Road Fan

I have a bunch of dirty old parts including chainsets. I'd like a parts cleaner setup that will actually save me some time and messiness. Any recommendations for an ultrasonic that is big enough for a chainset? Would use Dawn or Simple green.

sch

This will be interesting. A romp through Amazon suggests that unless you get a really large one cleaning a chainset
will require rotating same several times to get at all sides and best you disassemble first. Even a 10L size has an
effective immersion depth of 4-5" with the basket and that one full will weigh ~30#. Amazon does give inside
measurements but the baskets will reduce this by 1-1.5" all around.

AndrewJB

Automotive parts cleaner is what you might be looking for...
https://www.harborfreight.com/search?q=parts%20washer

Simple Green or Dawn is not going to work in this...might be interesting to watch, but probably not the right cleaning agent for this unit

curbtender

I've seen some homemade ones on YouTube that use orbital sanders.

friday1970

I use citrous degreaser and an older water bottle. Fill the water bottle about halfway with degreaser. I drop the chain in, shake it around. Let it set for a few hours, And repeat till 24 hours have passed. Worked great for me.

bikemeister

I'd be tempted to use kerosene. Cheap, low volatility, won't hurt paint or chrome, and should dissolve any greasy gunk.

HillRider

+1. Kerosene, or it's more sophisticated cousin, odorless mineral spirits. Either can be reused by letting the dirt settle out and decanting the clean(er) solvent off the top.

2_i 

I have the 2.5l one from Harbor Freight and am absolutely thrilled with it. I just use water with some Simple Green added and heat the water. Items as large as crankset need to be ran over one side at a time and then turned over to do another side. Within my life and this context, kerosene and mineral spirits belong to the past that I want to forget.

oldbobcat

A little small for chainrings, but for cassettes, freewheels, derailleurs, and loose-ball bearings, I would love it.

For the big stuff, if you don't have the space or the bucks for a floor-standing unit (not untrasonic, by the way), I recommend a can of citrus degreaser concentrate (available at bike shops, hardware, and auto parts stores), a bucket, a brush, and rubber gloves.

klasse

For the cranks/rings, I use an oil catch (they give them away at Auto Zone when you buy oil), then soak the parts in very hot water & simple green. Scrub with a metal brush. Works great.

Also have an ultrasonic cleaner like the one pictured above, use for chains/cassettes primarily.

davidad

I have this one. 2 L Industry Heated Ultrasonic Cleaners Cleaning Equipment Heater W/ti – Vevor US
You can't get a crank-set in it, but it's good for every thing else.
I'd drop a chain in it every 800 miles and the chains lasted over 15k miles.

drlogik 

+1 for Citrus Degreaser. I used to be a real fan of solvent cleaners but switched to the Zep Citrus Degreaser a few years back. I'm really impressed with this cleaner. I save gallon orange juice jugs (tougher than milk jugs) and put the parts in there, add degreaser and warm water and let it do the magic. If you have on old tumble dryer, put the jug on top and leave it for an hour. Parts come out sparkly clean.

I degrease everything that way but if something is really stubborn or has old caked on grease then into the solvent it goes after a long sitting in the Zep.

WizardOfBoz

Just to be clear: DON'T use kerosine or mineral spirits in an ultrsonic cleaner. Very bad karma.

speedy25

I thought I might get some good ideas for cleaner in this thread, but sadly none of the liquids suggested seem to clean very well. As a watchmaker, I kept my old cleaning solutions and recycled them for cleaning greasy parts, and that was the best. I tried a degreaser from Harbor freight and the best it does is release the grunge but leaves large globs behind. No stars for that rating!

The old stoddard solvent we used to get for parts cleaning was great, but sadly no longer available.

-SP

oldbobcat

A watch is smaller than a crankset. Sorry that you're disappointed in us. We use what is affordable and environmentally acceptable. The AQ-1 pictured here is what we used at my last shop. https://www.safety-kleen.com/service...-parts-washers . It still required a lot of scrubbing, and you have to leave it on overnight to keep the fluid hot. It also eats the grey anodizing on Shimano derailleurs and crank parts if you leave them in too long. You can also use automotive brake cleaner, but that stuff eats paint, plastic, and rubber almost as well as it eats grease.

The bike repair co-op I belonged to while I was in college (run by the local YSA brigade) had a benchtop ultrasonic cleaner for small parts like derailleurs and freewheels, and a kerosene-filled tank for the big stuff. That was in the 1970s. The kerosene tank still required application of elbow grease and a stiff brush.

2_i 

At an instrumentation branch of my work they commonly use alcohol in the ultrasonic cleaners when cleaning their instrument components.

WizardOfBoz

Open? I mean, you can put the alcohol and the parts in a baggie and put it into a water bath, and its pretty safe.

Having been very near to fatal industrial accidents, I tend to try to eliminate possibilties of disaster. So given that they make ultrasonic vaporizers... Not sure that this is the smartest thing anyone's ever done.

WizardOfBoz

Having said that, I recall using a vapor degreaser. It was a large vat, 4 feet by 4 feet, and about 3 feet deep. Heater in the bottom. Bottom was full of carbon tet. Turn on the heater, the CCl4 boiled, the vapor in the tank rose. You put a big basket of dirty, greasy parts in a basket and put it in the vat. The vapor rose to cover the parts and there was a constant condesation taking place. So the vapor rose, and it "rained" CCll4 down over the parts. Pretty safe if you didn't stick your hand in the vapor. 170°F vapor would burn your hand and degrease it all in one shot.

2_i 

I have not watched it. I am sure they have a better equipment than I at home and no safety corners are cut. They have pretty large items that they need to clean and it is doubtful these can be put into bags. I think they have containers that are hermetic and they may have nested containers.

Bimmer69

Us cheapskates get by just fine with a bucket, water and laundry detergent.
overnight soak and everything comes out squeaky clean.
old toothbrush for the really gunked on stuff.