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So do you put simple green it it or do you just presoak and put it in with water like it says?

Also, as far as I can tell, as long as you clean it properly, you can keep using it for other things besides models, is that the case?

So basically, you still need to soak your models in dettol (simple green) and go through the whole scrubbing with a tootbrush phase before putting them in the ultrasonic cleaner?

That's a shame, because I thought this may be a quick and easy way of stripping as opposed to the dettol scrub method.

I may well buy one though, as I still occasionally get paint in those crevices of models that just wont budge no how much I scrub away with the toothbrush (even after a 10 day soak).
Seems like this would eliminate that problem at least.

Can you just run it through extra cycles to avoid brushing entirely?

Rented Tritium wrote:So do you put simple green it it or do you just presoak and put it in with water like it says?

Also, as far as I can tell, as long as you clean it properly, you can keep using it for other things besides models, is that the case?

Yes, I use simple green if I'm doing models. Yes, I still use a brush to get the paint out. However, the difference is enormous over just using a normal simple green soak; when I use the brush no force is needed and it's just to swap out the already super loose paint flakes. It also does a much, much better job at very fine crevices, whereas a lot of scrubbing was needed before, none is really needed now. It doesn't remove any steps from the process, it just speeds it up quite a bit and makes for lot less elbow grease intensive - the biggest difference is the latter.

Your mileage may vary, dipped models are still very hard to scrub until the polyurethane layer is broken down.

I've also used it to clean my eyeglasses and my wife's jewelry. For that, I use just water and hand soap. For that it's pretty good as well, though that is a lot less surprising.

So here are a set of before pictures, I just got my ultrasonic cleaner in today. I'll post some new ones after I run these models through a few times.

The first few are after an overnight soak in simple green








These few are just after running them under some warm water with some light scrubbing with a tooth brush.






This green stuff one these termies I bought online was particularly nasty and hard to get off.



Post sonic cleaning to come.

Can't wait to see the results! What you have posted so far is exactly what I have been running into stripping both my own models and one I've purchased second hand.

So I threw them back into the simple green for a few hours while I was out, came back and ran them through the ultra sonic for about 15 min and then just pushed out all the loose stuff with a pick under a running tap of warm water. Here they are, some look almost box new. Thanks for tipping me off to this sweet machine.

So the metal results are basically the same as a traditional scrub, but the plastic is amazing.

I noticed a huge difference with both, including the metal. I just wasn't as tenacious as I should have been, too tired haha. But the termies had a coat of primer and two coats of different paint. The ultrasonic cleaner really did 90% of the hard work for me. True you have to chase out the loose bits stuck down in there, but with virtually no scrubbing, I just took a tooth pick and pushed off all the big flecks and I'm sure if I stuck them back in there for another cycle or two while I did some painting, it'd knock the rest off. If you've got around $25 bucks and a pile of models to strip, I'd recommend it.

hrmm I like the less work on the scrubbing end bit

I'm still going to do a detailed write up once I get mine.
I got a higer priced machine as I have a few other things I can use it for. We will see if machine quality makes a difference at all.

Anything to make stripping less work is a-ok in my books

logg_frogg wrote:hrmm I like the less work on the scrubbing end bit

I'm still going to do a detailed write up once I get mine.
I got a higer priced machine as I have a few other things I can use it for. We will see if machine quality makes a difference at all.

Anything to make stripping less work is a-ok in my books

Good idea, for comparison mine was the CD-2800 ($28 model) with a 42,000 ultrasonic cycle of 35 watts of power.

Damn, that looks a lot easier than the scrubbing method, and should also be a lot nicer to clean up after.

I have an old old Falcon I had sitting in simple green for 3 weeks and I managed to get through 2 layers of paint but the final primer layer is being a bit stubborn. This might just be the thing I need.

tme0003 wrote:

logg_frogg wrote:hrmm I like the less work on the scrubbing end bit

I'm still going to do a detailed write up once I get mine.
I got a higer priced machine as I have a few other things I can use it for. We will see if machine quality makes a difference at all.

Anything to make stripping less work is a-ok in my books

Good idea, for comparison mine was the CD-2800 ($28 model) with a 42,000 ultrasonic cycle of 35 watts of power.

The one I got is 42, 000hz, 160 watts and has a heater that will hold up to 70deg C. Paid $99 shipped. I have been doing some reading and apparenlty solution temperature makes a big difference.

On the other side of that coin hotter is not always better! It's 100% dependant on what is in the solution you are using. temperatures seem to rance between 40deg C and 80deg C.

Can't wait to try this out when I get home next week!

I look forward to seeing what the hotter ones do, I had read somewhere that Simple Green was more effective at stripping when it was warm; in the tutorial he warmed it on the stove before using it on metal minis. I never tried that myself.

From what I read non acetone based paint strippers seem to like ~75deg C Hopefully simple green is similar and 70deg C will be good.

Funny fact, I did some reserch a while back and the main active ingredient in simple green is actually used as an industrial acrylic thinner but in much higher concentration. No wonder it strips paint so well

Here Is the unit picked up:



So I figured I would start with this as my first victim





And the regular magic liquid as the paint remover



Set the time... turn on the heater...



And here goes nothing....



480 seconds later and a little steamy



I pulled it up out of the liquid and nothing magical happened



Only a small amount of pant had been removed



so I put the basket back down into the now very warm pool of simple green



and I added a well soaked model to see what it would do



That is actually a picture of the model after it had gone through the cycle. If you look closely you can see that the paint on the surface is rippled.

Paint was also starting to come off the tank body.



Since the ultrasonic by it's self was not removing large amounts of paint I decided to give the models a quick brushing:

Some paint came off the tank


The metal pieces on the other hand both stripped very easily, I was actually able to wipe a large amount of the paint off with just my finger.







The ease with witch the paint came off blew me away. Especially out of the deep crevices that would normally need a pick to even move.

So far I've noticed that the machine does somewhat reduce the work but mostly just speeds it up. What would normally have taken a 2-3 day soak to loosen up was done in under 1/2 an hour!

More experiments to come.

I don't think simple green is an ideal leaner for this situation and I will be trying other things

I got a 2.2L igem. I'm pretty happy with it. Heating the cleaning solution (castrol superclean) helps.

http://www.igem.com/ultrasonic-jewelry-cleaners.html

Oh this is turning out to be promising. Time to drop $30...

May have to pick one of these up myself.

Hopefully It means the models won't stink of dettol after using.

Would a 750ml one be big enough? Its going quite cheap in my local maplins

Yours is huge logg_frogg, wish I had gotten one that big, could have dropped my land raider in it.

ok i have been using my ultrasonic for about a year now and it is the best thing i have ever bought. i'll have to find pictures of mine but it is a big 6L cleaner ( i can easily fit a Baneblade in my tank). i do not use simple green in it, i use super clean which is an engine de-greaser. i do not presoak models at all and i toss them right into the tank.

i have stripped metal models completely clean in 4-5 hours.
i can strip thick multiple coats of paint off of plastic and have it come out like its new off of the sprue.

i even use it to clean some super stubborn FW release agent off of models that i have had soaking in cleaner for 6 MONTHS. took 2 hours in my ultrasonic...

i would swich to Super Clean as your cleaner, its a bit harsher to the skin but will not damage plastic, metal or FW resin. i have even been able to strip Rust -O-Leum car primer of one of my Daemon Princes.

another bonus of the cleaner is that it will weaken CA glue, it turns it white and makes it very brittle and easy to come off models.

i bought a pair of old metal Ravenwing speeders that were assembled and painted and put them in my cleaner. when they were done not only were they paint free but they had fallen apart into their individual pieces.

I just picked one up the other day, the lower priced one from Harbor Freight. Though I may return it, as I'm not sure I can get my airbrush into it

tme0003 wrote:Yours is huge logg_frogg, wish I had gotten one that big, could have dropped my land raider in it.

Go big or go home lol I just bought the one that I could get the best deal on

Deathklaat wrote: i would swich to Super Clean as your cleaner

I may have to try that out!

So with a little more effort I found that the Ultrasonic cleaner worked exceptionally well!

This time around I cycled the machine on once every couple hours and let the models soak over night in the cycled solution.

The results turned out to be quite amazing!

Right away you can see in the milky simple green how much paint was being removed by the process



I managed to make fast work of a number of models. The paint was so loose that it was more like *brushing* that *scrubbing* to remove the paint.



What amazed me most is how clean these models got with such minimal effort.









I was able to strip a massive amount of models in quite a short time because my hands no longer get tired from scrubbing!

This looks amazing, i usually leave models in Dettol and forget about them so by the time I come to strip them a firm shake removes 90% of all the paint - am I right in thinking this is basically a machine that I can leave models in indefinitely and then when I want to shake them, press a button and air bubbles do it for me?!

I would be soooo happy

yep, the ultrasonic vibrates the liquid molicules at a fast pace and the combination of heat and vibration actually makes the liquid do the scrubbing for you.

i do a final scrub down at the end to remove and paint chunks and to wash the cleaner off.

the great thing is you can use regular cleaning fluid and you can use the cleaner for cleaning jewelry, car parts, air brushes and just about anything that would take forever to scrub by hand.

Apparently Walmart in Canada does not have these, any ideas where to pick one up?

Amazon carries them, if no one else pipes up with a local source.

I used to use a very small version of these things many years ago for ink draughting pens that get clogged with dried ink.

I'd reckon these would be a bloody good way to clean up your airbrush too.

Tripple win
I am going to try this out. Thanks everyone

Best place in Canada anyone?