Spend hours in the vibratory tumbler or hours cleaning and drying with chemicals. Take your pick. I spend a lot more hand moving when I clean with chemicals than I do with the tumbler. Rotary tumblers are the best balance of cleaning speed AND hand moving. I set my vibratory tumbler to run overnight, screen the brass the next afternoon, and I'm done. For my ultrasonic, I'm busy for an hour straight changing my solution over and over, and then still wait a day to load as I wait for the brass to dry (just got a brass dryer, so that'll change). For the rotary tumbler, I dump it in and start it rolling in the morning, take it out at lunch, then it's dry and ready to load the next morning (again, brass dryer should have me ready that afternoon).
I use the "clean and shiny" method, slightly modified, from 6mmbr.com. I run 25min 50/50 white vinegar solution, rinse, 10min in Hornady One Shot solution, then 5min in hot water, then I rinse manually in cold water, 3x flushing, which takes about 5min in itself. Their method runs that last cold water rinse in the ULS cleaner, I do it manually so I can change the water.
So I handle my brass into the vibratory tumbler, then out into the screen roller, and a third time out of the screen, which does include some individual confirmation to remove all of the media. With the Rotary, I handle it into the tumbler then out to the drying rack. That's it. For the Ultrasonic, I handle it into the vinegar, rinse, into the One Shot, rinse, into the Hot water, then manual rinse, and then into the drying racks. LOTS of hand moving, lots of brass handling. But it comes out very clean - TOO clean in some ways - and it's all done in an hour, vs. 4 to 24.
I'd buy new brass before I spent time manually rubbing with a brillo pad or stirring a bucket of lemishine.
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