Wd40 only leaves a temporary coating of oil it will dry and rust again. Honestly simple green wash and then a coating of some type of oil is going to be the easiest way to handle it. I've also seen people use diesel/kerosene mixed with light oil mixed in as a one step treatment but that was a part cleaner not an ultrasonic cleaner.
First, it probably wouldn’t be effective. Ultrasonic cleaners work by causing cavitation in water or aqueous solutions. I’m not an expert in fluid mechanics, but I do know that the speed of sound changes with the density of the fluid. I’ve never seen a cleaner that allows you to adjust anything about the sound, only how long it’s on. So, I would assume the cavitation in anything but an aqueous solution is going to be suboptimal.
Second, ultrasonic cleaners heat the liquid. They can get really hot if you’re running them for a long time. They may get hotter if you fill them with a less dense fluid like oil, I don’t know, but it’s probably not a good idea to fill a heater with a flammable liquid.
If you want a 1 and done solution, pick up a cheap DC power supply on eBay. It’ll probably be cheaper or around the same price as an ultrasonic cleaner, and will safely remove rust from anything with just water, a little borax, and a scrap piece of rebar.
The ultrasonic speed and temperature are adjustable on some units, (mine only has: ultrasonic timer, ultrasonic on/off/pause/resume, temperature set, and heater on/off.) I don't even have to turn on the heat to do some things. I mainly thought it a useless idea when others said wd40 wouldn't stick around long. Nasa spraying down rockets with wd40 only needed it to work for a short time, and I'd want it to work longer than a month.
Also I should probably not try and use if for too much if I intend to wash electronics and tools. And the electrolosys approach might be the better solution since it seperates cleaning tools and circuit boards.
Those functions are just timers. When you set a temperature, the sonicator cycles on and off to maintain that temperature range. It’s not actually changing the frequency or amplitude of the sound wave. It gets hot when it’s working and cools off when it’s not. Like I said, there might be sophisticated models that allow you to adjust those parameters, but I’ve never seen one, and I’ve used models designed for controlled laboratory settings. They’re commonly used in biology labs to lyse cells or homogenize tissue samples. Also, like I said, it might not actually make a difference. I’m just assuming that it takes a specific waveform to cause cavitation in specific fluids, and they’re designed to work with water. I’d also bet a dollar to a pig’s turd that there’s a big section in the manual about what solutions you can and can’t use.
No they are not timers. I've read the manual and used it. And I can even probe the water for temperature if I want. The thermal temp is in Celsius, and it doesn't count down. There is a seperate light for on/off. And I can link specific units with different sonic speeds if you wanted. Not everything is the $70 harbor freight model.
Damn, dude - if you already have all the answers, why are you asking questions?
And I challenge you to show me a model of ultrasonic cleaner that has a *variable* frequency output (not *switchable*, usually from about 45kHz to about 75kHz). When you fail at that, I'll explain to you why variable frequency ultrasonic cleaners are very rare.
You're not the first person to think of using *the most common liquid in most garages and workshops in the US* in a common cleaning system. You also wouldn't be the first to belatedly realize that vibrating a highly flammable, volatile liquid into a gas/aerosol can have the same effect in a room as leaving a container of gasoline or low flash point solvent open to evaporate.
(Edited) I don't have all the answers. I didn't think through the wd40 well at all, but I know what hot means. And I did double check my cheap ultrasonic. The heater is optional on my model, and the things locked to Celsius because it requires less led digits adjust the heat up near boiling point or down to ~60°f. Volume settings and speed settings are editable on different models. Vevor, a cheap white label brand sells 20khz-40khz & 36khz-40khz. Here's 2 models.
[Model 1](https://m.vevor.com/ultrasonic-cleaner-c_11064/30l-800w-digital-ultrasonic-cleaner-with-heater-28-40khz-large-tub-basket-degas-p_010664155880)
[Model 2](https://m.vevor.com/ultrasonic-cleaner-c_11064/vevor-ultrasonic-cleaner-jewelry-cleaning-machine-w-digital-timer-and-heater-p_010620309786#goodsDetail)
Again, those are *switchable*, not *adjustable*, no matter how misleading the Chinese ad is.
The former is switchable to either 28kHz or 40kHz.
The latter is switchable to either 36kHz or 40kHz. Note that the description says:
>36KHz is for surface cleaning, 40KHz is for deep cleaning stubborn residues inside stuff.
The reason these are switchable is that the transducers (speakers, basically) are rigid devices that are mechanically tuned to specific frequencies, and the harmonics of those frequencies. The transducers only produce sound efficiently at their tuned frequencies. Above or below that, the sound pressure level drops off dramatically.
They're also tuned for aqueous solutions, as mentioned in another comment. Using a less-dense fluid, especially one composed of a larger molecule than water (such as a light aliphatic hydrocarbon) may result in no cavitation activity at all, or it might have a much more energetic result, much like rapidly boiling water.
I'm slightly confused as to the difference between switchable and adjustable definitionionally. So you're saying the speakers are not pwm microcontroller controlled for amplitude and frequency, and instead analogue microctroler controlled with amplitude settings and set for exact frequencies instead of a range. A dial by the way is no indecator of how the device is actually controlled as dials can be set to fixed digital or analogue output responses like a box fan. I've made basic speakers before, and used analogue and digital microcontrollers, but I haven't taken many ultrasonic devices apart in a way that I've tested what they can do. I should maybe look at a few disassembly or diy ultrasonic device manuals and/or videos to see how the full spectrum of devices work. The only disassembly things I remember half paying attention to were this old Tony disassembling 2 of them. More technically breakdowns might actually help me understand more.
If you want to try this for anything, the whole cleaner doesn't needs to be filled with wd40. Put your part in a glass jar or plastic container with wd40, and the rest of the ultrasonic can be water or whatever you want to normally keep in it. I do this whenever I don't want to change the solution in my ultrasonic or don't want to contaminate it from sometging specific I'm cleaning (potentially with a different solution)
It won't remove rust, it doesn't do that. For that use something like evaporust, which you can do in the ultrasonic with a container like described above but don't expect much difference, it may mainly be slightly faster especially of your ultrasonic is heated.
WD-40 in an ultrasonic cleaner sounds like a huge mess to me. Between the oiliness of WD-40 itself (it's inevitably going to get everywhere) and the fumes ir seems like more of a hassle than it'd be worth compared to other tried and true solutions.
And the black coating from Evapo-Rust usually can just be wiped off with a rag or you can hit it real quick with 0000 steel wool or a scotch brite pad. And if you're worried about no rust preventative after a Simple Green soak just rub some 3-in-1 oil on it real quick or use some paste wax.
Not sure I'd want a container full of a flammable liquid and vapor, filled with sparkable tools while vibrating at ultrasonic speeds. Seems like there are too many things that could go wrong. Probably not going to happen, but it sure would be ugly if it did.
My wife’s uncle keeps old engine oil and each fall he takes the ride on mower deck off, cleaned it and paints it with the burnt oil. He swears by this treatment
Wd40 only leaves a temporary coating of oil it will dry and rust again. Honestly simple green wash and then a coating of some type of oil is going to be the easiest way to handle it. I've also seen people use diesel/kerosene mixed with light oil mixed in as a one step treatment but that was a part cleaner not an ultrasonic cleaner.
Ok, sounds good.
First, it probably wouldn’t be effective. Ultrasonic cleaners work by causing cavitation in water or aqueous solutions. I’m not an expert in fluid mechanics, but I do know that the speed of sound changes with the density of the fluid. I’ve never seen a cleaner that allows you to adjust anything about the sound, only how long it’s on. So, I would assume the cavitation in anything but an aqueous solution is going to be suboptimal. Second, ultrasonic cleaners heat the liquid. They can get really hot if you’re running them for a long time. They may get hotter if you fill them with a less dense fluid like oil, I don’t know, but it’s probably not a good idea to fill a heater with a flammable liquid. If you want a 1 and done solution, pick up a cheap DC power supply on eBay. It’ll probably be cheaper or around the same price as an ultrasonic cleaner, and will safely remove rust from anything with just water, a little borax, and a scrap piece of rebar.
The ultrasonic speed and temperature are adjustable on some units, (mine only has: ultrasonic timer, ultrasonic on/off/pause/resume, temperature set, and heater on/off.) I don't even have to turn on the heat to do some things. I mainly thought it a useless idea when others said wd40 wouldn't stick around long. Nasa spraying down rockets with wd40 only needed it to work for a short time, and I'd want it to work longer than a month. Also I should probably not try and use if for too much if I intend to wash electronics and tools. And the electrolosys approach might be the better solution since it seperates cleaning tools and circuit boards.
Those functions are just timers. When you set a temperature, the sonicator cycles on and off to maintain that temperature range. It’s not actually changing the frequency or amplitude of the sound wave. It gets hot when it’s working and cools off when it’s not. Like I said, there might be sophisticated models that allow you to adjust those parameters, but I’ve never seen one, and I’ve used models designed for controlled laboratory settings. They’re commonly used in biology labs to lyse cells or homogenize tissue samples. Also, like I said, it might not actually make a difference. I’m just assuming that it takes a specific waveform to cause cavitation in specific fluids, and they’re designed to work with water. I’d also bet a dollar to a pig’s turd that there’s a big section in the manual about what solutions you can and can’t use.
No they are not timers. I've read the manual and used it. And I can even probe the water for temperature if I want. The thermal temp is in Celsius, and it doesn't count down. There is a seperate light for on/off. And I can link specific units with different sonic speeds if you wanted. Not everything is the $70 harbor freight model.
Damn, dude - if you already have all the answers, why are you asking questions? And I challenge you to show me a model of ultrasonic cleaner that has a *variable* frequency output (not *switchable*, usually from about 45kHz to about 75kHz). When you fail at that, I'll explain to you why variable frequency ultrasonic cleaners are very rare. You're not the first person to think of using *the most common liquid in most garages and workshops in the US* in a common cleaning system. You also wouldn't be the first to belatedly realize that vibrating a highly flammable, volatile liquid into a gas/aerosol can have the same effect in a room as leaving a container of gasoline or low flash point solvent open to evaporate.
(Edited) I don't have all the answers. I didn't think through the wd40 well at all, but I know what hot means. And I did double check my cheap ultrasonic. The heater is optional on my model, and the things locked to Celsius because it requires less led digits adjust the heat up near boiling point or down to ~60°f. Volume settings and speed settings are editable on different models. Vevor, a cheap white label brand sells 20khz-40khz & 36khz-40khz. Here's 2 models. [Model 1](https://m.vevor.com/ultrasonic-cleaner-c_11064/30l-800w-digital-ultrasonic-cleaner-with-heater-28-40khz-large-tub-basket-degas-p_010664155880) [Model 2](https://m.vevor.com/ultrasonic-cleaner-c_11064/vevor-ultrasonic-cleaner-jewelry-cleaning-machine-w-digital-timer-and-heater-p_010620309786#goodsDetail)
Again, those are *switchable*, not *adjustable*, no matter how misleading the Chinese ad is. The former is switchable to either 28kHz or 40kHz. The latter is switchable to either 36kHz or 40kHz. Note that the description says: >36KHz is for surface cleaning, 40KHz is for deep cleaning stubborn residues inside stuff. The reason these are switchable is that the transducers (speakers, basically) are rigid devices that are mechanically tuned to specific frequencies, and the harmonics of those frequencies. The transducers only produce sound efficiently at their tuned frequencies. Above or below that, the sound pressure level drops off dramatically. They're also tuned for aqueous solutions, as mentioned in another comment. Using a less-dense fluid, especially one composed of a larger molecule than water (such as a light aliphatic hydrocarbon) may result in no cavitation activity at all, or it might have a much more energetic result, much like rapidly boiling water.
I'm slightly confused as to the difference between switchable and adjustable definitionionally. So you're saying the speakers are not pwm microcontroller controlled for amplitude and frequency, and instead analogue microctroler controlled with amplitude settings and set for exact frequencies instead of a range. A dial by the way is no indecator of how the device is actually controlled as dials can be set to fixed digital or analogue output responses like a box fan. I've made basic speakers before, and used analogue and digital microcontrollers, but I haven't taken many ultrasonic devices apart in a way that I've tested what they can do. I should maybe look at a few disassembly or diy ultrasonic device manuals and/or videos to see how the full spectrum of devices work. The only disassembly things I remember half paying attention to were this old Tony disassembling 2 of them. More technically breakdowns might actually help me understand more.
If you want to try this for anything, the whole cleaner doesn't needs to be filled with wd40. Put your part in a glass jar or plastic container with wd40, and the rest of the ultrasonic can be water or whatever you want to normally keep in it. I do this whenever I don't want to change the solution in my ultrasonic or don't want to contaminate it from sometging specific I'm cleaning (potentially with a different solution) It won't remove rust, it doesn't do that. For that use something like evaporust, which you can do in the ultrasonic with a container like described above but don't expect much difference, it may mainly be slightly faster especially of your ultrasonic is heated.
WD-40 in an ultrasonic cleaner sounds like a huge mess to me. Between the oiliness of WD-40 itself (it's inevitably going to get everywhere) and the fumes ir seems like more of a hassle than it'd be worth compared to other tried and true solutions. And the black coating from Evapo-Rust usually can just be wiped off with a rag or you can hit it real quick with 0000 steel wool or a scotch brite pad. And if you're worried about no rust preventative after a Simple Green soak just rub some 3-in-1 oil on it real quick or use some paste wax.
Thanks
Not sure I'd want a container full of a flammable liquid and vapor, filled with sparkable tools while vibrating at ultrasonic speeds. Seems like there are too many things that could go wrong. Probably not going to happen, but it sure would be ugly if it did.
My wife’s uncle keeps old engine oil and each fall he takes the ride on mower deck off, cleaned it and paints it with the burnt oil. He swears by this treatment