Another dimly remembered bit of advice - if done correctly, those peizoelectric transducers on the tank bottom should have been tightened up with a meter on the output - stop at specificed figure. So unless you know the figure, don't undo them!
Interesting to see the electronics underneath the tank - and a welded tank at that. Used to specific TIG welded, inside and out in an attempt to keep them together. The transducers are banging the bottom of the tank up and down rather fast and it tends to fatigue, leading to leaks. Sometimes used to see it local to where the transducers are fixed to the underside - used to vacuum braze the mounting boss to the tank bottom. Tank bottoms certainly erode over time. Although I guess that was on tanks with a several kW of ultransonic power, no the toy ones pictured here :-)
High frequency (ie like the 45kHz pictured) is usually okay on aluminium - the lower stuff (25kHz) will punch holes in it if left in too long - dangle some aluminium foil in to see the pin holes appear in it.
If you want an amusing part trick - take an opened bottle of a fizzy drink and stick in a mesh basket in the tank - and then turn it on . . .
If will de-gas rather quickly - that higher pitched screaming you hear when you first turn the tank on - that's the solution de-gassing. If you want the best cleaning, let the sound drop indicating its pretty much de-gassed, then put your part in. You might have to move it around, tilt it, rotate it, to get the solution in everywhere - it needs to be in contact to clean.
And some mesh sizes, or perf sizes, act as perfect barriers to the energy, so if the cleaning of parts in baskets isn't as good as you hope, try some other method to suspend the parts in the tank.
Interesting to see the electronics underneath the tank - and a welded tank at that. Used to specific TIG welded, inside and out in an attempt to keep them together. The transducers are banging the bottom of the tank up and down rather fast and it tends to fatigue, leading to leaks. Sometimes used to see it local to where the transducers are fixed to the underside - used to vacuum braze the mounting boss to the tank bottom. Tank bottoms certainly erode over time. Although I guess that was on tanks with a several kW of ultransonic power, no the toy ones pictured here :-)
High frequency (ie like the 45kHz pictured) is usually okay on aluminium - the lower stuff (25kHz) will punch holes in it if left in too long - dangle some aluminium foil in to see the pin holes appear in it.
If you want an amusing part trick - take an opened bottle of a fizzy drink and stick in a mesh basket in the tank - and then turn it on . . .
If will de-gas rather quickly - that higher pitched screaming you hear when you first turn the tank on - that's the solution de-gassing. If you want the best cleaning, let the sound drop indicating its pretty much de-gassed, then put your part in. You might have to move it around, tilt it, rotate it, to get the solution in everywhere - it needs to be in contact to clean.
And some mesh sizes, or perf sizes, act as perfect barriers to the energy, so if the cleaning of parts in baskets isn't as good as you hope, try some other method to suspend the parts in the tank.