Ultrasonics are good for hard to clean items.

Plastics, you just wipe and re-install.

Anyone ever put in an entire Bally gas display unit, glass and board and all?

How’d it turn out?

Yep, I've put the whole display in to get all the black soot off.

Normally I put them in the dishwasher.

Well, it worked great. Not a speck of dust on it and it works fine.

A bit too much cleaning power though- at 50°C, 5 minutes, and 10% Mean Green, it pulled the solder mask layer right off. The traces are exposed copper now:

image (resized).jpg

Okay: can confirm that Mean Green is destructive to PCB solder mask. Ran another one at 45°C, 5 minutes, just tap water. This seems to do the trick. Less (or no) detergent is better. Before

After

You can spray some clear lacquer over the missing mask if you want.

I'm getting ready to join this club. There are too many options out there and I'm having a hard time deciding what to get. I want something large enough to clean drop target bank parts, and other large metal parts. But not too big for cleaning smaller parts like plastic PF posts.

Is this one overkill? The price isn't too bad.

ebay.com link: 30L Ultrasonic Cleaner Cleaning Equipment Liter Industry Heated W Timer Heater

The 15L I was thinking...

I'd get that, great price

I'm just worried, cheap price=cheap quality. But yeah I think I'll take a gamble, I won't be using it daily anyway.

Get the 22L one.

15L is too small.

Wow, OK!

I'd get the 30L

For a couple of bucks more, I'd want the extra room when needed.

You only have to fill it up to the "min level" line, so no need to always have 30L of liquid in it.

Since I am also wanting to get an ultrasonic cleaner. I have to ask: 30L seems huge to me. What would I want to clean that would take up to 30L of volume?

Thanks,

RussMyers

It's never as big as you imagine on the inside

Wiring harness, MPU boards, large lamp boards like AFM, coin doors, let alone all the stuff you have around the house like a carburetor or hood release mech

I have a 22L, its big enough, but barely.

The problem is that most cleaners are rectangular, not square. Parts dont always completely submerge and you have to do them a half at a time.

Also the wire basket takes up a lot of room, so you dont get the whole interior for use unless you throw stuff in without the basket, which you can do. My 22L fits a lockdown receiver outside the basket etc.

This will also happen to the 30L but not nearly as much

A 30L will let you do 2 or 3 wiring harnesses at a time, a 22L lets you do 1 or 2 at a time.

Smaller that that, its really tough to do a good job.

22L uses less chemical and is cheaper to fill up. I have to dump and clean before each new game project, the water gets gritty.

I weighed all the options and got a 22L, it works very well.

Most of these have a warning to only put parts in the basket and never directly in the tub. Makes usable space much smaller.

I have a rubber dish mat I put on the floor to keep things from rubbing thru the metal during the cleaning.
You can also put rags around parts that lean on the walls.

I also put small parts into strainers with handles or small colanders from the dollar store.
Sometimes in sandwich bags or small jars, with or without the basket.

Thanks, guys. I'll probably go for the 22L, but maybe the 30L.

I'm mainly going to be doing smaller stuff.

RussM

I didn't even think about throwing a wire harness in these. How does it affect the gold flashed switch contacts or the coil wrappers?

Switch contacts are fine, If in doubt, remove wrappers.

Depends on the solution, but wet paper does not do too well at 150*F

Remember, you don't have to fill a 30L with 30L of fluid.

So sometimes I run it with 10L of fluid if I just have a batch of small parts

And you don't have to crank up the heat either.

One thing that I see rarely mentioned in this thread. The larger you go, the more power it takes and the longer it takes to heat up in my experience. If you are only using it a few times a year, a moot point, but if you are on a budget, or do many batches might be a consideration. I wish I sometimes had a larger unit, but 95% of the time my 6L unit works fine. They also have a limited life expectancy. Something else to factor if you are on a budget.

I got a 30L cleaner and never looked back.

GO BIG OR GO HOME!

If you need it to last forever, get the ones that have the mechanical temp and timer knobs on them

You know you can always replace one of those or a transducer,

Forgive me if this was mentioned before, but does anyone ever leave a cleaning solution (ie: mean green + water) in the tub for several days? I've got a few batches to do for this project and I'd rather just let the solution sit between uses until it really needs to be flushed.

You can leave it for a few days, no problem

Can you clean the harness with the cherry micro switches on? I thought I read that you shouldn't
thx

I do but I replace them with new. If you’re going through the trouble to clean the harness it would make sense to replace them.

I was wondering the same with the diodes and caps. I'm afraid the extreme vibration would cause damage.

I've done simple boards with lights and diodes without a problem.

It's fine.

How much vibration does a guitar amp get every night sitting on top of a stack of speakers ??

I'm getting my ultrasonic cleaner in today .

My question is if you put a harness in the cleaner, is there any way label the harness such that the labels won't disintegrate in the process?

I use P-touch labels. They dont come off and are water/solvent proof.

Fantastic! Thanks for the tip

i can't say i am a fan of labeling on connectors or harness. really if you takes the right amount of pictures you do not need to label. Most time it all falls back into places anyway, harness has a way to keep its shape

It does to some extent, but after pulling a harness completely apart and inspecting the wires for stiffness and breaks (as well as hacks), it tends to lose a lot of its shape.

Boiling a harness in the sonic cleaner can also help it to lose its shape.

But I agree, there are always bends and tell-tales to help reinstall a harness.

Labeling connectors for the boards as well as my molexed connections for all sub-assemblies speeds up re-assembly big time.

This is especially true if the project has set awhile over several months.

The labels on my recent Funhouse ground-up restoration, were invaluable 14 months later upon reassembly.

Labels in the dishwasher: Maybe another thing you could try is twist ties of various colors, or something like this (Take pictures prior for reassembly).

pasted_image (resized).png

I tried those. They work ok, but the marking pen still washes off a lot of the time, though sometimes you can still read it.

The P-Touch method is cheap and effective.

I was thinking using multiple ones (i.e. red-blue, red-green, red-red, etc.) for designating the location. But NP using the P-Touch either.

Plenty of of ways to accomplish it.

looking forward to reading this

Can confirm the p touch works like a champ

Its worth the extra time.

I have Pinballgoddess make them up in batches

I made a ton for my playfield swap and cut them out as I reassembled everything. They are also really helpful if you throw your whole harness in the dishwasher. I only ultrasonic clean my connectors because my cleaner is only 6L.

76EDA6C3-2245-4A10-9C78-6455F6388FC4 (resized).jpeg

Flash Gordon needs a hottub so I’m looking for a 30L cleaner. Any opinions on this guy for $187? Guessing these are all the same Chinese crap?

ebay.com link: 30L Ultrasonic Cleaner Stainless Steel Industry Heated Heater w Timer

What is a good product for cleaning plastic posts? (EMs and Early Solid States) I was using Mean Green for everything but it seems to be too much for the older stuff and leaves the finish on the plastic kind of dull.

If there is a link to this being discussed in this thread Id appreciate it
thanks

I use a 5-10% mix of Simple Green and distilled water. I have had good results with this. But still have some issues as you described so will be curious to see what others recommend that would help.

Yellow Dawn dish detergent works great on many plastics

No issues with suds?

Suds dont bother me at all...

glass-of-beer-with-suds-AGF2H4 (resized).jpg