DIY ultrasonic parts cleaner?

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pybyr

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Jun 3, 2008
2,300
Adamant, VT 05640
I've always thought that when (or if) I grew up, I'd really like an ultrasonic parts cleaner-- and always hoped I'd bumble into one being discarded by a lab, or at a non-extortive price in Fleabay, etc.-- but such luck has not come my way.

From time to time, I think: why couldn't one take a piezoelectric tweeter like this,

http://www.madisound.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=8594#at

then cut an appropriate hole in the side of a discarded stainless steam-tray from a cafeteria-type application, drive the tweeter with an appropriate signal at appropriate potencies (little class D amps are getting cheaper by the month) http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=UAM2

fill the tray with cleaning solution, & voom-

But as far as I have been able to find, no one has done so.

Is there a hole in my idea, or is this a DIY dream waiting to happen in cellars and garages?
 
Great idea! I've thought about this one too after seeing the jeweler clean my wife's wedding ring. I had a very similar plan in mind and can't imagine why it wouldn't work. Seems you could add some detergent to the solution to help things along. My main concern would be how much vibration power the tweeter could produce and whether it would be enough. I'd like to know how it works if you build it.

Good luck.
 
what do you want to clean?
 
wahoowad said:
what do you want to clean?
Click to expand...

mechanical and electrical parts/ assemblies.
 
Three possible problems...

1. Does it give enough power?

2. Is it the right frequency range? - Ultrasonic is generally considered above 30Khz (upper limit for human hearing) the linked speaker only does 27Khz - I suspect you would rapidly tire of a cleaner that screamed at you, not to mention the potential hearing damage if you can still catch that range...

3. How resistant would the unit be to your cleaning solutions?

Gooserider
 
You can get a cheap ultrasonic cleaner on Ebay for <$100

you can also get some very high power transducers on ebay for cheap money and just bolt them to your tank - but the money is not in the transducer, it's in the driver and pumping a kilowatt at >1kV and 40+kHz is not a cheap and easy task.


(broken link removed to http://cgi.ebay.com/BOLT-CLAMPED-LANGEVIN-ULTRASONIC-TRANSDUCER-40-KHz_W0QQitemZ140082919484QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item209d97b83c)
 
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