Ultrasonic Cleaner – Cleans!

[YakRunabout]

I tether stuff on my kayak – have had a few items lost, but have seen others lose more (like 4 rod/reels)! So I continue to tether. In doing this I have a variety of clips, which through time get corroded and non-functional. I often just toss these since they are cheap and easy to replace. The clip in the picture is one that is permanently attached to the cable. Through time it became harder and harder to open and eventually was just locked in the open position. Before sawing it off I thought I would see if I could get it working again. I sprayed it with PB Blaster, which has worked for screws, bolts, etc – but nothing. I tried Evaporust, which has worked great for removing rust, but no impact (not surprising since this is not rust!).

So, looking around trying to figure out what else to try I spotted a sonic cleaner up on the shelf – I thought worth a try. So I add cleaner and water and the clip and kick it off – right away there is a whitish cloud emanating from the clip – it seems to be working. I let it run its cycle and, on removal, found the clip to again be fully functional. Added a bit of oil and it is ready to go.

So, in the future, I will toss clips into the sonic cleaner to see if they are restored! Often clips just lose their ‘spring’, but it may just be salt water corrosion that will come off.

[Ron Mc]

they're really amazing for cleaning bicycle chains

[Drifting Yak]

Great idea Ken. Simple plus functional equals a great combination.

[Yaklash]

Makes me wonder how it would do on reel parts, especially on a reel that has taken some real abuse. And how about bearings. You could follow an ultrasonic cleaning of bearings with WD-40 and then alcohol to be sure all of the water and residue are out of there.

[YakRunabout]

Seems like it should work. It works differently than solvents, etc. It is good on 'scale' and other gunk. Like the accumulation on watch bands between the sections. Saltwater adds a lot of 'scale'. Just need one large enough to hold whatever parts you have.

[shoffer]

I use an ultrasonic cleaner on my baitcaster reel parts. Works like a charm.

[TroutSupport.com]

I use an ultrasonic cleaner on my baitcaster reel parts. Works like a charm.

I've heard some guys saying they will dunk the whole reel in there then take it out and oil / grease what ever.

[Yaklash]

I use an ultrasonic cleaner on my baitcaster reel parts. Works like a charm.

Do you use a specific detergent?
Do you rinse the parts in something to remove the detergent from bearings especially?

[Fin-Addict]

Also, is that the harbor freight model?

[JMS]

Just googled there only about $30-40 so certainly worth the investment


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[YakRunabout]

On the Harbor Freight question - it is not from there.
I bought this several years ago for another cleaning purpose, likely from Amazon. I have not used it on fishing related items previously and have not used it at all for a couple years. So it was not first on my list to try and un-stick this clip, but I am glad I gave it a try.

They are marketed a lot for jewelry and other small items, so if you get one be sure it is large enough for your use.

[shoffer]

I put my small reel parts in a shot glass, put rust remover, or nail polish remover in there, and turn on the cleaner. The shot glass is so that I don't have to waste a bunch of cleaner. I use it on bearings, and specifically, I use it on the roller clutch.

[Duweezy]

I clean all my reels with an ultra sonic cleaner. I use a simple green and water as my solution (approx 1:4 ratio mix). For the bearings I take those out and put in a separate cup of mineral spirits and let them soak. Been doing it for the past 2 years and no complaints.

[Yaklash]

Great thread. After keeping my eyes on this thread for a couple of days, I looked up "bearing cleaning" on Youtube a couple of nights ago and saw some interesting videos. One where a guy put his bearings in a plastic Tupperware container in some Boca cleaning solution and put his electric beard trimmer against the bottom of the container to vibrate the bearings. Another video put a stem on a dremmel tool that was the same size as the spool shaft and put the bearing on it. He would then submerge the bearing in the solution spinning it on the dremmel tool. Then he'd pull it out, hold the outside of the bearing with a paper towel and spin the solution out. Then he'd do that over and over again.

[AcousticTennis]

I do something similar to that yaklash. Be warned that not all bearings will react fairly and may go "bad". I usually use it to knock a majority of he grime off the reel, especially in hard to reach parts. If I have some super dead bearings ill pop the shields off, throw em in a bottom half of a water bottle full of mineral spirits and let that go to work. Take it out spin it with a dremel and repeat. Although if the bearing is at the point where that how you need to clean it then it may just be beyond help. I've never found a reason to put a relatively good or working bearing in the machine. Always a chance to ruin it with the dremel or something. Mineral spirits works great but dont mix it with the water or itll react and turn white. Dont use the eco-friendly mineral spirits. Its white already and thickens up. Just covers parts.

[mpg2yahoo]

Don't know if this is too late or not, but to pry it open maybe you can use 50/50 solution of transmission oil and acetone. This is better than WD40 or Liquid Wrench. Anyways, my $0.02 cents.