Can you clean glass jewelry in an ultrasonic cleaner?

[Jodi Longobardo]

Is there any reason I shouldn't put my pieces in an ultrasonic cleaner? I want to clean the sterling bails without taking them off the pieces and don't want to do them all by hand. Most of my pieces are drilled, but what about those that are glued? Will the glue get screwed up by the ultrasonic? Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks!

--jodi

[Brad Walker]

Haven't tried it, but my guess is that the glass would survive fine. However, some ultrasonic cleaners are used to clean adhesive and silicone so you may find that the glue bond weakens. I would try a test piece to see how the glue holds up.

[Morganica]

Depends on the glue. If it can be affected by water getting underneath or dissolving, then it won't work. I use ultrasonic cleaners for my castings, and the little bubbles they generate are wizards at prying stuff out of tiny crevices.

Try it on a couple of transparent pieces first, and see if you can detect anywhere that water may have penetrated on the cleaned piece.

[Jodi Longobardo]

Thanks, Brad and Morganica. I have worn my glued pieces in the shower or pool with no problem, so I don't think the glue is affected by water per se. It's the ultrasonic waves I wasn't sure about. I will try a test piece about the glue now that I know the glass itself won't be harmed.

Thanks!

--jodi

[GlassCat]

Would love to know the answer to this too, hope you will report back. Are you using E6000?

Carol

[Jodi Longobardo]

No. I'm using blue Goop. Will report back--I still have to buy the ultrasonic cleaner. I didn't want to buy it if it wouldn't work.

--jodi

[Morganica]

Check on eBay. I got mine there.

http://www.morganica.com/bloggery/2012/ ... astings-1/

[Jodi Longobardo]

Thanks so much, Morganica!

--jodi

[Lynn Perry]

Hi, Jodi. I am curious about how an ultrasonic cleaner removes tarnish from sterling silver. Is immersion in water alone in the cleaner sufficient to clean the corrosion? If not and a cleaning agent is used, will an agent strong enough to clean the bail not also attack the glue? If the agent does not weaken the glue immediately, how would you know what is going to happen weeks or months later, especially if the piece is exposed to higher temperatures like being left in the sun?

I have had glue fail on pieces after they were sold, and it was a real pain and expense to collect the items and re-attach the bails correctly. The failure was with E6000, but totally my fault because I used Windex to clean the pieces before glueing. I think I would remove the bails, clean them in the bath and then go through the correct process to attach a bail again. It might be easier to just clean the bails by hand while still attached to the glass.

The last shipment of bails I received had a couple of very tarnished pieces. At first I thought they needed to be discarded, but I used some metal polish on the part of the bail which was not to be glued, and the metal was completely cleaned and shiny. This is the only time I have received tarnished bails, and I hope it is not due to a change in process by the manufacturer.

[Jodi Longobardo]

Lynn, after your post I did more research, and from what I have read, an ultrasonic cleaner will not remove tarnish after all. Some people say that putting a cleaner in the water helps, but the general consensus is that since tarnish is a chemical reaction, not dirt, it will not work very well. I usually clean my other sterling silver jewelry by putting it in the tumbler, so I guess I could remove the drilled bails and do that. Using silver polish to clean every bail by hand just seems like too much work, but I could do that for my glued pieces. I hate gluing things because of the worries you mentioned and try not to, but sometimes I do use it for aesthetic reasons or if a piece has taken a long time and I am paranoid about misdrilling it. No one has ever contacted me after a sale and said that my glue has failed, but who knows. Thanks!

--jodi

[Morganica]

There are multiple kinds of silver polish. One, called TarnX, is a liquid--you can drop a lot of bails into it at once, let them sit for maybe 30 seconds, then pull them out and rinse very well. (the stuff stinks if left on) If I were going to apply glue to the bail I'd probably also dunk them in denatured alcohol first, to make sure there was no residue left.

And no, an ultrasonic cleaner won't remove tarnish (or devit, for that matter). It'll just give you very, very clean tarnish and devit.

[Stephen Richard]

Or you could do as jewellers do and use a pickling solution.

[rosanna gusler]

easy tarnish remover..... place silver on aluminum foil. wrap. make it like a long envelope with a row of pendants (or whatever) in it. mash it fairly tight. (the silver has to touch the aluminum.) poke or cut some holes in the paclage...... in a nonreactive container, mix up a handfull of baking soda in hot water. enough to submerge package..... submerge package for a few min. turn it over and leave for a few min. swish it around some if you want. all tarnish will be gone. ...silver must be clean. grease or wax will prevent the baking soda water from touching tarnish.... this works great on silver ware/serving dishes. anything tarnished will clean up like this. ...i have a silver sugar dish that i clean this way. just ball up alumin foil around it and put in a bowl of baking soda water. really amazing. r.

[Jodi Longobardo]

Wow, thanks Rosanna--I will definitely try that!

[Buttercup]

Just read Rosanna's post about removing tarnish from silver with baking soda and aluminum foil and wanted to add that borax works as well, if not better. I used it for many years. I don't think it's recommended for valuable items as its reaction with the aluminum foil seems to be a form of electro-stripping as it removes a very thin layer of the silver each time it's used.

I typed it into Google and found this article on boron's apparent ability to cure arthritis. Who knew? Jen

[Glass Fever]

I've used the aluminum foil, baking soda & hot water trick on sterling silver jewelry for years. I haven't and don't think I would use it on my glued on bails. I have a silver polishing cloth I use for those, only takes a couple seconds on each one.