I was going to take the plunge cleaning atomizers this morning. Before starting, I looked at each atomizer under strong magnification. What I found both unfavorably surprised but also delighted me. I found pretty big differences in the machining of them which was surprising so I did not want to risk doing them in bulk and mismatching on reassembly. That really threw a monkey wrench in the assembly-line process I'm used to cleaning cartos. But, what I also found was that there is space next to and under the spike bar big enough to fit a very fine gauge needle in. My hubby took insulin for a while (long story) so I happened to have some on hand. I put 91% iso alcohol in a small dish, dropped the fully assembled atty in it, filled the syringe from it and found the open space under the atty spike bar with the needle (these are short, fine, needles).. then flushed. Each time I did this, I dropped the atty back in the alcohol bowl and saw all the bits of ash/gunk settling on the bottom of it. Voila... it worked! When I saw no more, I blew through the atty a couple of time and then stove-piped, tail-piped, whatever one calls it (draw with no tank) with the eroll battery to basically dry burn and evaporate the alcohol. Then I flushed with syringe/alcohol again and did get a few flecks of ash but not a lot. Its acts like a brand new atty now. I like this method because there's no disassembling the atty and no drying time required to start using it as there is using a hot water soak/flush.
I you like the sound of this method and want to try it but you don't have or know anyone who has diabetic syringes, you can get them without a prescription at Walmart. Also, feed stores sell all sizes of syringes very cheaply and I imagine they have fine gauge for birds and other really small animals. Also, you could pull the bar up slightly on one side to accommodate a larger gauge by wedging a small (sewing machine/electronics size) screw driver under it.
Note: This atty was not very dirty. I use clear gold or pink, no more than 30% VG, juice and I cleaned it at the first sign of a tighter draw. I imagine if it was badly gunked up disassembly might be required but cannot say for sure but, frankly, this process was so quick and easy there's really no reason to let the atty go long enough for huge amounts of gunk to build up.
Well, crap, I should have put this on some other atty-cleaning thread but didn't think first.... a "normal" condition for me.
I you like the sound of this method and want to try it but you don't have or know anyone who has diabetic syringes, you can get them without a prescription at Walmart. Also, feed stores sell all sizes of syringes very cheaply and I imagine they have fine gauge for birds and other really small animals. Also, you could pull the bar up slightly on one side to accommodate a larger gauge by wedging a small (sewing machine/electronics size) screw driver under it.
Note: This atty was not very dirty. I use clear gold or pink, no more than 30% VG, juice and I cleaned it at the first sign of a tighter draw. I imagine if it was badly gunked up disassembly might be required but cannot say for sure but, frankly, this process was so quick and easy there's really no reason to let the atty go long enough for huge amounts of gunk to build up.
Well, crap, I should have put this on some other atty-cleaning thread but didn't think first.... a "normal" condition for me.