A friend sent me a picture of this that they found in a basement of a house they are cleaning out to sell. He wanted to know if I wanted it. It looks like an ultrasonic parts cleaner. I said Sure I Will Take it. It might take some work to get it operational again but it looks like a fun project.

 

Someone sent me this.
February 1958.

 

1958 would it be built on a printed circuit?
Correct me if I am wrong. The plate current meter would be the output from the vacuum tube powering the transducer.

 

As an actual TOOL, an ultrasonic parts cleaner could easily benefit some folks. For an experimentor there are quite a few possibilities as well. For a "hobbyist" there are also instances where the cleaning ability could be quite useful. For the folks who repair stuff it would probably be handy. It may not get daily use, but the cleaning ability of an ultrasonic cleaner is often impressive.

 

an ultrasonic cleaner is often impressive.

Quite! One place I worked had a larger bath for cleaning new circuit boards. The operator put her parts in the tank then turned it on. She left it until she got back from break. It was lunch break. By the time she got back ALL the components were washed off the board. (through hole components) The components were laying around in the tank. Moral of the story is to not just throw parts in and turn it on and forget it - it should have had a timer, which ours didn't. It doesn't look like that one has a timer either.

I had a small US Cleaner meant for jewelry. I used it during my time as a Microsection Technician. That small unit had a sweet spot where the ultrasonic sound waves were concentrated. Putting my finger in the bowl at that sweet spot hurt. I could feel it in my finger bone. Inspectors and assemblers would come to me to clean their stamps (rubber). Slowly lowering it into that sweet spot - the ink would blast off of the rubber like a grenade. Put mine in there too long and had to order a new stamp. They CAN be powerful. So be careful. Placing your hand in the tank while operating may result in a bit of pain. I have no idea how much pain though. But you probably don't want to find out.