Ultrasonic Cleaning of Engine Parts – A Shade Tree Mechanic’s Tale

I don’t know about you, but I like to fix my own stuff.  Admittedly it’s getting tougher what with all the complexity they’ve built into engines today.  But I’m talking more about my ’47 Ford Woodie station wagon show car and a 1948 Farmall Cub I use to keep the brush down in the back of the lot and to plow the driveway in wintertime.

Both engines run great.  To make sure that they continue to do so I periodically disassemble parts like the carburetors, fuel pumps and oil sumps, clean them up and reinstall.  OK, maybe I need to get a life, but heck, it’s fun. I will say I got a little bit tired of using gasoline and other engine degreaser solvents for this so when I heard about something called ultrasonic cleaning I decided to check it out.… Read the rest

Ultrasonic Cleaning Restores Glitter to Estate Jewelry

Bad economic times have forced many families to rethink what they really need and how selling unused property might help out financially.  Newspaper ads offering to buy estate jewelry and other valuables attest to this.  Here’s how one company is adding value to estate jewelry:

As a firm dealing in estate jewelry and other family heirlooms we’ve experienced a tremendous increase in purchases, but also in sales as customers take advantage of lower prices to either resale abroad or to hold for the expected economic recovery.  Since many of the pieces we buy appear not to have been used in years, our staff was spending an inordinate amount of time restoring them to a presentable appearance.  This enables us to ask a higher price.

Well, you never know where a good idea will strike.  I was visiting my dentist and asked about the machine in which she placed her instruments.  … Read the rest

Laboratory Refrigerators: Automatic or Manual Defrost?

Cold-storage solutions for costly laboratory samples are not found at a local appliance store, but instead are the result of careful purchasing decisions based on the value of the products being stored. The price of poor laboratory refrigeration was dramatically demonstrated in a December 4, 2007, USA Today article reporting that it accounts for a big part of the $20 million in waste incurred by the federal Vaccines for Children program.… Read the rest