Latest new gadget - Ultrasonic Cleaner!

Ok. Why the hell do I need an ultrasonic cleaner?It all starts back in 1998. I just got my job at Progressive. I was getting paid slave wages before that. Even at Progressive, with a 30% raise I was getting crap pay.But that's OK. I had simpler needs back then. I was still living at my mom's house. I wasn't married. I had completely paid off my overflowing credit cards.I wanted to reward myself.Like I told people yesterday, I'm quirky.To reward myself I wanted to get something nice.I got myself a nice Parker fountain pen.There's another WTF moment. "A fountain pen?!" I hear you ask. Yes. I like to kick it old school. I also want a nice mechanical watch to go with it but I can't bear to part with that type of cash.I like the way fountain pens write. It has a certain levity to it the way it barely drags across the page. It's the exact opposite of a cheap Bic pen that needs to be pressed hard into the paper leaving dents to go with the ink. There's a journal I keep (and occasionally write in now-a-days it seems) that only sees ink from this pen.I was doing a bit of organizing and it seems that the pen (and the journal) had been neglected. The ink had dried and upon washing and refilling it was writing poorly -- it had an ink feed problem.Doing a bit of googling I found a site that described the problem and the solution. For the most part the best way of cleaning a pen is with an ultrasonic cleaner.I didn't have one.Until now.Harbor Freight had one in stock on the west side. Less that $80 later I had one sitting in my kitchen.It worked great!After running it for a few minutes I started seeing blobs of ink start to leak out. This is ink that had resisted water and alcohol for hours and hours!I cleaned some of En's jewelry as well since things were set up.I did our wedding rings as well.The jeweler down the street charges $30 for a clean. Now after just a few cleanings I'll be coming out ahead!I have a few other uses as well in mind down the line: gun cleaning and brass cleaning. The next time I detail strip a gun it's all going in the bath to get all the nooks and crannies! And rifle brass, once I get to that, will likely get some cleaning as well. (Pistol brass gets used so quickly that I would need to get something way bigger if I wanted to do that... no worries, the vibratory tumbler does the job quite well)(I had already loaded in ink which is why it's inky already)[smugmug url="http://photos.vec.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=gallery&Data=20051078_bnP7q4&format=rss200" imagecount="100" start="1" num="100" thumbsize="Th" link="lightbox" captions="false" sort="false" window="true" smugmug="true" size="L"]