Ultrasonic Cleaner to... Ultrasonic KNIFE?!

A little something I've always wanted to try... can I turn an inexpensive ultrasonic cleaner into an ultrasonic knife?
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Practical Engineering: / @practicalengineeringc...
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Music: "Goat" - Wayne Jones

[@PracticalEngineeringChannel]

Thanks for picking a photo showing my good side ;) Very awesome project.

[@ThisOldTony]

the front? did I get the wrong side? ;)

[@LegalSkateboarding]

Shut up Practical Engineering. Tony said you were off limits until I watched his video!

[@donbeckham]

LMFAO @ 6:55 "Drop him like he's hot." Just found this channel... very entertaining. I love Practical Engineering videos and would drop Old Tony for Grady.

[@kiahrico6478]

Are you the same person? You sound very similar.

[@kiahrico6478]

You have to be, you talk the same,and sound the same.

[@keithwilliams5201]

I've dealt with ultrasonics and building systems for custom NDT applications. You do a great job talking through a lot of major items that are critical to make a system function. A couple of quick suggestions: Try using JB Weld as your epoxy, the metal particles in it tend to be a great transport medium for the ultrasound even if you don't completely get a tight metal on metal interface. Next add some lube (yes KY is pretty decent to try at first) between the transducer and your 'horn', this will act as a couplant and much more of the ultrasonic energy will be coupled into the system. You can then try other oils/greases until you find something that works well for you. The only issue with KY is that it is water based and it will 1) dry out fairly quickly and 2) can obviously impact 'rusting' or oxidation. Finally, you have a o-scope and seem fairly adept with electronics, if you have a function generator, you may be able to sweep the transducer and find its true resonate frequency in the system and then adjust the drive frequency accordingly. Feel free to PM me, if you want to go into any of this in more detail.

[@TPLeatherworks]

I found your channel yesterday and I haven’t been getting ANY work done since. It’s becoming a problem. Please delete your content.

[@jonah4210]

I have that same issue lol

[@davey2k12]

I keep watching too gonna have to download the lot 😭😭😭

[@scottleft3672]

BAAAAAHAHAHAHA (me bursting out laughing, not a sheep parody)

[@Appregator]

😂 😂 😂

[@nathanskinner423]

There are not many forms of media in this world that I don't mind watching over and over again. Your videos tony, excellent. Your filming skills are amazing, your character charming, and you knowledge vast. Thank you for gifting us with your videos.

[@moeriou8431]

Could you take an ultrasonic cutter and make it into a powerful ultrasonic cleaner?

[@railgap]

There aren't hardly any ultrasonic cutting devices - and the few that are on the market are breathtakingly expensive industrial devices, not kitchen knives - all because the two guys who hold the patents are being total assholes.

[@bukovka]

@@railgap Could you please give some info about those patents and the guys? Did they patented the idea of ultrasonic cutter itself?

[@railgap]

@@bukovka read about it a long time ago, don't have the details handy, sorry. Try Google Patents.

[@ruburtoe1]

You can't patent scientific discoveries, only the device designs intended to harness nature to our end. For a period of time.

[@paranomad7007]

@Robert Slackware wtf are you talking about

[@josephj735]

Hi, I have some info on ultrasonics for you. I haven't watched you're videos very long so I don't know your background. I'm guessing mechanical. My background is electrical so I'll tell you what I know. 1. These horns (aka sonotrodes) are analogous to power transformers. That helped me with the concept. 2. You may achieve better performance by silver-soldering the cutter into the horn. The adhesive may be a bit of a damper. 3. The screw in the middle functions as not only hardware to hold the assemble together, but also as a mechanical pre-load. It applies a necessary compression on the transducer. Relieving that pressure and then shorting the terminals with your shitdiggers will cause it to build and release electrical potential respectively. I believe they do this so that you bias the piezoelectric disc at full negative potential. That would mean you only need to apply a positive voltage to have the transducer reach maximum displacement. It polarizes the piezoelectric so that you don't have to drive it with "true" or "full" AC (including a negative half cycle), but instead with a chopped up dc source. Don't quote me on that. (I was told the terminal in between the two discs in positive.) 3. Piezoelectric transducers have extremely high quality factors (aka Q factor), which means they retain energy from one cycle to the next very efficiently when in resonance. This also means that it has an extremely small range of operating frequencies. i.e. you may have to stay within 0.1% or less of resonant frequency. 4. When operating out of resonance the transducer will become capacitive or inductive depending on which way you drift. This results in a low power factor and higher transducer impedance. That means no current, thus no power. 5. The 1:9 amplification you got in simulation lines up with the math I've seen on it. Because the pressure wave has to maintain the same energy across the cross-sectional area of the horn as it propagates through the horn, if you REDUCE the area by a factor of 9, you INCREASE the cross-sectional power density by 9 so that energy of the wave is preserved. It looks like you've done a diameter step ration of about 3:1, and since cross-sectional area is related to the square of the diameter the simulation hit it right on. This is only true for the resonant mode, as your computer generated figure shows. A transducer displacement of 10 microns can be amplified up to 90 microns with this horn. 6. Piezoelectrics have harmonics, but with increasingly higher input impedance. You could drive it at a harmonic frequency. The power would be lower, but not nearly as low as an un-tuned one. 7. When using a half-wave sonotrode, the area right in the middle (length-wise) is a node. This is where the standing wave is at zero. At this point the horn experiences little-to-no displacement. That makes it a great place to mount it to another assembly at (with dampening) if need be. 8. This machine is a big ole impedance nightmare. You have electrical impedance on the left and mechanical impedance on the right with a stack of piezoelectric discs in the middle to act as translator. The mechanical impedance changes with horn structure, cutting tool geometry, and pressure applied to the tip. It's a ball-busting balancing act. I made a untrasonic drill/corer for my capstone project. I have my report on it if you'd like it. I can direct you to the most useful parts. Just contact me for that or if you have further questions. +AvE You are also welcome to this info.

[@akren2482]

This is a super old reply, but I'm working on a capstone project that requires ultrasonic drilling. Would you still be willing to send your paper over?

[@DLJeeves]

Now THIS is a reply.

[@divyanshupachisia2836]

Hi, any chance you can send me your report? I am working on a project that requires ultrasonic drilling too. Thanks so much!

[@bukovka]

Hello, thank you for the information! Could you please share your report? It would be extremely helpful!

[@larsstolz7632]

Hi, I am working on a novel method in ultrasonic welding. Is there any chance that you can send me your paper? It would be a great resource to help me build a prototype.

[@VSO_Gun_Channel]

Hey man, those units were probably made of titanium or SS because Aluminum is no joy for ultrasonic applications, as you demonstrated with the foil. That horn will probably become brittle. For instance, In the silencer word, we dont use ultrasonics on can components made of Al because they microchannel, becoming brittle, when you re-pressure the thing on the end of the firearm you create an IED. Time will tell.

[@rextransformation7418]

O.O

[@BlackSoap361]

Yet you use titanium, right?

[@johnclavis]

I read somewhere that the 'pros' call them "suppressors" rather than "silencers". Is that not true, or sort of true, or have nomenclature preferences changed over time? I'd love your input.

[@deuceandguns]

@@johnclavis It doesn't look like you'll be getting a reply soon but as someone who's built and bought several I've covered this subject and can jump in. On the original silencer patent from which most modern day suppressors are derived the device was called a, "silencer" and to this day if you are in the USA all the necessary ATF paperwork for building or owning a suppressor calls the device a, "silencer". The term, "suppressor" gained popularity about 10-20 years ago and was mostly a PR move to more accurately describe what they actually do which is drop the sound level to being barely hearing safe and nowhere near silent as is displayed in the movies. Now that they're much more universally owned and understood several interesting names have popped up such as, "moderator" from our British friends, "Can" used by those of us who have a collection of them and are too cool for school, and most recently people have been calling them, "whisper Pickles" and I have no idea why.

[@VSO_Gun_Channel]

@@johnclavis they are interchangeable. The pros call them silencers, because that’s what goes on the form 4

[@insaneduderone8501]

Hey for anybody that wants to know... Just about any 2 part epoxy like JB Weld, or any other can be easily be picked apart or taken off by putting the heat of a flame from a regular lighter for a few seconds to it. Let the flame touch the epoxy just long enough to get it hot, then 10 seconds to cool and pick it away with your finger nail or whatever else you want to use. Don't let something epoxyed scare you from taking it apart. Pass this tip around to everyone that likes to take things apart.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

I've been working on this same project for a year. Filmed a whole video and scrapped it because of mediocre results. Glad to see it work for someone

[@carolynmmitchell2240]

NightHawkInLight try it with a sonicare toothbrush, just make a custom head.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

I doubt they actually use ultrasonics, it's just regular vibration. Or if ultrasonic, I'm sure it's weaker than these big transducers in this video and that I have tried.

[@lightningslim]

You should post the video anyway, we learn more from mistakes than instant success! 😉

[@SteveReynold]

Because you’re dumb.(Yes,I know who you are)

[@andrewyeeter6068]

@@SteveReynold it has been over a year since you've made this comment. I would like you to go back and ask "why?" If you don't mind me asking

[@loupitou06fl]

Great project, I use to design ultrasonic probes for digital imagery so I'd like to share a few things : 1. Aluminum for the horn isn't a great material because the acoustic impedance is low (compare to titanium). Most acoustic load (the sum of the electrodes + mass pass the electrodes) wants to be light (in order to maximize the vibration in the c-axis of the piezo crystal, usually PZT) and stiff (as AvE would put it) to maximize the difference between said mass and air/water. This is the condition of resonance. So Aluminum not so good, ideally Titanium, Magnesium, Tungsten,... 2. The resonance frequency is most likely off now with the new horn compared to the reservoir but there is a simple way to find out : attach the end of your horn to a plate and disperse salt/ sand on it and turn it on, see if you have constructing interference - or modes (Chladni plate) 3. You should be able to tune your system by adapting the signal generator on the board to your new horn/load. Any chance you could share a picture of the board ? 4. What software did you use for your sims ? Solidworks I presume ?

[@NevinWilliams71]

In this table I found on acoustic properties of solids www.ondacorp.com/images/Solids.pdf It lists the acoustic impedance of Al as 17.41, Ti at 27.3, W at 101.0, but Mg at 10.0; Is Magnesium really better than Aluminum for this application? How about some stuff Tony would likely have, such as Brass, with its Zl of 40.6, Cu at 44.6, Cast iron at 33.2, or mild steel at 46.0?

[@Unmannedair]

Robert Slackware I don't think high speed collisions will give you the repeating surface contact you need for this type of device. At best you've made a pyro round that will combust on impact.

[@Pteromandias]

Who ARE you people? How do you know this stuff?

[@brianfurlotte5574]

scientist and engineers. Nowadays Makers! Standard conversation topics.

[@kalleklp7291]

@@brianfurlotte5574 You forgot.... "mad inventors of homemade stuff"... a Collin Furze like dude..lol

[@BrobaFat]

I've been watching you for years but had somehow never seen this video, I'm actually an engineer at a company that makes ultrasonic cutting machines! We use titanium for the horns and run them at 20khz, but tuning them is a crap shoot and really more of an art than a science. Our blades are carbide braised onto a tool steel nut that threads into the horn. We grind the knife edges down to ~10 microns, scary sharp even without ultrasonics! Everything involving the ultrasonics is run DRY, no oil, epoxy etc. It's all solid metal to metal contact from the crystals down to the blade, very finely machined. We also use cutting discs, peeling knives as well as blades. It's really freaky touching the blade while the ultrasonics are on, it feels slick to the touch, like it's covered in oil, your fingers glide right off it. We can also cut metal on our machines! They do a fantastic job cutting aluminum honeycomb core. Super clean edges with no tear out. Our machines sell for anywhere from a quarter million to several million tho. Also the ultrasonics themselves never exceed 120 watts, a well tuned system is extremely efficient, to the point that a badly tuned knife may actually use more or less power but suck at cutting

[@OrlFeyne]

Hey Tony! Came to your channel through Wintergatan. And now... I can't stop watching. Great combination of comedy/entertainment and knowledge infusion. I feel like I'm back watching Schoolhouse Rock videos as a kid. ... Well, with less cutting lubricant/coolant. ... A little less. Now to buy some merch. The addition of a couple Ts to my drawers should start a fun conversation with my wife about why she doesn't give me the ATM pin anymore...

[@Tommy_Mac]

"Not only will your parts come out as dirty as before, they'll be wet, too". Exactly what I was hoping for.

[@kikurass322]

For those of us that have our ears painted on.

[@TheDAMASCUSSMITH]

Hey there. After I stopped laughing my azz off from the audacity of a layman to attempt this endeavor without the benefit of the amazing Branson A200A frequency analyzer, I am seriously impressed at your attempt. I was an Acoustical Tooling Engineer at Branson Ultrasonics. I've designed and built the exact tool you have tried. Mine was used to cut snickers bars. We cut all kinds of things. Your two major problems are, a, cutter connections need to be solid. such as silver solder. b, you need to remember that the horn system resonates in both directions. you dampened the system by putting it in the vise. all mounting needs to be attached to the antinodes only. Also a catenoidal horn style would work more efficiently. When mounting a thin light weight tool to a horn, just use its weight in your calculations, not the length. FYI, my new co-workers got a great laugh when I disassembled my first 20khz pizo stack. Way bigger stack, 20khz and 2000 watts. Way bigger shock!

[@ThisOldTony]

thanks! I can't easily turn a catenoid on a manual lathe and I didn't model the entire stack to really know where the nodes were. that and slapping it in a vise was much faster. ;)

[@baruchben-david4196]

Yeah, I got a good jolt taking apart a transducer... Harsh lesson, but memorable.

[@isaackracoff1021]

Great, now I'm hungry for a Snickers...

[@motherfluxer696969]

I'm very interested in acoustical engineering. Was this major offered at your college or was it more along the lines of electrical engineering?

[@andrewkrahn2629]

It makes sense that it worked well in the cardboard. The proofing CNC table we used when I worked at a box factory used an $80 vibrating blade that looked a lot like a #11 xacto milled from round stock. If you ever get a chance to work with a Kongsberg or another similar table, it's a blast, like having a laser cutter.

[@Organiqintel]

I made one out of a $200+ ultrasonic toothbrush. I was convinced that it had to be something that already existed. I really dig your channel. Your ‘dad’ humor is spot on.

[@Equiluxe1]

In 1971 I was an apprentice horologist (watch maker) it was my job to repair the cheap alarm clocks. There was an ultrasonic cleaner used to clean all the clock gears etc. On one occasion I put a load of clock parts in the machine and started to put another one back together of course I then went on to start stripping another one and the boss called lunch so I downed tools and left leaving the cleaner on, the shop got locked up and the boss decided to make a delivery or something on the way back, well when he got back apart from me waiting outside along with some customers there was this ultrasonic cleaner still buzzing away inside, when I took the clock parts out there was holes eaten right through the gears, they looked like lace in places strange thing was the teeth were still all intact and the clock went back together again and kept reasonable time. The cleaning fluid was Toluene, that remove all grease and oil, we used the dirty stuff to clean car parts etc.

[@arduinoversusevil2025]

Dammit This Old! I called dibs on this 'un! Er wait, yeah you go ahead and get it all worked out. MUUUuuuhahahahahaha.

[@jorgeq4910]

AvE let's see who makes the best 1. Lol

[@NitroGuyJH]

Lol AvE, you two are my two favorite videographers. 👍🏻

[@penguiin12]

go home chris youre drunk

[@wolfwind9658]

You guys are why KZbin thinks I'm a Canadian machinists . KZbin also thinks I speek Spanish. Take that as you will.

[@ajtrvll]

Too complimecated for you AvE... unless your buddy the elechicken lends you un claw, or deux.

[@thepagan5432]

As a professional Mechanical Engineer and a keen DIY'er it is great to see similar minded people that enjoy tinkering around in their workshops. Great video, great job.

[@AirmanJH]

I remember the days that I got nothing accomplished because I was always doing some random, useless project. Now, I feel like I am accomplishing all of that uselessness, but without actually having to do anything useless. The sense of useless unaccomplishment is taking my non-existent worthless projects to new levels!! Thank you KZbin guy!

[@DoRC]

I use my ultrasonic for one thing and that's cleaning carbs. I've lost a bunch of weight since I stopped eating them dirty.

[@xoxo2008oxox]

I use my for cleaning coal! So far, nothing but natural gas in our house! (Brraaap!)

[@TheEvilAdministrator]

Mmmmm, delicious carburetors.

[@HandToolRescue]

Does an ultrasonic fork make it easier to stab things?

[@kalleklp7291]

Makes it go easy on spaghetti.

[@skelly9266]

@@kalleklp7291 feel like the spaghetti would tare apart

[@Sharpless2]

@William Mayonnaise III are you trying to kill us?

[@klab3929]

So whats the backstory here.. im curious

[@nomanmcshmoo8640]

Remember: "The slow blade penetrates the shield."

[@mikedrop4421]

"resonance is a big word, it's hard to know for sure but it's probably at least 10 letters" This Old Tony, you are truly a wordsmith. Keep up the garage philosophy.

[@AleksUsovich]

I really enjoyed watching your video and having no background information about the subject and not feeling dumb as you took the time to explain what every part was and what function that it served. The great humor added to the overall quality of the video! I really enjoyed this video and can't wait to see more!

[@StefanGotteswinter]

You see a ultrasonic knife. I see an ultrasonic-filer/lap to be used with small die-stones.

[@RobertSzasz]

Stefan Gotteswinter I doubt there is enough throw . You're only going to get a few um of motion .

[@arduinoversusevil2025]

"it's not the size of the ship, it's the motion of the ocean..."

[@drdyna]

I love you guys, don't ever change.

[@ajtrvll]

AvE - Nope... not the size of the ship, nor the motion of the ocean, it's whether the captain stays in port long enough to get all the passengers off.

[@llfuryouzll]

we used to have one to polish dies at the place i used to work, but instead of ultrasonic they were just compressed air fed, they ended up saving my finger joints at the end of the day hahaha

[@patwicker1358]

"ultrasonic unsubscriber" I saw that. LOL

[@ncc74656m]

I died. And then unsubscribed. :P

[@sdcaclint]

Pat Wicker I had to pause the vid when I saw that. Now I want to go back and see how many Easter eggs I missed.

[@BrianSantero]

Sad...I had just subscribed..Guess I'll just heed the megasonic advice.

[@kurnyt7768]

Pat Wicker me too

[@mbunds]

This was a great presentation, thanks for explaining ultrasonic transducers and their mechanical action, and especially the use of ultrasonic cutters which I was never aware of before. I have used ultrasonic welders for plastic parts, but I didn’t know about the existence of ultrasonic cutters. This is a great project, and will be very useful for trimming parts produced by a 3D printer. Thanks!!!

[@philipmitchell90]

Congratulations! You spent oh lets say $100 to cut plastic that I can cut with a $3.00 razor knife. You've succeeded where others have failed. On the other hand, the entertainment value was priceless!

[@farmjunk]

What if you used a v-shaped blade? May cut more like scissors, and keep the material centered

[@zanpekosak2383]

The nucleation site you mentiones is a big issue in chemistry. When you buy a new beaker and put something to boil you need to scratch the bottom of the beaker so it doesnt start to "bump" which can lead to the beaker exploding. It usually isnt a big deal with tap water though (minerals)

[@fuzzy1dk]

that is also why you scratch a champagne glass in the bottom so you get a stream of bubbles instead of just clear liquid

[@Jeff121456]

An ultrasonic knife would be a good tool to scribe the bottom.

[@zanpekosak2383]

Agreed for both of you.

[@zanpekosak2383]

Yes and yes

[@leocurious9919]

Thats what boiling chips are for... always. It doesnt matter if the flask is new or old, always use them (freshly dried each time). Dont scratch your glass, that makes it a whole lot weaker.

[@THOTHvii]

Not sure how I haven't stumbled upon the graces of your hilarious, yet wise presence but "they're called transducers because they're deuces at transing" deserves a like and subscription. An ultrasonic subscriber, if you will. Thanks for sharing this.

[@LeagueOfGaming1000]

Your analogy for resonance with pushing a kid off a swing is actually perfect with translating to mechanics

[@Taluvian]

Thanks for the circles, they worked great!

[@windywaz]

Keep in mind that the transducer needs to be pre-loaded via the bolt pressure so that the piezoelectric material is in an elastic range. Otherwise, the material "bottoms" out and doesn't work so well. Think of it as a bias so that you can get a true sinusoidal wave.

[@mikehydroseed1282]

I just want to say I really appreciate your humor. It’s perfectly in tune with my own.

[@MoundN]

I love the subtle comedic parts in your videos. They still retain all the information required for educational purposes but the comedic inputs really make it stand out from a boring school lesson!

[@mrjaz666]

"Speed of sound in a vacuum" :'D 20:30

[@jimmydiresta]

I got you a 100Box of xactos for $.30 where should I send it?

[@TheMetalButcher]

Ultrasonic sharpie-knife?

[@ThisOldTony]

you know how much those'll be worth now that everyone is converting their cleaners into cutters? (about $.30/box) ;)

[@mr.h3377]

Hey This Old tony have you heard of Alec Stelle? You should go check him out hes a blacksmith and hes mentioned you in a few of his vids. kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4CXY5aEgtmJjdkm50s BTW I love your videos and have been starting to get into machining because of them :)

[@shonaoneill5151]

This Old Tony that thing made my ears ring! How can you bear that noise?

[@JesusisJesus]

Dude, send them to "Rise Up" in Africa after you watch some of his KZbin videos of him removing Jiggers from people's hands and feet with them. If you want to do something good in this world...

[@janetwalshadams]

This just played automatically because I was researching ultrasonic cleaners for my jewellery. I have NFI how to engineer, but I stuck around for the vibes, you're thoroughly entertaining 😅

[@crashk6]

" *clicks on video with great excitement* ...Watches to 24:42... wanders off to shop, grabs aviation snips and shears open plastic packaging before the video is over. " I must say... the value in watching this was clearly the commentary from This Old Tony, you're a riot!! It was also quite interesting to see a dissection of an ultrasonic tub cleaner.. so thanks for that!

[@ThisOldTony]

my pleasure, thanks for watching crash!

[@rbn_hmrs541]

It's 01:05 in Germany right now and I have school tomorrow but oh Boi am I gonna consume this video rn

[@666Tomato666]

+Breeze unless it causes nausea for you....

[@IanGrams]

New TOT? It's a good day.

[@CBSimien]

I thoroughly enjoyed all of your comedic tidbits in this video. Thank you for the light humor 👍🏾

[@XavierBergeron]

I have to admit I'm binge re-watching your videos. That's a first for any channel for me! Love the content.

[@godfreypoon5148]

I have a large one of these. I use a 50:50 mix of methanol and acetone, which will basically clean anything. I heat it to around 50degC, which is just below the boiling point of the mixture (but it gets hotter anyway and produces copious vapours - use a hood to recondense this and avoid waste). This works very well for removing stuff like carbon build up on rotors from rotary engines. Though, you would probably want to do this outside. The vapours stripped the paint from my kitchen ceiling. Also, that stuff is flammable.

[@JustinAlexanderBell]

This is why we can't have nice things.

[@zrobotics]

Eh, didn't sound all that sketch until he mentioned the kitchen ceiling. I don't think I've ever seen a house well-ventilated enough for that, but I've done quite a bit of acetone vapor polishing safely.

[@godfreypoon5148]

+zrobotics It was sketchier than it seemed at the time. The smell of methanol and acetone is rather unmistakable, and there didn't seem to be much smell at all with the cover on the tub, but evidently the vapours were rising and accumulating at the ceiling level. Lucky there weren't any ignition sources!

[@bobbysantore7839]

you need to be careful with methanol too, it's pretty toxic, and it has a tendency to make you go blind, put you in a coma, kill you, or all three.

[@godfreypoon5148]

+Bobby Santore Indeed, it's not exactly a health tonic. Though, at least it's not carcinogenic like many other solvents, and it does get metabolised out eventually. (Not saying it's OK to breathe the vapours or drink the methanol. Don't do this, kids.)

[@ajtrvll]

Your fingers were right there, inches away from the cutter, for almost the entire video... and you never bothered to try??

[@jmlcolorado]

ajtrvll this is what I was thinking..........the whole damn time 🤣

[@ajtrvll]

jmlcolorado - I mean it's not like I'm expecting Tony to cut a whole one off... on purpose. But not even a small test cut out of sheer professional scientific curiosity? Not to mention, the man even has kids, each with 10 perfectly fine fingers... just sayin' 🤔

[@LazerLord10]

Look up "Harmonic scalpel". Probably not the exact same process, but it seems to be a similar action. Vibrating at ~55kHz and such.

[@jerichojoe307]

For that to work it would have to be at or above the resonant frequency of skin and tissue, this is why the Dremel Multi Max will cut rigid material but if you put it against your skin it just vibrates is far below the resonant frequency needed to be able to cut through skin because the skin has an elasticity 2 it that will simply vibrate right along with the cutter. Simply put his cutter wasn't moving fast enough to oscillate the tool to a frequency faster than the skin would be able to respond to. Might have worked when he was using the exacto blade, but with the blade that he was using at the end of the video it would never ever work

[@ryanm3045]

Joseph Reese It's a hecking xacto-blade.

[@NezukoZ31]

if you want to get oxides off of aluminum, i highly recommend lemon juice. i did a 3 parts lemon juice, 1 part water, and it brought a 30 year old bike carb back to its shine. although it did take 2 1 hour sessions at 60 degree Celsius. I haven't bothered with trying to remove rust because there are plenty of solutions such as evapo-rust that can easily remove iron and steel oxides.

[@edwardmonsariste4050]

Simply amazing dry humor. Bravo!

[@cylosgarage]

dengit tony you didn't dimension your drawing and now i have a 50 inch blade resonating 2 inches at 40k hertz in my garage

[@vishnuvenkatesh7592]

18:37 always brings a smile to my face.

[@Jp3game]

Love your editing. Been binging your videos and i'm impressed at the improvements. Keep it up!

[@MrAllan9]

Thank you Tony for going out of your way and finances to train others.👏

[@dirk4926]

I super heated water in a brand new mug using my microwave once. I kept waiting for it to come to a boil and it never did. I thought my microwave was broken so I opened it up to remove the mug and it burst into a raging boil....good times...good times.

[@firstmkb]

Watch out for canned chili too. It was OK until I stuck in a spoon to stir it, then it exploded all over my shirt!

[@danburch9989]

That happened to me 2x with coffee. I didn't think I cleaned my coffee cup that good!

[@frechjo]

Microwaves weren't common here when I was a kid. First time my family saw one, we were on a vacation. My dad heated his coffee for like 10 minutes at max power, took it out still not bubbling, and when he put a cookie in it, it violently started bubbling like crazy. He took the coffee and threw it in the sink, and we didn't get a microwave years after that...

[@Unmannedair]

I blew up my parents microwave trying to make hard boiled eggs... Who knew eggs could trap steam so well.

[@YodaWhat]

The first time I heated water in a microwave oven, it was in a nice, smooth glass cup. It looked like nothing had happened after the proper time, but I took the cup out anyway and set it down a bit roughly. THEN the water boiled, all at once, losing half of it. "Interesting" I thought. Decades of experimenting followed. Apparently, microwave energy is particularly good at superheating liquids, perhaps by exciting a spin mode in the molecules rather than all kinds of random (mostly linear) modes like traditional heat does. That would explain why the energy can be 'stored'. On a few occasions, virtually all of the water leaves the cup, but it is still not clear why the effects are so variable. To prevent the water exploding out when a tea bag is added, I now pour the energized water into another container. The turbulence of pouring causes the stored energy to return to normal form.

[@MakinSumthinFromNuthin]

Adapt that sucka to accept some carbide and make ya a power scraper to get that last .0001 out of your mill dovetails :)

[@johnpossum556]

a) IF the material would last b) It made short work of epoxy (which is safe in airplanes!) so how you gonna "glue" in the carbide? Most is brazed and I don't think silicon bronze is malleable enough to withstand these kinds of forces for very long. Though he is a welder and should have some brazing rod laying around to try it out.

[@zrobotics]

TOT didn't specify what type of epoxy, but epoxy can be rather brittle (esp. if the mix is slightly off, or slightly past it's shelf life). In my experience brazing isn't all that brittle, it's much more common for joint to separate from the parent material than for the joint itself to break (one of the reasons much of the cheap insert tooling is brazed). That being said, his 'horn' was aluminum, and he would need to redo all the calculations for a different material.

[@dsfs17987]

epoxy is not the right thing to join aluminum and steel in this application, prepping al for epoxy is a thing of its own, and if you leave too much epoxy there (meaning the gap between steel and al socket is too big), the horn will move against the blade when the blade is subjected to load, epoxy will heat up and turn into a goo

[@firstmkb]

Not my expertise, but the horn was originally attached to the tank with epoxy. Your mileage may vary, some exceptions apply, offer void in Texas, gradually increase power until smoke dissapates...

[@dsfs17987]

it works in the original application because it has way more contact area (remember that power generated in both cases should be equal, and is transmitted to the load via that contact patch) and it is not sheared like with the blade, the forces act very differently on the glue in these 2 examples, also not all epoxies are made equal, the one in the original application might be some "NASA grade" high strength oven cured thing, and off the shelf room temp cure ones can't even hold a candle to those (I used to work with composites and all sorts of resins, so I'm not just postulating something from a google search) on a side note, "industrial strength" US baths I've seen have a bolt going through the bath wall and through the transducer, they still have some sort of glue in between the horn and the bath wall though, probably to avoid the horn hammering on the bath wall, since the bolt is a spring basically, this design makes a lot more sense to me, I wouldn't want to hold the transducer to the bath wall just with a relatively soft glue that would act as a damper, but it seems to work in low US power applications, I have a small US bath myself that doesn't have bolt heads visible from the top of the bath, so the transducer(s) are probably glued as well

[@llaneelyort5599]

ty. i enjoy ur commentary and find your quick/razor (ultra sonic)wit very educational(at least for me).

[@jdsstegman]

I have the large one and use it every day cleaning carburator for old motorcycles. Works amazing!

[@lovotcore6946]

Probably the reason ultrasonic cleaners don't work very well on nasty parts is the whole nucleation site thing, the crap on the part has so many of these sites and the dirt that comes off has so many that basically no energy is left over to actually clean anything. For steel, the best way to deal with something that needs heavy cleaning is an electrolyser, those things convert a little bit of the rust back into iron, and then the hydrogen bubbles that form around the anode strip off the rest, plus if you use washing soda as the electrolyte, that will strip tough grease off of things as well weather the electrolyser is on or not. The part isn't going to come out shiny and clean, but a lot of the garbage on it is going to be removed, and what remains is fairly easy to remove with a brush and water.

[@peterdrury5627]

Interesting experiment. Nice work apparently getting close to a resonance frequency with your mechanical mods. From this point, I am wondering if you could modify the electronics to allow you to adjust the frequency with a precision trimmer pot. Assuming that you are not too far off the natural resonance frequency of your mechanical components, you might find some interesting results.

[@rickbates9232]

Love the collaborative feel of your videos!

[@MonkDrunkey]

My god man! I go to comments to thank you for making me laugh again and before I can even begin typing you've done it again three times. Thanks for making such great content, good information with a running laugh track held together with solid editing. Well done sir.

[@andrewlangley4652]

Interesting video as always. I always learn something here. I would have taken a slightly different approach. The easiest way to find resonance is to get it close mechanically, and drive it with a variable frequency. This can be done at significantly lower voltages for tuning. Tuned mechanical systems can be very complex. This method removes most, if not all of the variables.

[@skamego]

"I really should learn to do my homework ahead of time instead of making videos about putting my foot in my mouth." Please don't, we love to watch you make mistakes. Makes us feel smarter.

[@cobracar1]

Thank you for making this video! I have wondered about this very process. :) This is one of the first videos of yours I have watched. At first, I thought it was going to be a little corny, like some other videos, however, I find your video was really great! I really appreciate the balance of sarcasm, humor, science, explanation, testing, creativity, and entertainment. I really quite liked it! Having a technical background, the tech part of me wanted to see more explanation and tech based info, but the non-tech side of me understands the need for a video to be entertaining to non-tech people in order to be successful. Great video. I look forward to seeing more of your videos. Subscribed.

[@johnclavis]

Lots of fun! Great tone! Based on how much fun this video was, I'm subscribing. Heaven knows I need something to pass the time while I'm in quarantine!

[@sshuggi]

Joke's on you. I paused with the green circle and started with the red circle.

[@nowayjerk8064]

i never made it to the green one im steal paused

[@Hyperlooper]

I experimentally verified that both will work

[@NavinBetamax]

Meeeee Toooooo.....lol

[@kevingrace7684]

best youtube channel of all time.

[@lurchie]

Good stuff! I learned a whole lot about ultrasonix, and laughed quite a bit in the process!

[@twilightknight123]

I have a few thoughts on this, though I'm not a professional, only a grad student. First, I would make the horn longer. Having a short horn is nice because it's easier to match to resonant frequency, but you'll get a higher amplitude magnification if you try to fit more wavelengths within the horn. Perhaps keep the base the same but just elongate the skinnier neck portion. Second, try to attach the original blade again. The flat blade you put on at the end works fine, but it's acting as a jackhammer and punching through the material. Ultrasonic cutters really should have the blade moving transverse to the cutter direction for a slicing motion, not a stabbing motion. I'm not sure how much these changes may help, but I feel they'd at least noticeably improve the quality.

[@SimonE-fz5pc]

I used to do some stuff in us welding. When we tested the sonotrodes for resonance we would rig them up just as if they were to be used. But instead of a generator we would connect a test device which would do the sweep you presented and then give out a resonance frequency. With that the technicians knew how much to grind of until right (sonotrodes initially manufacture to contain too much material). I'm not quite sure but you might test the following. Hook up an oscilloscope to the transducer and the beat (tap) the end if you have frequency analysis in the scope use it to see the resulting frequencies (otherwise take a single shot and measure wavelength manually), like a tuning fork it should swing at 40kHz. Also did you refasten the bolt holding together the assembly properly (right torque) again? Otherwise you loose all (a lot of) your power in the mechanical connection.

[@DavidGallowayTrains]

Not to be a safety sally, but I'm really glad that you didn't touch the horn while it was running. We have a Sonics VCX-130 in our lab (130 W) that we use with the micro cup horn for breaking up the agglomerates in preparing the particle size samples. The vibrating horn or probe can disrupt the cell walls of your skin, which you don't want to happen. Sonics makes a lot of cool stuff; here's the link www.sonics.com/

[@zaprodk]

Also he would have gotten a heck of an electric shock. The circuit is not isolated from mains, so everything is "live"

[@chakflying1]

Wait, cell walls of my skin? Am I a plant now?

[@Velzhus]

The fact that the name on the device's label changes every few minutes got me. 1:24 , 2:20, 9:01

[@N37L]

I'd missed that, glad someone was paying attention :)

[@andersgrassman6583]

First, let me recipricate : Use diesel in the ultrasonic cleaner. At least I have used that on carburator parts. I thought they were clean to start with, but hell, they came out with a mirror finish! Now for your video. It's really fun to view! And you got me when halfway declaring something like 'It didn't work. Thank's for watching!'. I was truly upset for a second, almost. ;-D

[@2lefThumbs]

What software did you use for the modeling please ToT? Is it likely to be useable by a casual tinkerer? (When i looked at fea and cfd packages in the past the learning curve was more a perpendicular line than a curve , have things changed, or is this relatedt to your day job ? :))

[@johnelliott3866]

Is it true that AvE is your adopted unloved sister

[@arduinoversusevil2025]

This Old's summer of '69 tryst with Mattias Wandel is a vicious rumour!

[@anicecoldbepis]

You joke, but I'd love to watch you and Matthias tackle a problem together

[@bobr8410]

AvE you should deconstruct Izzy Swan's mechanical dinosaur

[@shadowdog500]

I bet AvE could make one of these for less than $50 with parts form an adult store. Chris

[@schwartzenheimer1]

In drag.

[@ryansta]

Very informative, thanks. I liked the bit with the dancing bear and fireworks

[@MortifiedU]

Thankyou, I was thinking of making one out of a speaker or tweeter.. powerful tweeter but most will only get up to 20khz and not 40khz.. saved me a heap of time and frustration.. again. Cheers. Oh and by the way, love your photography / videography skills.

[@thisnicklldo]

I thought you had an oscilloscope? That should give you a good frequency measurement. Maybe a current probe, or just a microphone?

[@okarakoo]

thisnicklldo agree, and he should build a variable frequency driver to tune the system blade+horn/cone+transducer to the exact resonance

[@thisnicklldo]

Hmm - that means that the piezo will oscillate at whatever frequency gives maximum amplitude? If you say so. But that doesn't help - if the horn isn' properly tuned to the natural piezo frequency then your 'best frequency' will still be less than optimal - quite possibly by a lot.

[@okarakoo]

methinks that the horn is a high-Q mechanical resonator and therefore hitting the same resonant frequency as the piezo will be difficult... considering the tight coupling between these two the resonant peak is probably different. I'd make a frequency sweep and watch for peaks in the current

[@GeorgeTsiros]

okarakoo i'd drive it with a very high frequency square wave and see where it resonates. The violin technique.

[@andrewyek]

hii Tony, how come ultrasonic cleaner does not generate vapour to water as those ultrasonic vaporizer ? is the frequence different ? any idea ? since you have ultrasonic cleaner dismantled.. :-) great to know if possible. thanks andrew

[@michaelhale4041]

Tony what you do with some of your videos kill me. Very funny. Thank you for all your videos and the training

[@mosta5]

This video really inspired me . Thanks for this nice and cool explaining

[@originalbluebuddha]

My laptop is obviously broken. I clicked in the green circle and it paused the video, and the red circle restarted it. Do I need to reverse the polarity of the battery or what?

[@ThisOldTony]

you using one of those left handed mice?

[@GeorgeTsiros]

your monitor has upside down R and G subpixels.

[@NavinBetamax]

Put on the 3D glasses the other way......lol

[@berndheiden7630]

BlueBuddha You‘re obviously looking at the backside of your monitor! It was put in inside out in the chinesium factory.

[@ajtrvll]

Can you make a video of the CAD and the simulations? If not could you send your files to Saunders and ask him to make one? 😁

[@dejayrezme8617]

Yeah and what software did you use? Can Fusion 360 do something like this?

[@TomOConnor-BlobOpera]

My guess is Matlab

[@2testtest2]

Fusion 360 does have a FEM module that can do something like this yes. It is very simple though, so I would not expect it to give very accurate results, though I suppose it would be good for getting in the ball park at least. What you are looking for is modal analysis, it will give you the eigenfrequencies of your geometry.

[@Nopaisti]

Tom O'Connor Matlab for private use? Nope. Solidworks includes a frequency analysis and I think it's been used in this case. Might be wrong of course.

[@TomOConnor-BlobOpera]

Nopaisti matlab (in the UK are least) do a home use licence for £30-odd

[@esqueue]

Okay, this is my second "This Old Tony" video I've watched and due to the amount of times I've laughed at the silliness along with the very informative explanations, I've subbed.

[@williamtemplar8406]

I came across this amazing tool for cutting nails,nail scissors,they don't cut Nails not even brass tacks ,but they sliced through 28 gauge plastic Sheet just great.!

[@nf4x]

How does a smart guy with an oscilloscope not know what frequency the transducer is running?

[@melgross]

I’ve made a record cleaner (yes records, I’ve got about 5,500) using transducers bought on eBay with 40K transducer amps. That’s 4 transducers and 2 100 watt amplifiers. The tank is shaped like the bottom half of the record, and about 1/2” wide inside. Anyway, it works very well.

[@13lseto]

That is what I am thinking about doing but with 1 or 2 transducers. How long does it take? How does the record look after cleaning?

[@gangleweed]

What's a record for?

[@EvgeniX.]

LOL I read it like "2100 watt amplifiers" and tought myself what a crazy ass!

[@rwallet6621]

Will that go on your record?

[@Tab_1138]

you are a good teacher. you make it fun to learn.

[@komosky]

First video i watched of yours after following a comment on a slow mo ultrasonic video by the slow mo guys and the commentary, dad jokes, quips sold me, subscribed.

[@ShubhamBhushanCC]

Deuces at Transing I knew it. thanks I am gonna write that on my test

[@ArnaudMEURET]

Did you know that’s the technique used to sharpen X-Acto blades in the factory?

[@xrayrep]

I have a lot of experience with ultrasonic knives. In fact, the first one that I tried to make was with an ultrasonic cleaner, exactly the way you attempted to do it in this video. I also had limited success. Now I own a couple of factory made (in China) ultrasonic knives. The problem with using an ultrasonic cleaner as a knife, is the fact that cleaners oscillate the power on and off to the knife transducer at a 60Hz rate. In a "real" factory made knife, the ultrasonic power is continuous. Once you cut plastics with an ultrasonic knife, you won't want to do it any other way. It's awesome!

[@mozkitolife5437]

Cutzawaybetter. Well I'm sold. This video was fantastic. It made the topic very entertaining. Great talent you have there, TOT.

[@leozendo3500]

Instant subscribe video quality

[@omaristephens2143]

Ultrasonic Subscriber 🤣🤣🤣

[@SecondClassCitizen]

This is by far one of the coolest little builds.

[@diablolucifer8347]

How bout making a graver with that contraption? Instead of an exact-o blade put a hss carbide round or square which ever sharpened with angle and heel. Ultrasonic graver vs pneumatic graver I would like to see you make that for a video

[@mikael9398]

"And my old hip replacement" lmao

[@tamasmihaly1]

Very impressive. Thanks.

[@samueln.4356]

Didn't expect this video to be this funny, very well done and cool project!

[@zilog357]

My God! This guy got me laughing my ass off during the whole video.