Thread: WTH did my sonic cleaner do to my blade?

I recall reading cautions about using ultrasonic cleaners on certain medical equipment... the problem being "ultrasonic cavitation". I don't have access to those materials any longer, but here's an article that explains the problem pretty well.

I hope this helps.

Don't know!
I have iron hard water. Using a large HF unit, I have never had the problem. But..I think that a chlorinated water may be the cause. I use vinegar to de-calcify and degrease and a citrus to remove the acidic component afterward. I do get a slight greying from the vinegar water if I let it go too long. I don't use the US after polishing a blade but use a strong citrus to remove the buffing compound.

There are some seriously powerful US machines out there and they could cause the cavitation mentioned above. US in another form is used for contouring and drilling hard materials.
~Richard

I would tend to lean towards hard water. For Ultrasonic cavition to occur operating frequency would be able to implode a metal cell. Highly unlikely given the atomic number of carbon steel. More likely chemical reaction between metal and chlorine. Documentable effects of chlorine and metals are well known. Ultrasound would only exastribate such a interaction. My simple input would be to only clean with materials that were common at the time of manufacture.

Yeah. Non-chlorinated water. I specifically use a chlorine-salt mixture to intentionally stain copper.

Also, a small amount of mild detergent helps the whole process work better.

I use the ultrasonic on razors pretty regularly, and I've never seen anything like this.

yeah chlorine and metal don't mix that well... or actually, realy well, in the sense that they will react

I guess the ultra sonic cavitation speeded up this reaction locally. Probably with some old pitting acting as a cavity for this to happen

Tap water is not recommended for several reasons, firstly the pH level is likely to be low (acidic) or high (alkaline), and secondly it may have minerals and metal deposits in it. The liquid should be pH neutral at 7 on the pH scale. Proper distillation of water achieves that, or you can buy neutral us cleaning fluid with surfactants, anticorrosion and stain remover already in it.

Dissimilar metals, eg steel, brass pins and lead washers should not really be cleaned in an us machine as plating may occur.

Yellow- brown and light orange marks are rarely rust, if rubbing hard with a pencil eraser removes the discolouration it was just a stain, usually induced by high pH, whereas if any pitting remains then it was rust.

Leaving steel in an acidic or alkaline water will rust it, especially if it is for 10 mins, which is plain common sense. The rust is usually darker brown and may be blackish or have black dots, though.

It usually helps to read the instructions first and stick to recommended cleaning products.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

It usually helps to read the instructions first and stick to recommended cleaning products.

Regards,
Neil

Okey dokey, "Use appropriate Cleaning fluid when you wash different objects".
When buying the cheapest Chinese made appliance it would pay to do some research on best practices.

There, you summed it up nicely. Buy cheap, get cheap, be prepared to do extra legwork.

Pay a reasonable price and you usually get decent documentation. If you dont, everyone and his dog has published volumes about basic use and chemicals on the net.

If you have access to the web then there really should not be any issues at all, providing you are sensible enough to research your application first before committing yoursely on the strength of a cheap, dodgy pidgin-english document produced by a member of the Benny Hill appreciation society.

Regards,
Neil.

I'm sort of mystified by this post, it looks like the pics are reversed.....I'm looking at a mirror finished blade that before the ultrasonic cleaner was a rusty mess.

Geezer, do you use straight vinegar?

What do you use for the Citrus blend?