Ultra Sonic Cleaning and Oxidation

[FALex]

About 3 years ago, I placed my RCBS dies in my US cleaner. I just used hot water and Dawn dish soap. US cleaned the dies great. I stand them up on a towel to dry. After about 8 hours, I check on them and both dies are just loaded with rust. It was obviously surface rust and most of it wiped off (some did not).

Fast forward to today, I throw one of my muzzle brakes in there (water and soap). This thing had fucking charcoal chunks inside it. Anyhow, run it in the US for about 1.5 hours and take it out. US took 90% of the carbon off. I place the MB in an upright position on a towel and go to kids' school for an event. Come home (less than 2 hours later) and notice that there is some surface rust on the damn brake and on the threads. I had no idea rust could occur that quickly (I was shocked when it happened the first time after only about 8 hours of drying).

Long story short, I have a question: why do I continue to get rust when using this thing on various parts and accessories? I see guys talking about throwing their BCG's, lower assemblies, 1911 slides, etc... in these damn machines. I would like to think they're not getting any rust on such pieces. Is it the fact that I am using a majority water as the solution or am I doing something else wrong?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[mrtoyz]

Ultrasonic cleaners used with an effective cleaner strip EVERY bit of oil/lubricant out of the metal. If you want to avoid rust you have to wash your parts off right after coming out of the cleaner. I use a compressor to dry everything not air dry. Most importantly you HAVE to recoil/lubricator right away. This will solve your problems.

 

[cubswin]

I use a compressor as well to dry. And rinse after removing parts. I can't answer why it happens tho....Not that smart!

 

[_Windrider_]

I use a compressor as well to dry. And rinse after removing parts. I can't answer why it happens tho....Not that smart!

Distilled water as welll. Do not use tap water.

 

[lash]

Like mrtoyz said. Use some sort of rust preventive or lubricant after US cleaning. For dies and muzzle brakes, you can use a light coating of whatever gun oil you use. Coat completely and then wipe off with a dry rag if you like afterwards.

I have even used WD40 before, right after cleaning. WD stands for water displacement.

 

[Emouse]

Commercial users of US equipment use a "de-watering agent" after the cleaning cycle. If you strip all oil/grease dirt then carbon steels will rust before your very eyes.

 

[Fursniper]

Make your cleaning solution out of distilled water. When done, rinse with distilled water (you can reuse this several times). Blow off with compressed air. If the item is ferrous metal, lightly lubricated after compressed air. Problem solved....Distilled water is $.99/gallon at Walmart.

 

[GhengisAhn175]

The rust that happens quickly is called flash rust. Like others have said, need to put some type of lubricant on them.

Wd40 with the stream/spray option works really well.

You can try corrosion X (expensive stuff) depending on needs.