Adventures in hardware cleaning, Who doesn't like a clean screw? Options

[Chi-town]

Last weekend I spent the morning with @bdstone914 , @ValcoOscar cleaning hardware with Oscar's ultrasonic cleaner and trying different chemicals.

It got me thinking that I want an ultrasonic cleaner so I started doing some research.

Looks like for most automotive cleaning 40khz is the sweet spot.

I ordered a DK SONIC 6L 180W 40khz Ultrasonic Parts Cleaner with Heater from Amazon. (ETA Thursday)
Oscar used a solution made for ultrasonic cleaners
Bruce likes Evaporust
I'm partial to CLR

The ultrasonic solution cleaned most of the grease and oil and minor corrosion but did not affect the zinc coating.

A 50/50 mix of the ultrasonic solution and Evaporust cleaned oil and grease and moderate corrosion but took some of the zinc coating off.

I played around with straight CLR today with different lengths of submersion.
I found a short dip cleaned corrosion ok but not much affect on grease/oil.
A long dip takes the rust and zinc plating off completely.

Once my cleaner gets here I want to play with a diluted CLR and a citrus degreaser to see how it does.

What are you guys using to clean hardware / brackets?

Anyone using an ultrasonic cleaner? Tips / tricks?

[DickSteinkamp]

I use a vibratory tumbler like Eastwood's...

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I clean the fasteners/hardware in diesel first to get most of the grease off, then run them in the tumbler overnight with a little degreaser added to the water. Works great for me. I've probably done the parts for 4 restorations with mine.

[Chi-town]

How does the zinc coating hold up in the tumbler?

[mepstein]

I have a couple buckets of blasted parts and hardware. As soon as I find a good plating company, it will all get done. On the east coast, there is rarely any plating left on the metal so it’s easier just to start from scratch. At the shop, we use the ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning engine and trans cases and assorted parts. Does a good job.

A tumbler uses abrasive media. It will remove zinc and rust.

[bbrock]

I was using a Harbor Freight ultrasonic cleaner with 50/50 pinesol to clean hardware before it crapped out. Pinesol removes zinc. I also used a diluted Simple Green solution to clean plastic and rubber parts and it worked great. I started getting paranoid about the impact cleaning solutions may have on hydrogen embrittlement so have switched to using a tumbler, wire wheel, and blasting cabinet for cleaning parts. Like Mark said, the tumbler will remove plating but last week I picked up some rust remover resin at HF and it seems to be more gentle on finishes. All of my stuff is going out for replating so the zinc will come off one way or the other anyway, so I'm not worried about it.

BTW, if you have an HF ultrasonic cleaner, the weakness is that the control panel and circuit board are not very well sealed against moisture and are on front where liquid inevitably drips when removing the cover and the parts basket. The circuit board corroded on mine after just a couple months of use.

[DickSteinkamp]

How does the zinc coating hold up in the tumbler?

If you run rusty parts and fairly nice zinc plated parts in the same batch and run it long enough to get the rust off, the zinc plating will be gone in areas. In all cases, zinc plated parts will not look like new ones.

Zinc plating (either gold or silver color) is cheap. This pile (non Porsche) was about $100 to plate...

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