectrometry parts. Use methanol, or some organic solvent if you can.
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Thanks for the info. I think I'm going to pick up some Simple Green as that's usually really good for cleaning grease.
 
Hail said:
I would like to see photos of the cleaned parts.
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It's nothing like soda blasting them or anything like that since this wont harm or remove paint. I'll post a pic of the inside of the master cylinder later. Too bad I didn't take a before shot :(
 
speeddemon2588 said:
Huh...I used to work at harbor freight and never thought to use one of these to clean parts. Good idea, I'm also interested on how this works out.
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These are also great to clean carburetors since they have so many small internal passages. of course you would probably want to use the proper carb solution.
 
waldo877 said:
So its basically a sonicator. We use them at work allll the time. I use them to de-gunk and clean mass spectrometry parts. Use methanol, or some organic solvent if you can.
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Mind if I ask what you do for work? The whole mass spectrometry thing is directly related to my job ;).

I build Sputter Ion Guns, Ionizers, UV bakeout systems, Picoammeters, etc. We also buy and refurb old PHI systems and sell them/service them. Curious if you may be one of our customers... Or competitor! :jk: :D


Sorry for the thread drift!

Thread related, we also use sonic cleaners here. Methanol, Iso, etc. with them. We use little wire mesh baskets for the parts to sit in. We need to clean them that good since the stuff goes into large ultra high vacuum chambers.
 
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jspansel said:
Mind if I ask what you do for work? The whole mass spectrometry thing is directly related to my job ;).

I build Sputter Ion Guns, Ionizers, UV bakeout systems, Picoammeters, etc. We also buy and refurb old PHI systems and sell them/service them. Curious if you may be one of our customers... Or competitor! :jk: :D


Sorry for the thread drift!

Thread related, we also use sonic cleaners here. Methanol, Iso, etc. with them. We use little wire mesh baskets for the parts to sit in. We need to clean them that good since the stuff goes into large ultra high vacuum chambers.
Click to expand...

I work at Celgene in drug discovery. We use AB sciex mass specs (4000's, Q-Traps, MALDI, 5600-TOFTOF) to characterize and quantitate our molecules.
 
Hail said:
I would like to see photos of the cleaned parts.
Click to expand...

Well some crappy cell phone pics below, but they wont help much since you can't see what I started with. I will say that it's not a miracle cleaning machine, but for delicate parts or parts with passages that are not easily accessible it definitely works great. Got all the crud out of my master cylinders, even down inside the bore w/o the risk of damaging or scoring it in any way.

The dark spots you see is metal discoloration and no way to remove it, but doesn't affect it in any way so I'm not going to worry about it. Some powder coating and a rebuild kit and I will have a new looking master cylinder ;)

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