RCBS ultra sonice cleaner

[ultratec1]

I purchased a RCBS ultra sonic cleaner tonight and I must be doing something wrong. I have run a batch of .223 brass through 2 cycles of 30min at 140 degrees with Hornady cleaner and they look just as dirty as when I put them in.

What am I doing wrong?

Distilled water, cleaner and the tank is heated up.

 

[Rule3]

Never used one but have used several acid solutions.

Is your dilution rate of chemical to water correct.? Is it new chemical (cleaner)

Water level correct?

Is the brass in the basket and not touching the unit. Is it perhaps overloaded, too many cases in at one time.

I have and do use citric acid at times and just put a few tablespoons in water in a bucket, you can the brass start to shine almost instantly.

 

[ZX John]

You might have to leave them in a lot longer; don't know, I have a Thumler B and I usually leave cartridges in the corncob for a couple hours. And that's only the slightly-dirty ones; the real heavily-tarnished or range-brass ones have gone 4 hours wet with the SS pins and come out almost as dirty as they went in...

 

[Mac45]

Don't take this wrong, but are you confusing polished with clean?
I've got a Hornady unit, and it typically just needs one 40 min cycle to get things nice and clean. They'll look bright and shiny when you rinse 'em off, but they dry sort of dull. There might be a bit of carbon in the primer pocket, but otherwise, they're clean, just not polished.

Now if the brass is coming out dirty after an hour, there's something wrong.
Try only loading half as much in the basket. smaller loads seem to work better. Also, be sure you have the right cleaner. Hornady makes two different solutions. One for brass, one for parts. Easy enough to grab the wrong one.
You can find a lot of homebrewed solutions on line. You might want to experiment and see what works best for you if you're still not happy with the Hornady solution.

 

[243winxb]

Cleaning brass See posts by Unclenick http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=708100&page=2

 

[ultratec1]

I am trying to clean them in the sonic cleaner. I tried again tonight and the 9mm brass looks just as dirty as when I put it in. The primer pockets are still dirty as all get out and the outside of the casing looks tarnished and almost oily. This is a real bummer because I have a TON of brass I wanted to get cleaned. The machine runs like it should and all the heat, timer functions are working. My brass is just not coming out clean. Getting real frustrated with it

 

[royesses]

I use two 8minute cycles with my harbor freight 2.5 liter unit. I use Lyman cleaner in the ratio listed on the bottle, I add one teaspoon of lemi-shine powder and one drop of dawn. The cases are then run through two cycles of 8 minutes heated and one cycle of 8 minutes with just distilled water. I drain them and heat the oven to 175 degrees and put the brass on an old cookie sheet. They come out dry in ten minutes. They are not polished but are very clean with little or no deposits in the primer pockets.

 

[roval]

it wasn't as good as I expected. ran my rcbs sonic cleaner with a moderate load of 45 acp last night. I don't use distilled water just tap but this time I used water with some dishwashing liquid for the 1st 30 min and then used the cleaner for 2 cycles of 30 min. it cleaned the brass but it wasn't perfect. some of the primer pockets had some crud(most were clean) and there were some occasional residue inside the cases. but way cleaner compared to using a tumbler for several hours. of course it doesn't dry shiny as tumbled brass.

I stirred it around mid cycle. don't know if it helps but I read it somewhere and somewhere I read that more random placement is better than regularly arranged brass. used the hornady cleaning solution mixed as directed.

used it previously with several heavier loads of 223 . I remember the solution got really dark but they had already been previously tumbled and I was only cleaning off the lube after sizing. honestly can't remember how clean they were but a lot of the pockets still had crud....did get cleaned for 2 cycles each

 

[rsrocket1]

Try one cycle with only about 10 pieces of brass in it and see how it turns out.

 

[eeh]

I never used wet cleaner..
Is it that much better than vibrator and corn cob media ?

 

[Blue68f100]

Sounds like the cleaner solution is bad. Because that cleaner will clean by itself no US required.

 

[dbarnhart]

A couple of years ago I did a comparison test of various case cleaning methods using some really dirty 223 brass. Scroll down and see if my 'after' photo of ultrasonically-cleaned brass looks like yours:

http://www.shootandreload.com/category/case-cleaning/

 

[ultratec1]

If there a word I could use right now it would be utterly dissappointed. I put 20 .223 cases in the cleaner last night. I put it on a 30 min cycle and let it heat to the correct temp. Went back down to check on it, STILL FILTHY!!!! It's going back to the store and picking up the Foxpro caller I was thinking about getting.

 

[Rule3]

Why don't you call RCBS? As mentioned just the cleaning solution by itself will bright and clean the brass.

 

[AABEN]

I use Lyman cleaner in my Lyman and they come out clean! Are you turning your cleaner on? I have to turn my on then turn the heat on. It only takes 8 mins to clean 250 223 de-primed brass. When done I put them in a pan with distilled water. I will use that water till I need to add water and cleaner I use that water for adding to my cleaner. I let my cleaner set for 2 days then skim off the clean water from the dirt. I add a little cleaner when needed. GOOD LUCK

 

[rsrocket1]

Another test to ensure the US cleaner is working is to place a small square of aluminum foil in various parts of the cleaner. In a short time, the foil will dissolve. That shows the micro bubble formation and explosion is working by actually cutting through the aluminum.

I had one of the big Harbor Freight cleaners for a couple of weeks and found that eighteen 45ACP cases was about the max for the single transducer built into that unit. Any more and they just didn't get clean. I used nothing more than tap water and a couple of drops of Dawn detergent and you could actually see the soot "cook off" and go into solution. I also tried with just tap water and the cases also came out clean and shiny with clean primer pockets, but the couple of drops of detergent seemed to work a little better.

The misleading pictures of a full basket of .223 cases going into the Hornady LnL US cleaner shows that when cleaning big batches like that, you are not really using the ultrasonic action to remove the soot from the cases. You are simply vibrating the cases in the cleaning solution and a tub with a vibrator will work just as well. As others said, brass is an excellent absorber of US energy and a basket full of brass is not getting the true ultrasonic action.

It would have been good for 1911 frames and AR bolt assemblies, but I wanted a cleaner for my brass so I exchanged it for the 5# vibratory tumbler which has served me very well for the past 4 years. Just set the lamp timer, turn it on and 3 hours later, clean shiny brass.

 

[ultratec1]

Yes I turn it on and let it heat up. Then I place the basket in the cleaner. Maybe my cleaner is no good???? I will attempt another cleaner and see what happens. I plan on calling RCBS today and see what they say.


I will also try the aluminum foil trick also.

 

[Reloadron]

After reading the thread there is a possibility the unit is defective. The fact the solution heats means little to nothing if the transducer(s) aren't doing their thing. During the cleaning process you should see some cavitation bubbles in the solution happening. If the transducer is weak or not properly secured and mounted you won't get ultrasonic cleaning. If the circuits driving the transducer aren't working you won't get ultrasonic cleaning. You should be seeing some cavitation bubbles during the process.

If you don't see any cavitation happening call RCBS and think about returning the thing.

Just My Thoughts....
Ron