Ultrasonic Cleaner

[orlandofurioso]

At what temperature will vulcanite lose its bend?

Not a clue .

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Not a clue .

Me neither, hence my reluctance to try the machine just yet.

 

[orlandofurioso]

Me neither, hence my reluctance to try the machine just yet.

Maybe at very low , say lukewarm, temp.
Me thinks no harm, no foul.
Try it on straight stems and watch them bending lol.

 

[orlandofurioso]

To my way of thinking an ultrasonic cleaner, if it works, doesn't offer much advantage over pipe cleaners with an appropriate cleaning solvent (e.g., alcohol, dish soap, lemon juice). As @cosmicfolklore points out there is ample reason to believe an ultrasonic cleaner will not work. The only way to reliably and completely remove oxidation on/in an ebonite stem is to remove material --> sanding or buffing, there is no secret sauce/pixey dust (e.g., oxyclean or bleach, or....) that changes this conclusion.

That is why I by long abandoned the Oxy etc. I keep my stems dry and work on them with nailbuffers,
also very sturdy cotton nebulizer air filter pads ( ! ) with a little unscented soft scrub etc.
It is tedious and so time consuming . Also rough to the arthritis in both my hands I now try to find an alternative route..
Advantage of the machine could be that they clean the stems inside ( according to Cosmic )
and you can throw in a whole bunch to watch them melt lol.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

A good ultrasonic will have the ability to control the temp or turn the heater off all together. Stems can start to loose their bend at around 120F if left at that temp for a while. Also heat will worsen oxidation if it’s already present, oxiclean or not. If you are going to clean stems in an ultrasonic do it with heater turned off. I would avoid simple green, it’s a solvent and can melt rubber. A few drops of dawn dish soap will work just fine. If you’re thinking that an ultrasonic will simply clean out an impacted stem, it won’t. They need to be most free of debris before they go in the ultrasonic. You’ll still need to do the bulk of the cleaning with pipe cleaners. If you put oxiclean in it and try to remove the oxidation you’re still gonna end up with a pitted stem that has to be sanded and polished. When you could have just done the same amount of sanding to remove the oxidation to begin with.

Now if you’ve got some carburetor’s to rebuild, ultrasonic is definitely the way to go. Get it as hot as will get and drop em in. Way better than chem dip.

 

[orlandofurioso]

A good ultrasonic will have the ability to control the temp or turn the heater off all together. Stems can start to loose their bend at around 120F if left at that temp for a while. Also heat will worsen oxidation if it’s already present, oxiclean or not. If you are going to clean stems in an ultrasonic do it with heater turned off. I would avoid simple green, it’s a solvent and can melt rubber. A few drops of dawn dish soap will work just fine. If you’re thinking that an ultrasonic will simply clean out an impacted stem, it won’t. They need to be most free of debris before they go in the ultrasonic. You’ll still need to do the bulk of the cleaning with pipe cleaners. If you put oxiclean in it and try to remove the oxidation you’re still gonna end up with a pitted stem that has to be sanded and polished. When you could have just done the same amount of sanding to remove the oxidation to begin with.

Now if you’ve got some carburetor’s to rebuild, ultrasonic is definitely the way to go. Get it as hot as will get and drop em in. Way better than chem dip.

That is well adviced and I will take heed. So much for ultrasonic pipe cleaning
On You tube I watched the carburetor cleaning up; amazing !

 

[ShopPipesWizard]

A good ultrasonic will have the ability to control the temp or turn the heater off all together. Stems can start to loose their bend at around 120F if left at that temp for a while. Also heat will worsen oxidation if it’s already present, oxiclean or not. If you are going to clean stems in an ultrasonic do it with heater turned off. I would avoid simple green, it’s a solvent and can melt rubber. A few drops of dawn dish soap will work just fine. If you’re thinking that an ultrasonic will simply clean out an impacted stem, it won’t. They need to be most free of debris before they go in the ultrasonic. You’ll still need to do the bulk of the cleaning with pipe cleaners. If you put oxiclean in it and try to remove the oxidation you’re still gonna end up with a pitted stem that has to be sanded and polished. When you could have just done the same amount of sanding to remove the oxidation to begin with.

Now if you’ve got some carburetor’s to rebuild, ultrasonic is definitely the way to go. Get it as hot as will get and drop em in. Way better than chem dip.

I agree, I bought a higher end ultra sonic cleaner with a heater thinking it would help clean the stems. According to Smokingpipes article that is what they use, I felt it didnt do that much for the inside of the stem. I think it works great as a final step when 90% of the gunk inside the stem is out. However to just take an estate stem and throw it in an ultrasonic cleaner, it wont do much

 

[Sigmund]

Too bad but it figures. On old estates the oxidation goes really deep. Probably a couple of thousandths. It takes a lot of elbow grease to get rid of it and a buffer to finish it off. Maybe someday there will be an easy method.

 

[peteguy]

I have a large one I use for glass. I never put my pipe stems in there but that is just me. The glass cleaning works great, wife uses it on her jewelry, and is happy with the results.