Spark plug cleaning device

I have   had a lot of problems lately with spark plugs . They fire when resting on the head so you presume they are ok ,but under combustion screwed into the head they don't spark .The plugs on a 600 bandit are tiny so a wire brush only cleans the top electrode which isn't enough . Today I was working on my gs550L and sure enough ,on fire up ,number 4 header was cold ,when all others were warm . Pulled the plug ,tested resting on the head ,spark good . Screwed back in ,header stayed cold ,so not sparking in chamber .
I recently bought a air ,plug cleaning device . Blasts electrode with some sort of black grit ..15 seconds to clean plug ,a wash with petrol , re-install and motor instantly runs on all 4 cylinders .. 
At $45 delivered it just save me a lot of time thinking I had a fuel problem .Also ,it has paid for itself with the amount of plugs that didn't work but now do .

A friend of mine recently sent his Bandit 600 into a bike shop to get the carbs ultrasonically cleaned due to running problems . The bill was $700  but yes the bike did run ok .  Ok for 150 kls then it went to shit again . He had sent the bike to the shop with new plugs but of coarse they replaced them .With the bike playing up ,he replaced them again   ( 12 plugs so far ).needless to say bike runs for a day and does it again . . Out of frustration he sends the bike  to me (melb to tas ) rather than burn it . I put in another set of plugs ( now its 16 plugs we have  ) 
Turned out the bike shop had set the fuel air screws at , one at 6 turns out and 3 at 7 turns out . (should be 2 ) No wonder the plugs were carboning up .
Once again they all had spark on the head but nothing screwed in . 
. 16 plugs and some were the expensive ones . Took me about 5 days to work out what was going on . I nearly burnt it myself .   After that I bought the plug cleaner . If only I had had one before . Stupid tiny plugs .

I inherited an electric one my Dad owned which also blasts the plug with a grit compound .............sounds similar to yours.

From my meagre experience...........do not clean plugs with a wire brush of any description, all wire brushes are softer than the porcelain and all you are going to do is coat the porcelain with metal causing a miss-fire of poor/fluffy running. I have cleaned them with glass media but it's a pain to make sure that there is no glass left in them.

Another option, buy your plugs in bulk form Rockauto.com, the ones I buy are usually $2ea landed     At any given time there is a Rock 5% discount to be found on some car forums.........If you can't find one I can post one or send it to you.

Option 3.......get your junk running clean so you're not blowing through plugs 

I have 14 motorcycles  , getting them all to run nicely at the same time rules out option 3 . Its just never going to happen . .  I buy other peoples problems .

paul wrote:I inherited an electric one my Dad owned which also blasts the plug with a grit compound .............sounds similar to yours.

We used the Champion plug cleaner/tester in workshops I worked in for years, in the end it was getting more economical to ditch them and replace, that was pre iridium though

Up date . Do not , use one of these machines , Utter rubbish . Today I used it on some larger plugs ,ones I could see down into, unlike the small 600 bandit plugs . After blasting the plug to clean it , I sprayed it with aerosol brake cleaner and then used compressed air . On inspection and using a fine needle I find grit still lodged in the plug . My grit blaster is now in the bin .

If you have small enough o-rings you can push them down where the porcelain meets the inside of the thread, and that'll keep the glass/media from wedging in there   

O-rings are cheaper than plugs  

That is a good idea . It seems to be the larger plugs have a internal grove that holds the grit.

paul wrote:I inherited an electric one my Dad owned which also blasts the plug with a grit compound .............sounds similar to yours.

I had one of those 12v ones when I was 17, unfortunately i don't know what happened to it.
Oh well just put them in the sand blasting cabinet now