John - Your comments are more than welcome
I had a need to clean some filthy, corroded and rusted playfield hardware on a system1 machine a while ago. I found that soaking in Nifti was ok, but windex worked better. I added the boiling water and windex, thinking the heat would separate the dirt and help the windex lift the dirt etc. It worked really well. I tool it a step further by using old plastic containers with covers (just supermarket coffee containers). What I did was grab a 1/4 of a cup of hardware (screws etc), drop them into the container, spray windex into the container and shake for a minute. I then added 1/2 cup of boiling water and shook the container for a minute - much the same as shaking a spray can. I then emptied the hardware into a clean bowl of water and I was amazed. What really surprised me was the amount of FILTH left behind in the container. I think the heat AND windex (as the cleaner) do the job well.
From that day on - I just apply this simply method to all hardware prior to dropping into the tumbler. What I will do - Next machine I recondition - I will document the process. Just years of "trial and error" - and it works for me - and the "beauty" of it is - anyone can do it !
Ultrasonic cleaner - I've not used this method yet - but I'm happy to compare results. The problem with ultrasonic cleaning is the expense of the cleaner and the relatively small "bins" they have. Only a small amount of hardware can be done at once.
