Ultrasonic Cleaner?

[Pete E]

Anybody use an ultrasonic cleaner to get dirt and grim off small finds?

[Oxgirl]

Great for gold jewellery, especially rings with hard stones, but I have found it vicious on copper.

[alloverover]

Wouldnt bother personally Pete, always found them to be less than usefull apart from cleaning CDs or my bins mate .

[Pete E]

Great for gold jewellery, especially rings with hard stones, but I have found it vicious on copper.

When you say vicious on copper, is that the solution itself, or does the actual ultrasonic sound damage the item?

[Pete E]

Wouldnt bother personally Pete, always found them to be less than usefull apart from cleaning CDs or my bins mate .

I have heard very mixed reports, but thought one might be a useful alternative to cleaning with a tooth brush....

[Oxgirl]

When you say vicious on copper, is that the solution itself, or does the actual ultrasonic sound damage the item?

I have used mine with just water - on a warm heat and it didn’t do much just remove patina. I’ve tried washing up liquid and that was a much bigger mistake - only on tester rubbish coins to try it I hasten to add. On bronze it might be better cause copper doesn’t like water.

Put it this way, I have taken mine out three times since I got it 3 years ago and I wouldn’t buy another if it broke.

[alloverover]

I have heard very mixed reports, but thought one might be a useful alternative to cleaning with a tooth brush....

Thats justb lazy Pete, if youvegot that much disposable, I will brush your finds mate

[Easylife]

I have quite a cheap one, it is great for certain tasks but only the very occasional find goes in it, and then only for about 5 seconds to shift the ingrained dirt. They can destroy things, the way that you test one is to place a sheet of ali foil in it and see how quickly it destroys it - quite good to watch all of the holes get bigger then to nothing! Now think of that effect on your finds!

[Pete E]

Thats justb lazy Pete, if youvegot that much disposable, I will brush your finds mate

Nah, it's just that I found a thimble earlier and was thinking of the best way to clean it..

The problem was that soil was engrained into the pattern and was difficult to shift and I was worried using a toothbrush to scrub it might cause more harm than good.

However having read some of the posts here, it seems an ultrasonic cleaner can actually be quite destructive anyway, so I shall probably not bother...

[Bors]

You could always try soaking finds in some " rubbing alcohol " for a couple of hours, then rinse in hot soapy water and give the find a quick going over with a toothbrush as your rinsing,then leave to dry naturally. That will take any hardend encrusted soil deposits off.