The carb soak stuff you find in one-gallon cans is a cocktail of some rather nasty components... hence the price, and effectiveness.
Most if it makes excellent work of cast iron carb parts, and has no problem clearing shellac from brass, stainless, etc., but it can be pretty harsh on Zamak. Most antique tractor carbs (Marvel-Schebler, Zenith, etc) will be iron bodies with brass orfices. Newer stuff will be Zamak, or some flavor of aluminish die-casting stock.
I've been doing most of my carbs with the dip-can, followed by ultrasonic and bead-blaster. I usually blast the exterior of mine BEFORE disassembly, THEN rinse it in degreaser, so the the exterior crud doesn't take away all the effectiveness of my dip-can. It DOES mean that my blast cabinet gets cruddy, but it's gotta go Somewhere, right?
One trick I DO use... is distilled water and plastic baggies. I'll fill the ultrasonic tank about 3/4 the way with distilled water, then put my carb parts in a plastic baggie, then pour some vinegar into the bag, zip it shut, and lower it into the ultrasonic. That keeps the US tank clean, but the heat and ultrasonic energy passes through to the parts... with the heat, and the vinegar's acetic acid, parts clean up pretty well.
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