Ultrasonic Cleaner

[Tall John]

Curious to learn if anyone uses an ultrasonic cleaner to clean your stainless steel handguns?  If so, do you disassemble,  just remove the grips or if you have synthetic grips, do you immerse the entire pistol?  How long and what temp works best?

[Jack Spade]

I remove the grips and submerge the whole gun.  I use the lyman ultrasonic cleaning solution and let it run for the max on the timer, I think it is 10 mins.  Then I rinse the gun with water then place in the oven at 150 for an hour.  Cleaning this way removes ALL of the oil so I spray some oil into the internals before trying to work the action. 

[Flyin Shootest]

At a usage rate of 1 or two matches weekly, so 6 to 12 stages, February-October.  I once a year, usually in November/December, religiously do a complete dissemble on each firearm and run it thought a commercial grade ultrasonic cleaner, and inspect all parts for unusual wear, oil and re-assemble.  Then light cleaning as needed the remainder of the year unless some sort of breakage occurs.  I also use the Lyman solvent, and 150 Deg tank temp for 30min to an hour depending on how clean things are after 30 min..  The Non-stainless parts I pay particular attention to making sure everything gets dried and oiled immediately after removal from the cleaner.

 

F.S.

[Tequila Shooter]

Once a year they get a full breakdown and all the parts (except grips) go into the wash.  I use airplane grade Simple Green diluted with distilled water.  When I’m satisfied with the cleanliness all the parts get dried with compressed air, oiled and then put back together. 

[Texas Maverick]

On 12/2/2023 at 6:29 AM, Tall John said:

Curious to learn if anyone uses an ultrasonic cleaner to clean your stainless steel handguns?  If so, do you disassemble,  just remove the grips or if you have synthetic grips, do you immerse the entire pistol?  How long and what temp works best?

I use mine for my SS NMV. I just take the cylinder out and the extractor lever and spring and put the parts in the basket and then the revolver in upside down so it gets the barrel. The grips are sticking up and above the cleaning fluid. I turn the heat on and run it through the cycle twice. Then take it out and dry it off and either place it in the sun or use my air compressor to blow it dry. Then I run a brass brush through the barrel and then an oiled swab. They come out like new. Note: I do them separately just so I keep the parts together for each gun. I oil the cylinder pin so the cylinder spins freely. I use the Lyman Gun Cleaning solution and distilled water in the tub.

 

TM

[Toranado, SASS # 58447]

Clean in ultrasonic like every 4-5 matches.   Grips off, cylinder out, cylinder pin out and the ejector housing.   Fully immerse pistol and run for 60 min about at 45-50 centigrade.   Stainless rugers.

rinse in sink with clean water and then lightly clean any remaining dirt and then lube up and back together!!

 

been using one for about 5 years.   15l model got from eBay, holds both pistols at once

[Clay Watcherman]

Has anyone tried 100% Ballistol in an ultrasonic?  Without the water does it clean as well?

Thinking it would make the process easier; ultrasonic clean, blow dry, wipe off, and your done.