Help! Ultrasonic woes :(

[Melanie]

Hello everyone

Firstly hello - have been a long-time lurker on here but this is my first time posting... I was hoping that someone on here would be able to help me solve my ultrasonic mystery...

I make jewellery from sterling silver clay... have been experimenting with the luxi polishes and love the shine it gives, but need to get the polish out of the details... so.... I brought a ultrasonic (like the 2L one cookies sell) thinking this would sort it out, however...

I am getting weird white residue on my silver - comes out looking worse than when it went in... have tried, plain water, with a squirt of fairy, and the ultrasonic cleaning fluid from cooksons and it still turns up. It doesn't rub off with a polishing cloth, and the only way I can get rid is by polishing it again with the luxi which gets me back to square one (nice shiny flat bits, but gunky imprints). Am assuming its either the polish or some sort of reaction with the cleaning fluid.. have I just got a rubbish ultrasonic or am I doing something wrong? :(

Any help would me greatly appreciated! Thanks :)

Melanie

[Patstone]

Hi Melanie
I bought an ultrasonic and mine was a cheapie, thinking it would be good to clean things, but I was very disappointed in mine, even got to the stage of adding ammonia to the mix to see if that worked better, it didnt by the way. Just about everything I have goes in my tumbler. It seems as if the only thing ultrasonics are good for is removing the polish on stuff, it seems to do that to a degree. Before I had the ultrasonic, I used to make a mix of ammonia and water in a jam jar and leave items that had just been polished and had the wax in hard to reach places and left overnight it got most of it off, with the aid of an old toothbrush.

[Goldsmith]

Hi Melanie,
Have you tried using a bowl of hot soapy water and a bristle brush. To remove polish residues inside hollows dabbing with a soapy soft bristle brush was the method used by polishers before the invention of the ultrasonic cleaners, these are the type of brushes used; http://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery-Tools/Bristle-Washing-Out-Brush---Bone-Handle-prcode-999-159 after cleaning with a bristle brush you can get the shine back by just using a soft polishing mop that is clean of any polishing compounds.

James

[josef1]

I have found if I suspend things from electrical wire (the twin and earth type like in the walls of your house) with the outer gray cover removed ,so its a copper wire with a blue or brown (red or black in old money) covering .I make hooks and have a rod that runs over the top of the cleaner .I get less surface markings.also try dishwasher liquid (not the tablets) don't use to much,but I have had good results using it. I have not used metal clay so Im not sure if it will work

[Dennis]

To get any result at all it needs to be a pukka professional machine that provides ultrasonic vibrations, not just a low cost item meant to be sold to the public. I have not bought an ultrasonic, because to me it seems a lot of fuss and expense for indifferent results.

If you follow James' advice, you will at the very least know whether the fault lies with your detergent, or with your machine. Dennis.

[Gemsetterchris]

Things need to be suspended & not touching the inside metal of the cleaner as described by josef1 to work properly... you can`t just dump stuff in. [-X
Get some ultrasonic cleaning solution to mix with water, ammonia is nasty stuff & fairy liquid is for fairy`s.

[Goldsmith]

As Dennis says, to get a decent result from an ultrasonic cleaner, it needs to be a professional machine. My ultrasonic is a 3 ltr. Sonorex RK100, they are not cheap as they are made for trade use, see; http://www.ultrasoniccleaner.co.uk/sonorex-rk100h.html and as Chris says, they work quicker if items are suspended in the ultrasonic liquid without touching the tank sides or bottom. I hang items in mine by using S shaped copper wire hooks suspended on a strip of wood across the tank's top. Another tip that an old polisher once told me is if polished items have recesses caked in polish compound, hang them in a bowl of Polyclens paint brush cleaner for about an hour, which dissolves most polishing compounds, then wash and dry before a final polish with a clean mop.

James

[Melanie]

Thanks everyone - I have tried suspending my pendant over the top of it as well as plonking it in the basket, and tried ultrasonic cleaning solution so am guessing its the cheap(ish) machine. I only brought the blasted thing as I wanted to use a pen plater (possibly another impulse buy) on the recessed bits of my pendant and everything I read said "clean in a ultrasonic" ho hum... seemed to still plate ok after a good toothbrushing though ;)


Think I will revert to the toothbrush and try the polishing with a clean mop afterwards :)