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Ultrasonic Record Cleaning

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I am the owner of Vibrato, LLC, Louis Steele, and have been corresponding with a few members of this forum recently about the Vibrato 6 Quart Ultrasonic Cleaner.
It is true, the plastic housing is shabby. I ran a KickStarter campaign to raise funds to have metal housings designed and fabricated. I met a lot of resistance from the Kickstarter community and I cancelled the fundraiser. I decided to go ahead and use the re-purposed plastic enclosure to obtain sales and - in the future - switch over to metal housing.
Sales have been non-existent, mainly due to the cheap Chinese imports (another obstacle brought up by the Kickstarter community).
Since there has been interest in the Vibrato 6 Quart Ultrasonic - 60kHz, with Heat and Timer , I will list this special cleaner on my tindie.com webstore AS A PRE-ORDER (non are in stock at this time, and production will take approx. one month). This new listing will ease any orders from anyone interested in purchasing this special Vibrato model. The cost will be $385.45 . A flat fee of $8.75 for domestic shipping in the US, and a flat fee of $22.00 for "everywhere else" international orders.
I certainly appreciate the interest in the Vibrato product, and my company. I have worked in the ultrasonics manufacturing field since 2005. It is a fascinating technology! Thank you for sharing this information on this DIYAudio forum.
If anyone has questions, you can email me at louis@vibratollc.com.
More info will be listed on the tindie.com webstore shortly, also.
Sincerely,
Louis Steele
 
Waiting List

Louis - Thank you for this and your quick reply e-mails last night. I've joined the Tindie wait list. Looking forward to swapping out my cheap 40khz fleabay unit.

cheers - Christopher

Thanks Christopher!
I just shot you an email, but I wanted to state it here also.
I neglected to allow back-orders, which is why it only allowed you to be put on a waiting list. I have corrected this, and now back-orders are allowed and customers can input their info so that once I am ready to ship, they will be charged at that time.
Parts have been ordered to produce two 6 Quart 60khz Ultrasonic Cleaners. I expect to list them as completed within a month on the Tindie webstore. You will be notified by Tindie as soon as that happens.
Back Orders allow me to purchase the parts I need for however many Ultrasonics are wanted. This helps keep my expense down, and keeps prices down also.
I would like to thank everyone who has contacted me. I appreciate all the interest in the Vibrato Ultrasonic Cleaners!

Louis Steele
 
I wanted to post a couple of updates on the special order 6 Quart 60/80khz Vibrato Ultrasonic Cleaners.
The final parts are due this week, and shipping for the first wave of orders soon after.
I did experience a temporary setback, which was my fault - I ordered an incorrect part. It was a microprocessor that should have had a suffix "A", but I ordered the suffix "P". The correct part is being shipped 2nd Day Air.
Also, a big thank you from me to everyone here in the DIYAudio forum for all of the positive feedback, and support!
I just saw a post on Twitter this morning (6/30/2014) from Tindie.com stating that the 6 Quart Vibrato Ultrasonic Cleaner is the Number 1 seller on Tindie !!!
I can't wait to start shipping!
 
@ Louis: will it be available with 230V mains option?

Also, a recommendation: consider including metric specs for products.

At this time, I can only recommend the main Vibarto Ultrasonic Cleaners be powered by US standard 120vAC, 60hz single phase. I have no way at this time to verify that they will work of 220-240vAC 50hz.
We do have a universal ultrasonic generator circuit that will work worldwide, but it is not as powerful as our patent-pending Vibrato Ultrasonic Generator.

As for metrics specs. I'll work on that. Until then, Google has a great conversion system.:D
 
Gents,

Yesterday, I received my 6Q/60khz unit from Louis Steele of Vibrato LLC. From the previous posts, as you'll recall, this unit was inspired by this thread. It shipped safe and sound with excellent service from Louis.

For those considering it, I thought I'd post a few photos and a brief video demo of the unit in action. So far, it's a no-brainer at the price - simple to use, and a very different experience than my much bulkier and (40khz) NOISIER! ebay unit from China.

The photos depict what you get when your 11-pound box arrives at your door...

The video link takes you to youtube..

Basic demo of a Vibrato Ultrasonic Cleaner - YouTube

(Also, I'm in no way affiliated with Vibrato - other than being a happy customer)

cheers

Its a great relief that the Ultrasonic Cleaner arrived in good shape! Packing was done by a local UPS Store, and I am glad you posted photos of their good job.
Thank you for the kind words! It is more that I could have hoped for. I am glad that you are happy with a product that I worked so hard to get out to the public! Just when I was about to throw in the towel, out of the blue, you sparked interest in Vibrato that is growing daily. For that I am thankful!
As always, should you ever have any problems, do not hesitate to contact me.
Thanks again,
Louis Steele
Owner
Vibrato, LLC.
 
Update:
In my ignorance of shipping costs, after these initial orders have been fulfilled, I am forced to increase the cost of shipping. These new shipping rates are now in effect for all new orders and listed on our Tindie webstore.
I apologize to everyone who has not ordered yet. For those who have ordered, I will ship at the original rate.
In the meantime, I will continue to search for better rates to keep your costs down.
Sincerely,
Louis Steele
Owner,
Vibrato, LLC.
 
Mr. Vibrato, what sort of price difference is there between 60 and 80kHz transducers? And how are things going otherwise?

Thanks!
All custom orders have been filled. Currently, the final 80khz Ultrasonic are being shipped this week.
I temporarily suspended orders for the 80khz UC's, but they will be added into their own category on our Tindie webstore soon. The price difference was somewhere between $90 to $99 more than the 60k.
We received a positive review on our Tindie webstore!
Sincerely,
Louis Steele
Vibrato, LLC.
 
With respect, Louis ... you need to provide some directions for us punters (who are over 30!) ;)

I cut your mention of "Vibrato, LLC" ... pasted it into Google and then clicked on 'Tindie' ... and didn't get an immediate feed to your site? :(

So I have absof'inglutely no idea how to:
* find your product,
* get the specs of it, and
* order it.

Perhaps you can enlighten me? (Which, for an excellent eBusiness site, you shouldn't have to - it should be all straight forward for the punters.)


Regards,

Andy

I apologize for the omission. Here is a link to our Tindie webstore:
https://www.tindie.com/search/?q=vibrato
and to our business website:
Vibrato Ultrasonic Equipment
Sometimes I forget that I am over 30 also!:spin:
If I can help in any other way, let me know.

Louis Steele
Vibrato, LLC.
 
VibratoLLC,

Have you decided what you are going to do?

We hope to have the circuit boards listed on our Tindie store within a month.

We also had a huge response to our 80khz Ultrasonic - we intended to sell just 2 or 3 to deplete our stock, but will be listing a few more (within the next week or two) to meet demand for a low-cost system. However, we will be changing the plastic housing to a different brand, since the previous version keeps arriving to us cracked and broken (from different vendors
YGqklk9iaaMtLx1OEQAAOw==
). After this, we will not be manufacturing complete ultrasonic cleaners - just the circuit boards.

Thanks for your interest!
-Louis Steele
Vibrato, LLC.
 
VibratoLLC,

On your website I see a 80KHz 6 quart ultrasonic cleaner. Are you still selling these?
Yes! We are still making these, although slowly recently, as we tried to solve the shipping damage issue. We are now double-boxing all units to prevent damage.
Just listed a 6 Quart, 80khz as in stock minutes ago (4/23/15).
We also have a less expensive 6 Quart 60khz in stock. This one has a 2-30 minute Timer (no digital display), and no heater.

Hope to increase production of the 80khz.
I am hesitant to post when units are in stock for fear of spamming you guys.
Thanks for the interest!
Louis
Vibrato, LLC.
 
Aluminum VS Plastic

VibratoLLC,

Are you offering both Aluminum and plastic enclosure? What are the pros and cons of aluminum and plastic?
We will only be offering the plastic for now.
We did order and receive a sampling of aluminum enclosures, and they look very nice!
Aluminum looks more professional, shields emi/rfi, and only bends instead of cracking.
Aluminum is MUCH more expensive, tends to be louder due to vibrations, and presents a shock hazard if there is a grounding problem.
Plastic looks homemade, can crack during shipping. But, it is lighter, less expensive, quiet, easy to work with and store.
Here is a mockup of the Aluminum version (not for sale). [ hope it appears]
2015-04-14 21.11.22.jpg
In this image, you can see there is about a half-inch overhang on three sides, top and bottom. I do not know why this happened, since it did not show in our cad drawing. Otherwise, it looks good. We still have to put boards in it and run it thru tests. Cost wise, it will add approximately $150 to the listed price of our 6 Quart 80khz unit.
It would be interesting to see who prefers the aluminum over the plastic, despite the added cost.

Sincerely,
Louis
Vibrato, LLC.
 
DIY Audio Members;
I received a message this morning that someone tried to access the Vibrato account more than five times then was locked out for failing to guess the password.
The IP address is 216.17.110.252 , which is anonymous but listed as a "comment spammer", harvester, etc.
Please be aware, as our company website was hijacked before by someone in China.

I also want to apologize for the limited availability of our ultrasonics. We are continually focusing on making a better product. We experienced problems with shipping damage, which was overcome by double-boxing our cleaners. Recently, there was some people experiencing leaks around the tank, which also has been resolved with better sealing techniques.
We also have experimented with aluminum housing to replace the plastic enclosures. We failed to measure correctly, account for board space and odd software presets, which means we have two sets of expensive scrap metal in our shop.
We hope to have a corrected aluminum cad file soon, and samples will be purchased. If all goes well, we will make them available as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience and continued support!
Louis Steele
Vibrato, LLC.
 
Vibrato Update

Update on the Aluminum Enclosures:
We received the five sample pieces and everything fits together nicely!
Here are photos of the first assembly.
We will make a couple more, then make them available on our Tindie web store in a couple weeks ( they are not available yet).
Tentative pricing will be as follows:
6 Quart, 80KHz with Digital Thermostat and Timer = $675.50
6 Quart, 60KHz with Digital Thermostat and Timer = $645.75


I know this is quite a jump from the plastic enclosures, but the aluminum housings are much more expensive and require additional parts and work (such as a fan cover, translucent smoke-color acrylic display window, etc).

I will make an announcement here when the units are ready to order.
Your feedback is always welcome!
Sincerely,
Louis Steele
 

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VibratoLLC Louis, do your systems have sweep built in, or are both units running at the fixed KHz? I've heard sweep, moving a bit above and below the transducer's rated Khz provides some cleaning benefits in some applications. Whether it's beneficial when cleaning records, I have no idea.
 
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