Gun Cleanliness is very important. If you’ve owned a gun, you know how tedious the whole process can get. Since we live in a rapidly paced world, it is also very difficult to find time for cleaning your guns. In addition, there are many ways to clean guns that makes it even more confusing. Here, we’re going to go over one such method of cleaning guns and get a good grasp of it.
Cleaning gun parts with the ultrasonic cleaner is really a good exercise. Ultrasonic cleaners do their jobs quite perfectly. Before we dive into the ins and outs of the ultrasonic cleaners, let’s first see what they actually are and what are some of the features that it has.
The procedure of Cleaning Gun Parts With Ultrasonic Cleaner
Before diving into the actual process of cleaning a gun with an ultrasonic gun cleaner. There is something that you need to get first and that is the equipment selection.
When choosing an ultrasonic cleaner, you want to have the one which is capable of housing the largest component of your gun that requires the cleaning. The cleaners which have a heater are also very important. The inclusion of a basket in some of the cleaners are also recommended. These baskets will be really helpful in the long run. Heaters are important because they provide you to set the temperature of the cleaning solution which is a really sweet feature.
The cleaner with a degas function also lets you clean faster with new solutions. It speeds up the process. Apart from the cleaner itself, the availability and inclusion of an ultrasonic cleaning solution are also crucial. There are many solutions available, they’re available in 1-gallon containers. They’re not priced much. Make sure you dilute this solution, mix it with 9 parts of water and you’re good to go. When you’re all set with these, the next part will start and this is the main cleaning part.
To Summarize
We’ve shrunk the cleaning procedures in bullet points for your clear understanding. Follow this stepwise process and you’ll get a really great looking gun after your cleaning session. They’re listed below:
- The first thing that you’d like to do is to prepare a cleaning solution in accordance with the capacity that your cleaner tank supports. Look at the fill line and use the cleaning solution. Make sure to check the dilution recommendations from the manufacturer.
- Start the ultrasound function to mix and degas your solution. When it is degassed and mixed, turn the unit off.
- The next thing that you’d want to do is to disassemble the firearms according to the instruction provided by your gun manufacturer. Now place the disassembled components in the basket. Don’t overcrowd the basket.
- Now start the ultrasound, lower the basket in the solution and set a timer for the cleaning.
- Finally, remove the basket and observe the parts. If you’re satisfied, wipe them parts dry and start lubricating them. Otherwise, rinse and repeat.
Lubrication
After you’re done with the cleaning process, the next thing on your list is the lubrication. There are countless options to lubricate your guns with. You should, however, use ultrasonic lubrication that will help the cavitation energy to pass through the pan walls to thoroughly lubricate the gun.
Cleaning Solution Maintenance
There are many contaminants that rise to the surface of the cleaning bath that needs to be separated. A cleaning solution also has an expiry date. When the cleaning takes time, it is time to replace the solution. You can drain the tank and get rid of the solution with all the residues. The tank itself should also be cleaned every once in a while as it helps you to stop any contamination.
Caution while using an ultrasonic cleaner
There are a lot of people who do things that they probably shouldn’t while using an ultrasonic cleaner. Here, we’re going to go over some of the things that you should probably avoid.
They’re given below:
- Leave the controls alone. It is good to learn new things but never mess with something that you have no idea about. The transducers on the cleaner are the one main thing to look into. As the cleaners have high voltage requirement, you don’t want to manually reassemble it. Also, make sure you get the proper voltage to operate the cleaner.
- The solvents that you should use should also be the ones that support the cleaners. You don’t want to use stuff like alcohol or any other liquids that can catch fire. This can result in explosions.
- When the cleaner is working, don’t put any part of your body inside it. The solution can cause harmful effect on your skin and the liquid is pretty hot so, that wouldn’t be a smart move.
- Never put bleach into the tank. Bleach will stop the cavitation and the time of the cleaning process will increase significantly.
- Don’t put the components on the bottom of the tank. Use a basket for any other system to hold the gun parts and only then, clean them.
What is an ultrasonic gun cleaner?
Ultrasonic cleaning is a cleaning method that makes use of ultrasound and a cleaning solvent for cleaning an item. The solvent is usually tap water. So, the machine which uses the ultrasonic technology to clean a gun is referred to as an Ultrasonic Gun Cleaner. The traditional way to clean a gun requires you to manually input your labor for a clean gun. With ultrasonic cleaning, you can relax and let the machine do all the cleaning. Ultrasonic cleaning is also considered 15 times faster than traditional cleaning methods.
Features & Advantages of an Ultrasonic Gun Cleaner
There are many significant features of an ultrasonic gun cleaner. These features make them very useful and the go-to method of cleaning guns. These features are explained below:
- The cleaners are available at a broad range of tank dimensions and capacities. The method, however, remains the same.
- The inner side of the bottoms of the cleaning tank has embedded transducers. They’re the generators that operate and vibrate at frequencies that are ultrasonic in nature i,e, above 20 kHz.
- The vibration from the transducers then creates cavitation bubbles in the gun cleaning solvent. This cavitation bubble can create high temperatures inside because of gas compression which helps to clean the gun. This process is fast and ultrasonic cleaning is safe for anything despite high temperatures. The main thing to remember is to select the proper cleaning frequencies.
- The ultrasonic gun cleaners come at a wide range of cleaning frequencies. The commonly available frequencies are 25, 37, 45, 80 and 130 kHz.
- Other features of the ultrasonic gun cleaner include the variety in price, built quality and cleaning performance of the cleaners. You can choose the one that ticks all your boxes.
There are countless advantages of an ultrasonic gun cleaner. It provides you with the following advantages:
Ease of use
If you’re owning a gun for the first time, cleaning can be that one problem you might face. A single mistake can cause your gun to malfunction and get dirtier. Hence, you need to have something that makes the cleaning process easier. This is where an ultrasonic gun cleaning comes into play. You won’t have to manually select every single piece and clean the gun. Manual Labour is minimum. The machine does most of the things for you.
Friendly With Environment
Other cleaning methods tend to use harmful chemicals that aren’t environmental friendly. Lubes have a really pungent smell and these can really make your gun smell not so good. Ultrasonic cleaners, on the other hand, make use of tap water and they don’t have any residuals. This makes them really great for the environment.
Professional Cleaning
Cleaning manually can result in scratches, dents and even significant damages. An ultrasonic cleaner will give you a professional result. There is minimum contact with you and the gun and this reduces the chances of damage.
Time-Saving
Traditional cleaning methods need you to invest time. You need to inspect components, reassemble them and then clean it thoroughly which wastes a lot of time. Ultrasonic cleaners counter it by accommodating you with all the required cleaning at one or two goes which makes the whole cleaning process less tedious.
Conclusion
Cleaning gun parts with the ultrasonic cleaner is always a great way of cleaning guns. It is almost magical but hey, it works. Not only does it save time for you, but it also makes the cleaning experience fun. You just need to power on the device, use a basket, disassemble the parts of your gun, put it in the basket and set a timer for cleaning the parts. After you’re done, lubricate and there you go; an extensive process in a simple way. Since it is a powerful device, you need to have some responsibility. Don’t let your children play with it, clean the tank every once in a while and more importantly, use a solvent that’s supported. Don’t EVER put alcohol, bleach, gasoline etc on the tank. And in case of troubleshooting any problem, call an expert. Don’t go opening the cleaner just cos you think you can fix it.