Sonic Gun Cleaner - Which One? Worth It?

[Guest]

I am a busy lawyer, and I teach weapons law, history and safety in my spare time. I usually bring a lot of guns to teach the history behind them and then teach students how to zero and shoot, clean and disassemble/re assemble.

I simply do not have time to clean each one and thus, am left with dirty guns. So this brings me to the question of sonic gun cleaners. I want one that is fine with 110 V and that can clean an AKMS, SCAR 17 on down to pistols. I was considering this Hornady. i just want to make sure I am not wasting money. Anyone?

[RandyD]

I bought a used Branson sonic cleaner on ebay. Branson seems to be the brand that many professionals use. It is too small to put a rifle in it, but it will clean handguns and all the parts. The cost of a sonic cleaner that can hold a rifle is too high. I am hoping that this process becomes common in the firearms community, and then we will see cost effective sonic cleaners that will hold a rifle.

BTW, I am also a former Marine, and I have maintained the same standards regarding cleaning firearms. The sonic cleaner does an outstanding job of getting all the crud off parts. I am also a busy attorney, and for me, nothing is better than putting my parts in the sonic cleaner, doing something else and returning to clean parts. I use a 50/50 solution of hot water and Simple Green. I then rinse the parts to insure no Simple Green is left on them, and then I dry them with a hair dryer or air pressure or I leave the parts on a towel in sunlight, and then reassemble. You will need to put some oil on the parts because the sonic cleaner will remove all oil from the metal which facilitates rust forming.

[Aldemar]

I bought the one from Harbor Freight. It's identical to the one offered by Hornady.

For a cleaning solution, I use Dunkit. It's petroleum based so you don't have to get the gun perfectly dry after cleaning.

[Noonanda]

I bought the one from Harbor Freight. It's identical to the one offered by Hornady.

For a cleaning solution, I use Dunkit. It's petroleum based so you don't have to get the gun perfectly dry after cleaning.

I got one there as well but it is exactly the same as the Lyman model, not the hornady one