ultrasonic case cleaner?

[Larryswn]

Anybody use one of these? I heard they work great and the primer pockets come out clean as a whistle. Do they really work good? Any suggestions on Brand. (cheap as possible)

 

[MutinousDoug]

I bought a Harbor Freight cleaner about 4-5 years ago and it's working out alright; alot better than their viboratory cleaner who's motor bearings can't take the shaking. The primer pockets can get so clean I sometimes have to lube them to seat the primers. Dish washing liquid cleans the brass and I add a little Lemonshine if I want the cases to get pretty. The more brass you have to clean, the more time/cycles it takes
I heard the SS tank is not sealed around the top of the machine so I smeared a little RTV around the joint to protect the electronics when filling or emptying the tank.

 

[Ej3]

I bought an iSonic heated model with max timer setting of 25 min. It works well on cleaning brass. I use 3 tsp of La's Awesome Cleaner to 5 cups of water for 25 min. About 50 .223 size cases or 100 9mm. But first I hand deprime with a Frankford Arsenal hand deprimer and give the primer pockets a quick cleaning with a Lee primer pocket cleaner.

You can get 64 oz. La's Awesome cleaner at Family Dollar stores for like $6, or just get it at Amazon. This does not discolor the brass

 

[JO JO]

If you want like new brass why not go stainless wet tumbler, way better than the ultrasonic in my experience

 

[loneviking]

Well, it depends on what you're trying to do. Usually, once fired range brass, I deprime a bunch of cases and put them in my Cabelas vibratory tumbler with a tiny amount of Carnuba wax.

If they are muddy, I have an RCBS ultrasonic that does a nice job. I also use it to keep dies clean, jewelry and small gun parts. The problem is getting the brass dry. The only way I've found that works well is tossing them in the clothes dryer with a few rags to damp down the sound.

But, if you have to make them look like new, then the stainless steel pin tumblers are the way to go.

 

[someguy2800]

At my work we have a couple industrial ultrasonic cleaners that are heated to about 150 deg F. I used to take all my brass to work with me and put them in an old detergent bottle and fill it up with water and a little vinegar and then toss that whole jug in there. The first time I put 600 rnds of 223 in and left it in there for 15 minutes and it had cleaned them so aggressively that it actually was eating the zinc out of the brass alloy and left them with pink spots of bare copper on the surface. After that I just put them in there for 3 minutes or so and there is not a spec of carbon in any flash hole and the water turns black.

So if your sonic cleaner is not cleaning your brass spotless clean you either don't have a powerful enough of one or your putting in too much brass at a time.

 

[rsrocket1]

Vinegar with brass is a no no. Use citric acid instead. It passivates the brass and does not attack the zinc.

I agree with someguy that you need a really powerful US cleaner to truly clean anything more than a handful of brass at one time. When I started reloading, I experimented with the bigger HF US cleaner and found that the max capacity for that cleaner was 18 45ACP cases and required 3 cycles to get the cases clean. Some of the other "hobby grade" cleaners show a basket full of brass going into the tank, it is no more than vibratory cleaning and the cleaning solution is doing the work. If you can put brass in a US cleaner with nothing more than a drop of Dawn diswasher detergent in a water bath and the brass comes out clean and shiny, then you know the US is doing its job.

I had considered scrounging around for some industrial US cleaners, but ended up exchanging the HF US cleaner for their 5 pound vibratory cleaner and a 50# bag of crushed walnut for $17 and have been using both ever since.

 

[spitballer]

I bought a cheapie unheated Lyman Turbo 700 some years ago for small batches of .223 cases and still use it, along with their brass cleaner. It seems to help if I heat up the solution before using it, but I still have to swab around the flash holes with a Q-tip to get them truly clean: dirty brass drives me nuts.

 

[Dudedog]

I tried the Frankford Ultrasonic (cheap ultrasonic) and it worked ok but I could only do a small amount of brass at a time.
Really happy with wet tumbling with the stainless steel pins. (using Lyman tumbler, lots of people like the Frankford one of these---F.A.R.T)Auto wash and wax and a tiny dab of citric acid. (Citic acid available in a lot of food canning sections at the store)

 

[dh1633pm]

I have an ultrasonic cleaner and stainless steel pins do a better job of making brass shine. But wait, the ultrasonic does clean well, and cleans things other than just brass. I cleaned a bunch of my tools with it, firearm parts, and all sorts of things.

 

[GBExpat]

But wait, the ultrasonic does clean well, and cleans things other than just brass.

*I* think that that is the real value of an ultrasonic cleaner [UC] ... "other things". I have a couple of small UCs that I use periodically for small parts & "other things".

For cases, I imagine that untrasonic would be OK, but ...

... for cleaning cases I use a F.A.R.T. w/ pins, citric acid powder & AAW&W (after having used vibratory case cleaners [VCC] for many years).

Considering what I have learned of the real-world capabilities consumer-grade UCs, if I had no FART, I would just use my VCCs.

One more opinion ... FWIW.

 

[farmerboy78]

+1 for the wet tumbler

 

[Larryswn]

I have an ultrasonic cleaner and stainless steel pins do a better job of making brass shine. But wait, the ultrasonic does clean well, and cleans things other than just brass. I cleaned a bunch of my tools with it, firearm parts, and all sorts of things.

I don't care about looks but by "shine" do you mean inside as well? From what I understand, It's very important for the inside to be clean as well, for proper powder ignition. I just want something that does the job quickly, looks aside. Digging stainless steel pins out of the flash hole doesn't sound very appealing either. What are your thoughts? Forgive my ignorance but I'm new.............Almost outta brand new brass so it's on to phase 2.

 

[JO JO]

I have never needed to dig a pin from a flash hole, I you use the correct pins made for brass tumbling that won't happen. I think when wet tumbling first came out that could happen but the pins have been redesigned and it's a nonissue now