Ultrasonic Case Cleaning

[janobles14]

so where can one get this citranox stuff?

 

[Seafarer12]

To the original poster you don't have to run half and half vinegar and water. I use a very weak vinegar, salt solution with a few drops of soap. It works great. It might take a little longer but you don't use as much vinegar. As far as cleaner capacity. I guess I have an unfair advantage. I use an unltrasonic we have up at work. I could probably do 1000 cases if I wanted probably 2000. The tank holds probably 4 to 5 gallons of water. Considering I am not suppose to be using it for cleaning cases I usually limit it to 200 to 500 pistol cases. As far as drying. I just rinse and drain them then leave them out on a towel for a day or two in my office at the house and they are ready to size. I could leave them out in this Texas sun and they would be dry in less than an hour.

 

[jackdpowell]

Drying cases

Lay a square box fan on its back, spaced off the floor to circulate air well, with old reloading manuals . ( see they are usefull ) . Lay the cheapest a/c unit filter on the face of fan with air blowing straight up on low. Pour wet cases on a/c filter. Dry cases in no time...

 

[General Tso]

I'm looking into the Hornady one for around $100. Anyone tried it?

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[Hey_Allen]

The hornady cleaner appears identical in all but color to one of the Harbor Freight offerings, and twice the price...

I've been using the HF cleaner, mostly for general garage auto tasks.
The one attempt I made to clean some seriously carbon caked 357 brass ended up oxidizing the brass, either due to the detergent I used, or having forgotten them in the cleaner bath over the weekend. No further testing due to lack of loading time since.

 

[MulticalinMO]

I have a Horrible Freight unit that is long enough to put a 1911 frame in. Have had it for a few years and it was $179, and has 3 transducers. It works great for cleaning gun parts, brass, or whatever you put in it. For some brass that is really bad, I'll put it in with Dawn, then rinse, put the brass on a towel, and blow a fan across it for a few hours. Works for me, but I only do that on the high precision stuff, when I want the primer pockets and flash hole to be very clean. Mostly I just tumble for general shooting brass.

MOFreedom

 

[qajaq59]

Putting them in water, and then putting them in alcohol, and then drying them in the oven or sun is just too much work for me. I just dump them in my 30 year old hand made tumbler with some media and car polish. Then I let 'em run while I load some others. Of course I'm not only lazy, I'm cheap too, so that may explain it.

 

[roc1]

I bought the harbor Freight version it works great. I use the Hornady Citric Solution in it. I use mine for the full length rifle resized cases after sizing and trimming. I still use my tumbler for everything else as it is still a lot faster with bulk.The Ultrasonic works great for this and cases are very clean. I full length size every so often intead of neck size actually I bump or partial size.
roc1

 

[Jed_Clampet]

I'm looking into the Hornady one for around $100. Anyone tried it?

I have used the Hornady unit for the first time today and I must say that I'm pretty impressed! The basket holds around 200 .40 S&W and a little less for 45 ACP. All the brass I cleaned was deprimed and sized. I also used the Hornady cleaning solution that comes in the quart size. Instructions say .5oz cleaner per 20oz water. If you have those plastic medicine cups that come with kids cold medicine, you can use one of those and fill it to 15ml which is .5 oz.

It has several cycle times, the most being 480 seconds (8 Mins). After each cycle (did 3) I scooted the brass around with my finger. I must say the brass I had was a mix of recently fired to been laying on the ground for months. And it all came out clean and surprisingly shiney, primer pockets too! After rinsing off in a strainer I just spread it out on a clean cotton dish towel and let them dry, rolling them around a few times. The capacity is a non issue with me since the cleaning times are so fast. I really like this thing.

Realguns did a write up on it if your interested.

http://www.realguns.com/articles/202.htm

Cheers

 

[theshephard]

Brownells' Write-Up

This may have already been linked elsewhere, but I found Brownells' write-up on ultrasonic case cleaning to be informative, and they used a pretty disciplined test procedure to compare a couple liquid solutions and a traditional tumbler.

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=12779/GunTechdetail/Ultrasonic_Case_Cleaning
*edit*
Another article they did on using your ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning your components.
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=...ng_Clinic__Ultrasonics___The_King_Of_Cleaning

 

[k&j 223]

I have used the Hornady unit for the first time today and I must say that I'm pretty impressed! The basket holds around 200 .40 S&W and a little less for 45 ACP. All the brass I cleaned was deprimed and sized. I also used the Hornady cleaning solution that comes in the quart size. Instructions say .5oz cleaner per 20oz water. If you have those plastic medicine cups that come with kids cold medicine, you can use one of those and fill it to 15ml which is .5 oz.

It has several cycle times, the most being 480 seconds (8 Mins). After each cycle (did 3) I scooted the brass around with my finger. I must say the brass I had was a mix of recently fired to been laying on the ground for months. And it all came out clean and surprisingly shiney, primer pockets too! After rinsing off in a strainer I just spread it out on a clean cotton dish towel and let them dry, rolling them around a few times. The capacity is a non issue with me since the cleaning times are so fast. I really like this thing.

Realguns did a write up on it if your interested.

http://www.realguns.com/articles/202.htm

Cheers

Thanks Jed, nice post. really enjoyed it. Did your pistol cases look as good using same formula? I'm going to try the Hornady & your formula. I shoot 223 & 45 acp as well as 9mm. I like my brass clean as possible. I'm an old bullseye shooter, didn't use to be so picky. Since my heart bypass, I"ve gotten picky {HA}or maybe its old age. Anyway I've got more time now to reload & shoot. Thanks again Jed. Happy shooting to you & to all of the High Road shooters. I enjoy reading the posts & being a member as well. k&j 223

 

[Jed_Clampet]

k&j 223, yes the cases looked great! Actually I took a dirty case and one cleaned in the Hornady unit and put it my pocket to show the boys at the gun shop - they were impressed. Now don't mis-understand that stained or corroded cases won't be turned shiney again, it will clean them however. I like when a product works and has good value for my money and for about 100 bucks I feel like it's worth it. Holler if you have any more questions.

Jed

 

[qajaq59]

Just out of curiousity, how many .308 cases would that hold and still clean well?

 

[Jed_Clampet]

Just out of curiousity, how many .308 cases would that hold and still clean well?

I don't reload rifle but the documentation says one hundred .308 and two hundred .223. When I cleaned my handgun brass I moved them around with my fingers in between cycles because my thinking was, where the brass is together it may not clean it. Now I could be totally wrong in that assumption so next time I'll leave it in the basket without moving it around and see what happens.

Jed

 

[qajaq59]

I don't reload rifle but the documentation says one hundred .308 and two hundred .223.

That's far more then I expected. It doesn't look that large in the ad. I may look into one of those. Thanks Q

 

[Gadzooks Mike]

Nice write up, but with all that, I think I'll stick with the tumbler. I can drop them in, start it up, and go watch a ball game. I also toss them in after sizing, and I wouldn't want to go through that ultrasonic cleaner routine twice. But yes, the brass does look great!

 

[Shinbone]

Otto, awesome tumbled cases. What media, etc do you use?

 

[zxcvbob]

Looks really useful for cleaning black powder cartridges. 60W with no heater is pretty good. The Harbor Freight units (I think) have heaters, which accounts for most of the wattage rather than the transducers.

 

[mastiffhound]

It has been awhile since this thread was open but I have a new option for drying the cases, and I just purchased a new Hornady Ultrasonic cleaner that can do 200 .223 shells at a time. It only cost 104.99 at Cabela's right now. My solution was to tilt the cases upside down on a bunch of paper towels for a few days to let them dry. After doing some laundry the other day I remembered this rack that came with the new dryer for drying shoes, hats, etc. Now I just stick them in an old canvas bag that has a drawstring set the dryer for 30 minutes on medium and they are completely dry( I check with a q-tip, I just got into reloading so I am being thorough). I could probably dry them a thousand at a time with my dryer rack. Just a solution I came up with, I hope this helps someone.

 

[Parks2055]

I have read this thread before as well.
After ultrasonic cleaning I rinse with nice hot water and then use a small compressor with air nozzle to blow them dry. Still need to sit over night to fully dry, but compressed air gets most of the water off.
Just another option.
Cheers,