New Toys - Ultrasonic Cleaner / Electroplating

For some time I have been trying to decide which way to go regards cleaning up of all the parts I have removed so far.  I have been using a toothbrush and some Bilt Hamber Surfex HD which has been good but very time consuming.  I thought about buying a parts washer but I am somewhat limited on space.  Some research led to to purchase of an ultrasonic cleaner.  Bought it from ebay for around £100.

Fresh out of the box.

In the garage.  Its meant to be a 10 litre unit however I have found that it only holds about 6 litres.  It should be big enough fot most things I fancy using it for though.  As a trial I dug out an old and crusty looking thermostat to see what it would do.  I just used water for this first test.

 Crusty Thermostat

  Crusty Thermostat pt 2

Apparently you need to turn it on empty for 5 mins to de-gas the water.  I used tapwater in this case but apparently you get better results with de-ionized water.  You can just about see the distorsion on the waters surface and bubbles being liberated from the water.

In it goes

Results.  Definitely lifted off the water corrosion products and the brass is much more visible,  Did not shift the green copper? corrosion.   This was in for 5 minutes.  Definitely made a difference though.  On to some proper stuff.

This is the water box from the rear of the engine.  Its covered in oily dirty on the outside and the inside is water corrosion products.  I could buy a new one of these but I wanted to see if this was recoverable?

More detail.

In it goes.  You could see a cloud coming off it straight away as the machine was turned on.

Results - Pretty impressed with this.  It needed a wee wipe when it came out but it had made a considerable difference both inside and out.  Some minor corrosion still visible on the fixing holes - I'll deal with that later.. This was in for 30 mins @ 50 degrees C.  Used some Surfex HD  as the cleaner in this case.

Finished article.  I am pretty pleased with this.

I am looking forward to trying this out on some more things.

My next toy is an electroplating kit.  I have went back and forward about paying for plating to be done but I decided its something I would like to learn how to do.  It will be cheaper overall and less risk of loosing something important.  I have been very impressed by the results that I have seen from some others at home.    I bought the ultimate zinc / nickel plating kit from gateros plating,  It was £129.  I have a power supply left over from a previous project I can use.

Kit as it arrived.

At the time of writing I have not yet unpacked this.  A friend of mine has done plating in the past and it seems something you need several hours to set up in the first instance.   I need to wait till I have a day in the house without the wife and kids around and i'll give it a go.

James