Ultrasonic Chip Cleaning (19 Viewers)

[tigon]

It's weird- on some chips the gunk slides right off with a towel or scrape of a card but on others it's completely caked on like a very thick matte. This might have something to do with the blank white labels seemingly being stamped when they were on the chip (so stupid!).

I think the ultrasonic might penetrate through the gunk in spots then gradually help lift the adhesive from the surface.

 

[tigon]

I did a couple more racks today. A longer bath of about 2 minutes or so around 40C helped a lot.

Whether there were 20 or 40 chips in the cage didn't really matter; the gunk still needed to be scraped off manually with a plastic card. Aside from a very few chips it was much easier to remove just about all the adhesive from the face of the inlay. Bits and pieces of the glue still managed to find their way to the rolling edges of the chips especially. Next time I'll try to wipe most of the gunk off in a paper towel instead of the same towel I'm drying them on post-rinsing.

I should also note a good deal of "fading" happening with these chips as they dry from being rinsed (tap water, not sure if this is a factor). After oiling the color is about as dark as they were when I got them (discounting for a ton of dirt on the rolling edges), though not quite as vivid as this:

Pictures to come when I'm finished.

 

[Gear]

The vast majority of the fading is due to the temperature of the water. The warmer the water is, the more fading will occur.

 

[tigon]

The vast majority of the fading is due to the temperature of the water. The warmer the water is, the more fading will occur.

Guess I'll try starting from room temperature next time to confirm this.

Whatever the duration of the bath was from 30 seconds to 2 minutes @ 37-44C hasn't made a difference in the amount of fading to my eye.

 

[Gear]

Hmm. Well, there's probably still some fading that will occur no matter what, but I certainly found that water "as hot as possible" out of my tap did a lot more fading-damage than just "tepid".

 

[bivey]

Try a Q-tip with non-acetone fingernail polish remover. I suspect no amount of ultrasonic action is going to remove adhesive residue without some type of solvent.

Mineral oil is also surprisingly effective as well.

 

[tigon]

Mineral oil is also surprisingly effective as well.

Mineral oil does work almost as well as Goo-gone. I'll leave both Goo-gone and/or nail polish remover for the most difficult chips.

 

[BGinGA]

Mineral oil is also surprisingly effective as well.

That's a very good point. @tigon , you might want to just soak the chips overnight in mineral oil, then do a quick wipe-off before tossing them into the ultrasonic cleaner.

 

[Tanner Kaza]

First ultrasonic cleaning in the books. Very pleased with results, going to apply oil when they all dry!! Went with cheaper route and bought a 2L ultrasonic cleaner with heater off eBay seemed to do the trick.

Line of chips on left untreated, chips on right were treated. Got all gunk out of hat and cane. These were pretty gnarly.

Chips look slightly faded(chips on the right when holding stack in hand) but applied a little oil and they look fantastic.

Also did an incredible job on those PCAs

 

[ovo]

Got my 10L up and running, trying different things. I suggest using twisties on the lid to keep it in place. I am going to boil water to help speed up the raising of the temp on the next batch. Using 1.75 gal and 7 tbsp of TSP, started with 1 min, then tried 2 which seems better. Cleaned up some Speedway dollars. Don't notice any fading. Temp at 40, then 41, might go a little higher. Looks good, but a few don't quite get there. One was still quite dirty and will run it again. Speedways were not real dirty , so hard to get a good feel for the job, but they look good. Looking forward to cleaning some really dirty chips.

 

[GoStumpy]

Testing out my 100w ultrasonic on my slightly dirty Motor City Qurters... Omg.

They come out brand new, I run them in a 2 minute bath with 1-2tbsp of TSP to 2L of water.

Take them out, put them on a towel, put another barrel in, turn it on, and then wipe off any gunk from the ones I just took out. It runs and cleans while I dry, and it's a great assembly line. Done a rack in under 15 minutes perfectly clean!

 

[David O]

Testing out my 100w ultrasonic on my slightly dirty Motor City Qurters... Omg.

They come out brand new, I run them in a 2 minute bath with 1-2tbsp of TSP to 2L of water.

Take them out, put them on a towel, put another barrel in, turn it on, and then wipe off any gunk from the ones I just took out. It runs and cleans while I dry, and it's a great assembly line. Done a rack in under 15 minutes perfectly clean!

Make sure you put them on a rinse after you remove them from the ultrasonic. Then you can pat dry them and set them on a towel to dry overnight

 

[Payback]

Reading through this I've gathered that using TSP with ASM/CPC is a big no no. Is there anyway to use the ultrasonic with them? I've got a bunch of Horseshoe chips that will need cleaning inbound and would help sway my decision to purchase one if I can use it with my ASM set.

 

[GoStumpy]

 

[Gear]

Reading through this I've gathered that using TSP with ASM/CPC is a big no no. Is there anyway to use the ultrasonic with them? I've got a bunch of Horseshoe chips that will need cleaning inbound and would help sway my decision to purchase one if I can use it with my ASM set.

Sure, you can use ultrasonic cleaning on ASM/CPC. Just don't use TSP -- use another detergent, e.g. Dawn or whatever you would use to clean ASM/CPC chips by hand. (Not OxiClean since that is counterproductive with an ultrasonic device.)

 

[detroitdad]

View attachment 57122

Me want

 

[Payback]

Sure, you can use ultrasonic cleaning on ASM/CPC. Just don't use TSP -- use another detergent, e.g. Dawn or whatever you would use to clean ASM/CPC chips by hand. (Not OxiClean since that is counterproductive with an ultrasonic device.)

Just picked up a Vevor 200W, 180W ultrasonic unit for $115 shipped off of eBay. TSP ordered along with salad spinner for another 30 so $150 total for everything. Seems like a solid deal not to clean a bunch of nasty chips.

 

[GoStumpy]

Only using my cell phone but even with a potato I can capture the difference on the rolling edge:

 

[GoStumpy]

Just picked up a Vevor 200W, 180W ultrasonic unit for $115 shipped off of eBay. TSP ordered along with salad spinner for another 30 so $150 total for everything. Seems like a solid deal not to clean a bunch of nasty chips.

It doing all the hard work is amazing... All we do is load and unload it, rinse & dry the chips... Super easy and super fast.

 

[Shaggy]

Issue with Dawn in the ultrasonic is it will sud up.

 

[Dr. Matt]

https://www.amazon.com/Kendal-Comme...ywords=ultrasonic+cleaner#feature-bullets-btf

This one is only $111 and seems like a good deal. Any reason not to go with this?

 

[Gear]

Issue with Dawn in the ultrasonic is it will sud up.

Ah. Well, boo. I suppose you could run the ultrasonic full of Dawn & water but no chips until the bubbles go away, and then add the chips for cleaning.

 

[Shaggy]

I bought some anti foaming additive from the local pool supply. I intended to do some testing... Never did. Ended up cleaning my Binion horseshoes by hand with dawn.

 

[BGinGA]

Most people are using the fake TSP stuff in the ultrasonic cleaners (claims it is TSP, but isn't really). No idea if it too is lethal to BurtCo/ASM/CPC chips, but probably worth a test if nobody has tried it.

 

[courage]

I haven't tested fully for ASM but even the tiniest amount of Dawn is way too sudsy. I may try Simple Green in low concentration.

 

[gopherblue]

Only using my cell phone but even with a potato I can capture the difference on the rolling edge:

Just think what you could do with a rutabaga....

 

[TheDeezer]

Can anyone tell me if they have bought this before and if so , is this version acceptable ? I wanna buy one but the model I want has been discontinued. Any feedback would be great. Not sure why I have missed out on doing this for so long.... thanks

 

[David O]

Can anyone tell me if they have bought this before and if so , is this version acceptable ? I wanna buy one but the model I want has been discontinued. Any feedback would be great. Not sure why I have missed out on doing this for so long.... thanks

I am sure it will clean as well as the Magnum but I would be concerned with the size of the tank. If you are using the salad spinner I am not sure it would fit in the tank but I could be wrong.

David

 

[David O]

@deezer

I actually think Hornady quit making those as well. They discontinued that model along with the Magnum.

 

[upNdown]

Testing out my 100w ultrasonic on my slightly dirty Motor City Qurters... Omg.

They come out brand new, I run them in a 2 minute bath with 1-2tbsp of TSP to 2L of water.

Take them out, put them on a towel, put another barrel in, turn it on, and then wipe off any gunk from the ones I just took out. It runs and cleans while I dry, and it's a great assembly line. Done a rack in under 15 minutes perfectly clean!

Help me out, brother - which model did you buy?