Great info. Made a sticky.
Yay! My first ever sticky! Wait... that might sound bad taken out of context.
How does this one look?:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161042406948
2X 60w transducers and 200w of heating in a 2.5 litre (.66 US Gallon) tank
Seems OK, albeit with a little less ultrasonic power than the one I have, and a LOT more heating power. BTW, I failed to mention something: Some online reviewers complain about the wimpy heating capacity of these units. For the purposes of chip cleaning, you don't really need much heating capacity, because you don't want to use high temperatures. Also, those ultrasonic transducers put a lot of energy into the tank and into the chips that ends up as heat.
Bottom line is that I wouldn't worry about the heating power. I DO recommend you check the internal dimensions of the tank, and ensure that you can find something to use as a "chip barrel cage" that FITS the ultrasonic unit you plan to buy. If you don't tumble the chips in a cage, the gunk gets loosened, but not removed, at least, not in a reasonable amount of time.
Wow... I like that
3 for number of transducers, and I like that
180W number for power! Seems like a steal for the price. The relatively low price might make you wonder about quality, but frankly, none of the units anywhere near this price range (~$200) are what I'd call great quality. You just hope you get one that works, and send it back to
Amazon if it doesn't (to be clear, I had no problem with my Hornady branded ultrasonic).
Thanks, Chris. I might even consider upgrading! Again, just make sure you check the internal dimensions and ensure you can get a "chip barrel cage" of some sort that fits! If you don't tumble the chips in a cage, the gunk gets loosened, but not removed, at least, not in a reasonable amount of time.
Ski,
First off thanks for this thread and the well written procedure. I managed to get a great deal on the Magnum cleaner on
eBay... new $120 shipped.
First off, you're of course very welcome. Second off... Holy cow, what a deal! Great score for $120!
I followed Ski's procedure to a tee. Here are the before and afters for a dirty set of peach Par-A-Dice roulettes.
View attachment 4229
View attachment 4230
The chips have yet to be oiled. There is just a little bit of crud still stuck in the mold on a few chips. I can't really speak to fading or hotstamp removal. The hotstamps on all of my Par-A-Dice were pretty iffy.
I'm really looking forward to cleaning more chippies with this process. No more scrubbing.
I'm glad you got generally good results, but I'm really disappointed that you have ANY gunk still stuck in the mold. The only time that's been a problem for me is when I clean really filthy
SCV/
LCV chips (like Empress) that someone else had PREVIOUSLY CLEANED (poorly), or worse yet, PREVIOUSLY CLEANED AND OILED. I know you said you followed the procedure to a tee, but if you can think of anything you did differently, let me know (e.g. constant rotation of chips in barrel cage at about 1/2 rotation per second, plastic ties in chip barrel cage to promote turnover, distilled water, etc.). Also, for these chips, did you run the unit for about 2-1/2 minutes, or something shorter or longer?
The only thing missing from this process is a food dehydrator to bring the drying into the 21st Century.
: Drying isn't the big time consumer. IMHO, doing a good job oiling the chips is still a killer, though. I've tried to think of a much faster easier way of oiling large quantities of chips without missing all the "cracks and crevices" in the molds, and without causing damage by seeping under the inlays, but so far I've got nothing. I even thought about whipping out my automotive paint spray equipment(!), but that would require some fairly thin mineral oil that might get under the inlays and darken them. Plus, you'd still be left with the high effort of wiping off the excess. I don't know. At least using Johnson's Baby Oil GEL helps keep your hands soft... or so I'm told anyway by the girls in our poker group!