#18
Post
by mangocrazy » Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:02 pm
Finally got my sweaty mitts on it and run a couple of test items through it, and I'm cautiously impressed. I was wondering what fluid to use in the thing, but noticed that most (if not all) of the Ultrasonic cleaning solutions had Citric acid as a major constituent.
So after googling around I decided to mix 3 dessert spoons of citric acid crystals (get it from homebrew shops or off the web) with 2 litres of hot tap water and a quick squirt of Fairy liquid. I'm right scientific, me...
The bits i used as a test were the suspension linkages off my old VFR750. They've been in use for 24 years and have definitely seen better days (or years, to be fair). In the true spirit of scientific research I neglected to take 'before' pictures and can't really be arsed to take 'after' ones either. It's cold outside.
The first batch plonked into the surprisingly small stainless steel basket comprised of the cast aluminium rocker arm, two shafts which pass through said arm and one of the bolts holding the plot together. I'd done my best to degrease these items prior to dropping them in the Ultrasonic cleaner, but they were still a long way from grease-free and pretty manky all round. I'd also left the 4 needle roller bearings still inside the rocker arm, just to see what happened.
Default temperature of the solution is set at 50 degC, and I left it at that, and I gave it a cleaning cycle of 15 minutes. The cleaner does have a heater, but to be honest it seems that the Ultrasonics themselves do a pretty good job of heating the fluid. The fluid went in at about 25 degrees and rose to exactly 50 degrees after 15 minutes. Next time I'll put water in that's as hot as I can get from the tap, as heat certainly seems to play a big part in the cleaner's effectiveness.
After 15 minutes I pulled the parts out and was pleasantly surprised by the improvement. The shafts clearly showed that there was wear present, which wasn't apparent before. Also the rocker arm showed wear in the hole where the shock bush fits, so that too was scrap. Basically I spent £110 pounds to conclusively establish I need to buy some expensive Honda spare parts. Bugger. But the aluminium rocker arm itself came up to a high standard of finish, apart from the parts where corrosion and pitting had taken place.
I also put the steel linkage arms in, and the cleaner removed a seriously impressive amount of crud from the zinc plated surface. The only bits it couldn't deal with was where the zinc had been breached and had started rusting. Something that went in black and claggy, and had resisted all my attempts to clean it with degreaser and a toothbrush came out pretty much cleaned back to the original plating. Not bad at all.
I wasn't really being fair handing it some greasy, knackered components to deal with, but I think that it should make a good fist of more intricate and non-greasy parts like carbs. It seems to be at its best at removing oxidation and scale, and that's what I want it to do with the carbs. I'll report back when I get round to that, and this time I'll provide pics.
Honest...
