Finish Rock Tumbling 12x Faster!

I have an ultrasonic cleaner and never thought about using it when I tumbled rocks. Thanks for the tip .

Ultrasonic cleaners are wonderful tools of the modern era and grossly under appreciated. I use mine for nuts, bolts, brass and Coober Pedy opal but I killed my first one by letting items go through the mesh basket, they vibrated around and wore through the tank wall! Be careful with those ceramic beads as they would be abrasive when on the tank floor.

Ariel! I just found ultra sonic cleaner baskets! 3 sizes, 1.7", 2.5", and 4.3" all for $9.99 on Amazon for your smaller stones. I just got my ultrasonic cleaner today, and I just ordered these little baskets! Thank you for your ideas!

This inspired me to shop for an ultrasonic cleaner for a few projects including my new love of rock tumbling.

This is a super cool tip. I took a break from tumbling but with winter her I’m going to give it another go. I may even try out this method. Thanks 😊

Thank you so much for watching! If you found this content helpful—I would love if you liked, and subscribed! **Please also see the video description for an update on using rocks in an ultrasonic cleaner.

My suggestion is that you remove the ceramics, so they don't fall to the bottom of the cleaner. I have also heard that transferring from cold water to hot water quickly will further compromise any fractures. Let the heater in the cleaner gradually increase the heat. Additionally, some rocks will fracture in the ultrasonic, so I keep the timer at 5 minutes initially so I can have a look at them before going further. Don't get me wrong, I love watching the grit leave the rock; something so satisfying about that 😊 . But I still don't bypass the toothbrush/dental pick cleaning before submersing them.

Thank you for this recommendation - It does make sense and I'm looking fwd to picking one up. It will be very handy for cleaning cartridges and components for reloading ammo, as well as jewelry etc - so I guess I'll 'pull the trigger' and get one. THANX!

Hi Arial. Like you I have been experimenting and using this method for a few months now. It really is a game changer! Have been telling people in some of the facebook groups about how well it works. Keep up the great vidios you are posting! I learned so much from you when I first got into Tumbling! Thank you do much.

ha ha ha! such a newbie to this and your channel...I've been mentioning Dove dish soap in comments. I figured out on my own. Self taught here...trial and error on zero budget. I've been known to put a few stones in my husband's vibrating dry tumbler with walnut shells...for tumbling bullet casings

Thank you for sharing. Great results.

Little trick I picked up cleaning my carburetor in the ultrasonic, put just the rocks in a zip lock baggie with some water and cleaning solutions. Place the baggie in the ultrasonic and cover with water. Doing this makes it so you don't have to use as much cleaner. Less waste :) cheers love your videos

I have learned so much from your video,thank you for everything you do..❤

NICE! Thank you! I don't have an ultrasonic cleaner, but I do have an electric deep fryer, and the cleaning method for that is the same as this method. Therefore, with reductive reasoning, the deep fryer should work for cleaning rocks just as well. Let the experiemnt commence!

That was super interesting and that was a great idea to try such a thing.

Great video! I might try this when I’m glass tumbling.

Nice. I have an ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning Jet Ski carburetors. I was wondering if it would work for rocks. We just got a rock tumbler for Christmas for our 8 year old daughter. Two things to keep in mind when using the ultrasonic cleaner. You don't want the objects that are getting cleaned to be in direct contact with the tub of the cleaner. Always use the basket and make sure the rubber feet are on the basket. Things that are hard that come in direct contact with the tub can wear through it. I picked up a plastic basket that I use. Another think to know about the ultrasonic cleaners is that the temperature will keep climbing. That don't stop at the temperature set point. Unless they fixed it. So people that are used to putting their rocks in a machine and leaving them for days might find that it boils the water out if you leave the heat side on. You can also put the rocks in a zip lock bag full of water and set them in the basket with water in the machine and it will work. For some items this means you can use less cleaner. Can save you money on cleaner for small parts that you clean in expensive cleaners.

I purchased this Ultra-Sonic cleaner and with just water was amazed how my stage 4 and 5 rocks cleaned up. I’m going to try Ivory soap and Borax next. Thanks for sharing and Happy polishing😊

Hi Ariel, I hope this works for you. You shouldn't ever place anything on the very bottom of an ultrasound tank. Why? You run the real risk of working a hole through the metal bottom, especially with rigid items such as rocks. That should have been mentioned somewhere in your owner's manual, which you should read very carefully. If you do a five-minute search, you will find occasional mentions of glass shattering. This is more often than not due to imperfections in the glass. Many of your rocks will behave like imperfect glass, and especially along those fracture lines that you point out in your video. The danger seems to me either remote or at least unlikely, but the danger is real, and reported in the scientific technical literature. I routinely used ultrasonic cleaners in my 40+ years in the laboratory, and most of the items I cleaned were glass BUT I was using very expensive laboratory-grade Pyrex and the equivalent, never ordinary borosilicate glass, which would have concerned me. If I were ever presented with the option of running regular borosilicate, I probably would have declined to subject it to ultrasound. I would not run any of my tumbled rocks in my ultrasonic cleaner (yes, I have an expensive unit with timer, heater, multiple frequency settings, etc., for my fountain pens). When I feel I need to clean my rocks, I just give them a couple of hours in shaved Ivory soap. PM 2023

Oh thank u so much. That is a great idea. I will have to try and get one. Because the it would be quicker in between tumbles. Thank u again