Tumbling and Ultrasonic Cleaning

[Mooseman]

I was just wondering if anyone here both tumbles and uses an ultrasonic cleaner on their brass. If this is something that you do, why do you do it?

 

[j_h_smith]

Nope, I tumble twice, first with walnut, then corncob. Never even thought about using an ultrasonic cleaner.

YMMV,
Jim Smith

 

[Flipz]

I have an ultrasonic but don't use it for brass, only parts.

What I'm considering doing is using a wet tumbler. It seems that although the initial costs are higher, it costs much less over the long run. Since the stainless steel media never needs to be replaced that leaves the only reoccurring cost for Dawn dish soap and LemiShine. Both very cheap to begin with, and much cheaper than ultrasonic cleaning solution. Plus, it's obvious that it cleans far better than even the best results from my dry tumbler.

What I'll probably end up doing for rifle brass is:
1. Decap using a Lee universal decapping die and then wet tumble.
2. Let cases dry
3. Lube the cases and resize.
4. Trim cases to length
5. Dry tumble in corn cob media to remove case lube.
6. Powder dump, seat bullet, crimp.

 

[Mooseman]

Thanks for the answers guys. Anyone else?

 

[BUFF7MM]

I see no need for it, but that's just me. I tumble with walnut and Flitz.

 

[amoebicmagician]

seems like a silly thing to do, but then again I've always used the condition of a case as a guage of when it's given up the ghost- when dry tumbling no longer seems to do any good then it's probably time to retire the case.

 

[Bolts Rock]

I decap then ultrasonic to clean the primer pockets the lazy way, resize, ultrasonic to get the lube off then tumble after.

 

[Uncle Duke]

No, not I. I have no experience at all with ultrasonic cleaning. Might well be great. But for me, it would represent a possible solution to a problem that I just don't perceive to exist. So I've never really looked into ultrasonic. I tumble brass in a couple of Lyman tumblers, one of which I've had for maybe 30 years now. I can't seem to kill that tumbler. And I like shiny brass, not just clean brass. That's just me. I figure if I'm going to put the work and the effort into something, I want rounds that look good and shoot good both. I've been satisfied with Lyman tumblers and corn cob media. Hard for me to quit what I see as a winner.

 

[BradMacc82]

Got a Hornady one for parts/initial cleanings. For what I paid and what I use it for, it does it's job well.

Sometimes if I don't feel like running the tumbler I'll just do 3 runs on the ultrasonic and toss the casings into a old pillow case and give the casings 2 minutes of hand tumbling. They don't come as shiny as they do from the tumbler, but it's less time involved for me. And time these days is in short supply.

 

[Deep Creek Rock]

Seems like too much effort to have to get the water out of the cases.

I find cleaning primer pockets a waste of time these days-and dont worry about it. Ive always able to flush seat primers, with a dirty primer pocket. The carbon in the primer pocket has zero effect on how the round fires, or how accurate it shoots. Whatever that doesnt come out of the primer pocket during tumbling - stays in there for me.

 

[damifinowfish]

I reload range pick up from an out side range.

First step
Everything gets tumbled

Second
Decap

Third
ultrasonic cleaning to get the primer pockets clean

This gets the brass looking like new brass

 

[BradMacc82]

Seems like too much effort to have to get the water out of the cases.

I find cleaning primer pockets a waste of time these days-and dont worry about it. Ive always able to flush seat primers, with a dirty primer pocket. The carbon in the primer pocket has zero effect on how the round fires, or how accurate it shoots. Whatever that doesnt come out of the primer pocket during tumbling - stays in there for me.

I typically do a batch (cleaning) about a day or so before I plan on loading anything up.

With my schedule, I have to break things up over the course of a week. 1 night, decap/clean/dry, another night I'll chamfer/debur the case mouth (or other case prep depending on cartridge), and another night I'll actually crank out rounds.

 

[Weber]

I do both.

Tumble, then brass prep. Ultrasonic to clean lube off and primer pockets.

 

[Mooseman]

Great answers so far. Anyone else?

 

[engineerbrian]

I cant speak for the reloading aspect, but having an ultra sonic cleaner on your bench for cleaning is awesome! Chevellenut got me hooked on them with the purple simple green and water for the cleaning solution. I've dropped gun parts and entire pistols into the cleaner and they come out looking like brand new.

For $83 you cant beat it
http://www.harborfreight.com/25-liter-ultrasonic-cleaner-95563.html

 

[camobob]

I load mostly pistol - tuble, load, shoot and repeat.
No need for improvement.

 

[Flipz]

For $83 you cant beat it
http://www.harborfreight.com/25-liter-ultrasonic-cleaner-95563.html

Sure you can.
http://palmettostatearmory.com/inde...-n-load-sonic-cleaner-2l-110-volt-043320.html

The reason to go with this one over the Harbor Freight model is that you can set it from 5 to 30 minute cycles with heat in 5 min increments. That's worth the extra $2.

 

[inkd]

I'm going to give the wet tumbling a try when I get home. A friend got into it and I can't believe how good his cases look.

In the summer he lays them out on the porch on a towel to dry and in the winter he lays a box fan on it's side elevated by pieces of 2x4 at the corners. He lays a sheet over the fan, spreads out the brass and turns the fan on.

I have an ultrasonic cleaner I use for parts and it isn't as great as I thought it would be, but it is a cheap model.

 

[engineerbrian]

Sure you can.
http://palmettostatearmory.com/inde...-n-load-sonic-cleaner-2l-110-volt-043320.html

The reason to go with this one over the Harbor Freight model is that you can set it to 30 minute cycles with heat. That's worth the extra $2.

Nice! I'll take the extra time over the extra 1/2 liter of capacity any day. I usually run gun parts through for 8-10 minutes with heat

 

[inkd]

I cant speak for the reloading aspect, but having an ultra sonic cleaner on your bench for cleaning is awesome! Chevellenut got me hooked on them with the purple simple green and water for the cleaning solution. I've dropped gun parts and entire pistols into the cleaner and they come out looking like brand new.

For $83 you cant beat it
http://www.harborfreight.com/25-liter-ultrasonic-cleaner-95563.html

That's the one I got and the heating element went out on it after a month. I didn't bother sending it back or anything because I planned on getting a higher quality one.