Screw Head Cleaner

[Brianc]

David. Your post reminded me that when my brother closed his electronic wiring company, he gave me a few bits and bobs and one of them was an ultrasonic cleaning bath. I had never used it because it was a bit large (about 12" x 12" 7" deep) and had decided that it would need too much fluid. However, I dug it out today and it does work, even with warm, soapy water. I put in a few dirty 1920s wireless components, switched it on and watched the dirt fall off! Miraculous. However, it is too big (220W RMS @ 38kHz) and umpti litre capacity - some people are never satisfied). Can I put lumps of metal in the bath to displace some of the liquid without absorbing too much power? I have some alloy blocks about 6" square and I could use those. Does that a heavy object absorb the same amount of power as a light, less dense object? What do you think?

[Yorkie]

Interesting question Brian, to which I don't know the answer. I'd be inclined to just fill the tank to the height of the items being cleaned, but I do see your point - over an area of 12" x 12" filled to just 3" (300mm x 300mm x 75mm) would be about 6.75 Litres, or filled to 6" would be 13.3 Litres, so quite a bucketful. Whatever it is that you're cleaning does of course displace some fluid, but if it's just small items, not a lot.

As I said before, you can re-use the fluid or I guess you could leave it in the tank, so once you've mixed some fluid, the ongiong expense is limited. Detergent would probably be ok, but I'm not sure how well it works in an ultrasonic cleaner. Obviously it would get dirt off, but as untrasonic cleaners work on the prinicple of cavitation, generating millions of tiny bubbles, and as detergents break down surface tension, I don't know whether that would cause the bubbles to collapse.

You've done rather well acquiring the bath, given that a similar one at the link I gave (300mm x 300mm x 150mm) is priced at £505 inc VAT!

To get back on topic, I should say Brian, thanks for your original tip - like all good ideas, it's simple, and it works! How quickly threads drift off topic, but it seems a bit of a faff to start new threads ever time we get 'mission creep' and we are still on the topic of cleaning bits and bobs. I guess that if we'd have drifted off like this elsewhere, by now the thread would have been closed, we'd all be in the naughty corner and there'd be tears before bedtime! As the forum is still at the formative stage, at risk of wandering off topic even further, it does raise the question of how fastidious we wish to be about drifting off topic (not), and whether or not we should start new threads relevant to the topic heading. I know that people sometimes get a bit uppity if they open a post and find that it bears little relationship to the header, but they do have an inalienble right to just ignore it if it's not of interest.

And from time to time we must remind ourselves that it's a hobby isn't it - not a convention of fusspots and pedants. Personally, if we keep it clean, relaxed and friendly, I'm content with that, but I'm just as happy to defer to whatever the moderators think as the forum evolves. The overriding aim should be to encourage, rather than to discourage, participation, or that leads to people stopping posting and resorting to lurking and using PMs of e-mail, which - to use an electronics analogy, is 180 degrees out of phase of the etyhos we're aming for.

Or so it seems to me.

David

[Joe]

Agreed, David; it's supposed to be about fun and relaxation. Long may it reign.

[fido]

With regard to going off topic my attitude is that it is fair enough as long as it does not cause the thread to be diverted away from helping someone who seeks advice. In this case the thread was started to offer a renovation tip to help others so it seems valid to explore alternative methods to do similar tasks.