So I just got my ultrasonic cleaner in… With Yellow magic, how long as you guys cleaning the parts?
I ran it for about 7 minutes last night and it still felt quite tacky…
thoughts?
thanks
It’s always going to feel tacky after cleaning, rinse it in water and some of the tackiness will go away, cure it in water for a few minutes and the surface will not be tacky anymore.
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I use 8 min and try to keep the YM at room temperature or slightly warmer with the clear resin. As it is running you will see a haze around the parts as it is cleaning the loose resin off. Typically when you don’t see that haze around the part then all loose resin is off the surface.
Rinse all the YM off the part prior to curing in water.
just did exactly that… tough resin… 10 minutes in the YM bath in the cleaner. rinsed the part off, 30 minutes in the water curing box and i had so much resin still on it, it crept down to the supports, bonding them more. 1 big glob.
I so badly want YM in this cleaner to work, but its getting to be more hassle , time and money than its worth.
I know some of the people who swear by YM may not believe it, but we just got back strength testing data comparing Alcohol bath vs Ultrasonic YM and shockingly (especially to me!) the YM are quite a bit more brittle than the alcohol bath parts. I had the test ran to prove how much more elongation the not going in alcohol parts would have and it was the complete opposite! Just something to consider here… :-/
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well i never had issues with alchohol bathed parts anyway, i just thought it would be nice to have something better etc… that said, I never bath them in alcohol anyway , i put em in, wait 1 min and rubs the parts around my hand… never had any left over resin at that point.
I may say screw the YM and send the ultrasonic cleaner back (or keep it for my wifes jewelry,) who knows.
Why not use alcohol in the ultrasonic as the initial cleaning step?
No reason i couldnt do that. just seems a hassle if it works well in other ways. . but yeah, i could try it
Fire risk mostly.
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interesting development… I just tested a part in open mode with my yellow Makerjuice SF.
2 minutes in the ultraonic with YM and its spotless… no resin left on it at all. perfection.
Im sure due to it being thinner, but still… pretty interesting.
To minimize fire risk, you put water in your ultrasonic cleaner and then put alcohol in a ziploc with your part. Seal the ziploc, place it in the water and you get the benefit of alcohol without the fire risk.
As always, make your own judgements. I know a lot of people who have used alcohol straight in their ultrasonic cleaners for years with no issues, but it only takes once…
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So what would be the benefit of the ultrasonic with alcohol? could you do it without rubbing in 2 minutes? vs 10 in the other bath?
Personally I don’t see much benefit to using an ultrasonic cleaner, but it really depends on your parts. For what I do, using a toothbrush (I will probably upgrade to a Sonicare soon) for a minute is working great. For very small parts, delicate parts, or parts with areas you can’t reach easily to clean, ultrasonic can be a good solution. You would use the isopropyl in the ultrasonic cleaner because you still need a good solvent. As mentioned before, you have a fire risk if you are using the alcohol directly in the ultrasonic tank.
You shouldn’t use IPA in an ultrasonic cleaner because it could explode.
YM is water based and designed to work in an ultrasonic cleaner and can be heated. Most cleaners and detergents will cloud when heated.
I thought about using a toothbrush, that is a good idea, so far just the US cleaner at room temp and a chip brush to make sure there are no globs on the part works good and a good rinse under clean water prior to post uv curing.
Though IPA can be an easy way to clean parts the benefits with YM are:
Environmentally safe
Can be reclaimed
No part warping, shrinkage or distortions
Parts are not brittle and are more durable
Low odor
Non Flammable
Im all for all of those benefits mostly the shrinkage and warpage, but I cant seem to get my parts clean at all with YM. Just too much gunk all over the parts. So its either going to take forever to clean or they will be globby.
You should be using an ultrasonic cleaner or at the minimum I saw someone on the forums using a toothbrush.
YM works better when it is slightly warm. Just soaking the part will not remove the resin because it doesn’t dissolve the resin but rather coagulates and lifts if off the surface.
Rinse with clean water and do your post cure when the part is in water (air inhibits the post curing)
Typical run time is 8 min YM in an Ultrasonic tank heated to room temperature or slightly warmer.
Go over the surface with a chip brush to make sure there are no resin globs that may have settled on the surface.
Rinse in clean tap water until YM is off the surface
Place the part in a clear container and do a post uv cure. (I use my 405nm laser pointer to surface cure the parts)
Resins that require a post cure like castable, durable should use the standard post curing procedure.
Does that help?
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Ken. I never just soaked in the YM I always used it in conjunction with a Ultrasonic cleaner. However I noticed that Makerjuice given its thinner came off very well, but the formlabs resin hardly came off at all. So I guess i would need to brush them a bit more.
I will try the print that is going now and try it again 
Try heating the YM up a little more, best guess 120F should do it.
I use pretty much just the clear resin here so maybe the other resins need a little bit more work. If your still using the MJ resin then you will notice the surface will be much smoother. IPA used to craze the surface from my past experience.
Let me know if you still have any problems.
bummer, my ultrasonic doesnt have a heater 
As long as it isn’t ice cold, run the cleaner for longer. The only thing the heat does is softens the resin, same thing the Form2 has built in to make it more viscous.