Fire/smoke damaged radios

[HamishBoxer]

Ultra sonic cleaners are normally for small components IE watches.Unless I guess it is commercial if anyone has one big enough.

[Lloyd 1985]

Hi,

The ultra-sonic cleaner (does sound a bit sci-fi!) is basically just a metal tank with ultra-sonic transducers stuck underneath it, you fill it with a mix of water and some sort of cleaning solution and put the parts into this in a basket to keep them off the floor of the tank. It then blasts ultra-sonic waves through the liquid, dislodging all the crud on the parts. Especially good for cleaning small or awkward parts that you wouldn't get clean with just a scrub in the sink.

In true Blue Peter fashion, here's a DAC90A I tortured earlier... (well, back in 2011!)

The cleaner itself is a Kerry/Guyson that holds about 8-10 litres, and I was told it was quite expensive, but I got it for nowt when the company I worked for closed down and were chucking everything they didn't understand in a skip.

I know I probably shouldn't have left the IF transformers on the chassis, but it was just a scrap chassis I was messing about with, and it did get a thorough drying out after.

Regards,
Lloyd.

[Refugee]

I have a 2 L capacity ultrasonic cleaner.
I also got it for free because it used to get a bit hot.
It is made in the USA and it 220V and it sure does get hot if I plug it in without using a Variac.
It uses a single octal pentode/beam tetrode to drive the transducer.
A photo of the inside of it was to hand last time I changed my avatar so you do not have to look far to see it.
I must dig out a transformer to buck the voltage down a bit to make it easier to use.

[Jon_G4MDC]

Quite a job done on that DAC90A - impressive.

[cathy_vintage]

Hi From Ash .... a Newbie .. Well I am actually the husband of the forum member. Sorry to hear about your misfortune. It's everyone's worst nightmare.

I have a really large industrial ultrasonic cleaner residing about a foot away from me now The internals of the tank are 24" x 12" x 9" deep. I clean modern epoxy/glass PCB assemblies in it, but it's primarily for my motorcycle resto parts. You are not a million miles from me so if you wanted to use it any time, the kettle is always on here. You really need to take advice from the experts on here though , regarding the cleaning solutions. Allendale Electronics in Hoddeston Herts supply various liquid treatments and could advise on your requirements. They basically work by vibrating piezo-electric ceramic elements at typically 40kHz causing a huge amount of minute bubbles often known as cavitations, to form and then collapse because of the sound waves. This creates many small jets moving through the cleaning liquid. These jets are used as a 'brush' to wipe off the dirt from the object you are looking to clean. This results in ultrasonic cleaning of various objects within the cleaner. Ultrasonic is very handy when it comes to cleaning objects that cannot be cleaned otherwise and you do not need to rub or polish these objects.

Also I use 'Abralon' Pads up to 4000 grit size on plastics to clean/polish them. They are what green bowlers use to polish their bowling balls but great on plastics & alloy to, lubricated with Jizer. They are German, not cheap but amazing.

Best wishes .. Ash (& Cathy)

[cathy_vintage]

Further to last post here are the 'Abralon' pads .. I don't actually think that they are German, maybe Swiss but the original techlogy was by a German company. They are excellent at 'satinizing' / or brushed, aluminium finish too if you use the 1000 grit.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mirka-Abra...EAAOxyi-ZTZk5L

I also have access to a large bead blaster .. I use 0/50 grade blass beads that leaves a silky smooth finish on steel & alloy.

[fatherjack2002]

Thanks again for continuing advice i'll be in touch in due course

Regards Paul

[FrankB]

One of the TV shops here had good luck cleaning up smoke damaged equipment for insurance companies. He used a product called Simple Green. They make another product called Simple Orange too. Both are a citrus based cleaner. He claimed to have great success cleaning chassis & cabinets with it.
It does kill the smoke order and does not seem to damage any components, if used with good common sense.
I would think that also putting the equipment in a big plastic bag with a bowl of baking soda and some Bounce brand dryer sheets would also help remove the smell. (Personally, I really dislike the smell of Simple Green). I don't know if its available there or not though.
Also putting the items in a closed space with an ionizer machine helps kill the smell a lot.

[HamishBoxer]

It certainly is available (Simple Green) in the UK.