New(old)Tool day! L&R Console Watch Cleaning Machine

ErichKeane · Aug 25, 2025

Alright, Final update time!

I got everything assembled, and the transducer seems to work! UNFORTUNATELY it has a natural resonance of ~60khz for some reason, but the driver still gets it audibly/physically vibrating a ton, and it seems to be agitating the liquid/cleaner, so I'm at the point where I'm calling it done for now. I figure it is at least as good as one of the cleaners that doesn't have an ultrasonic (in fact, better since it has the auto-reverse feature!), so the ultrasonic as-is good enough.

Otherwise the machine is perfectly functional: even the status light bulbs work! JUST ultrasonic is less than optimal.

IF I find myself willing to dig into it again, perhaps I'll be able to figure it out 😀 I'll either find a board that is fully adjustable (there is plans for a board online + software, but I'm not sure I want that much more of a project!), supports 60khz, or remake the transducer.

SO for now, I'm putting a bow on this project and I'm going to start using it! I have two partially-disassembled watches that need a good cleaning, plus a ton of projects that I've acquired/put on hold while working on this project.

ErichKeane · Aug 25, 2025

Photo and video of it running! Cleaning my first movement, an ETA based Tissot that has been apart of ages.

Ron_W · Aug 25, 2025

Excellent result and you have my deep respect for eveything you had to figure out.
I wish you many happy cleaning projects !

ps ; would cleaning work on my induction cooking plate ? It brings water to all boil but no idea of the frequency.

ErichKeane · Aug 25, 2025

Ron_W
Excellent result and you have my deep respect for eveything you had to figure out.
I wish you many happy cleaning projects !

ps ; would cleaning work on my induction cooking plate ? It brings water to all boil but no idea of the frequency.

Thanks!

I would very much doubt that it would. An induction cooktop works by vibrating a magnetic field, this works by vibrating the big hunk of aluminum (that is, it is a physical vibration that causes the cleaning). Induction cooktops act at roughly the right frequency though, so if you could find a way to get it to convert to a physical vibration, it would perhaps work (like when there is a small obstruction on the top that causes the pan to vibrate with the magnetism?).

Alternatively, you might be able to put a magnet/piece of iron in suspension in a way that would vibrate the entire material, but I don't quite know.

rendo · Aug 25, 2025

Congratulations on the well-deserved outcome! This is 100x more complicated than how I fixed my L&R Master by replacing the broken rheostat.

JimInOz · Aug 26, 2025

Great to see some ancient technology has been saved.
👍

60kHz should be OK for watch parts, it just won't be as aggressive as 40kHz.
Do a test with a 1" square of aluminium kitchen foil in clean water with a dash of Simple Green to break the surface tension.
After five minutes you should see where bubbles have started making holes in the foil.

ErichKeane · Oct 2, 2025

SO as an update: I've been using this for a while now, quite successfully. I have both large and small baskets, but find myself using the large baskets more often, as they seem more useful with more storage locations.

That said, I keep seeing folks online with more modern machines use ones like the below. I bought one on ebay, and am reasonably confident I can modify it to work with my machine.

The one real question I have is: Has anyone done this before? It looks like it is a little longer, so I might lose the baffles at the bottom of the jars. I already am short one (and running without it on the cleaning solution), so I don't know how valuable they are.

BUT the additional organization/compartments in this seems really attractive. So, anyone have thoughts? I'm about 90% I can do it with minor effort (though, I WILL have to go to Ace for a set screw, I'm 99% sure...)

ErichKeane · Oct 14, 2025

ErichKeane
SO as an update: I've been using this for a while now, quite successfully. I have both large and small baskets, but find myself using the large baskets more often, as they seem more useful with more storage locations.

That said, I keep seeing folks online with more modern machines use ones like the below. I bought one on ebay, and am reasonably confident I can modify it to work with my machine.

The one real question I have is: Has anyone done this before? It looks like it is a little longer, so I might lose the baffles at the bottom of the jars. I already am short one (and running without it on the cleaning solution), so I don't know how valuable they are.

BUT the additional organization/compartments in this seems really attractive. So, anyone have thoughts? I'm about 90% I can do it with minor effort (though, I WILL have to go to Ace for a set screw, I'm 99% sure...)

I actually spent a few minutes in the shop today trying to adapt this. I just have to modify the top bracket. Unfortunately, the top bracket is made out of hte softest, gummiest aluminum I've ever experienced!

Also, the set screw hole is incredibly loose, and the OD of that center post is too close to 10mm for my liking. I might have to loctite in a better sized center post, but I didn't have time yet 😀

New(old)Tool day! L&R Console Watch Cleaning Machine

ErichKeane

ErichKeane

Ron_W

ErichKeane

rendo

JimInOz

ErichKeane

ErichKeane

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