Case cleaning: Ultrasonic vs Tumbler

[DucatiRon]

Since your casings are already wet use Lemi-Shine from Walmart. It's a citric acid dishwasher additive. About 4 bucks a bottle. 1 bottle should last you at least a year. I use a 2cc Lee powder scoop for about 1.5 gallons of water and 400 or so brass cases or just 1 9mm casing full per batch. Mix the Lemi-Shine in warm water first them add your casings. You can leave them in there up to about 4 hrs. It will give your casings a nice shiny golden color.

If I was you I'd replace your ammonia mix wit it when cleaning.

I wet tumble casings by the thousands in a cement mixer but I still remember small batch stuff.

[Remington788]

Ammonia will corrode brass, check Compatibilities & Incompatibilities http://www.rmtech.net/Anhydrous%20Ammonia.htm Vinegar will tarnish the brass to some extent. Have used citric acid (lemishine) for years followed by tumbling. The advantage of citric acid is that is also passivates the brass. An exhaustive thread about it: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ht=citric+acid

That is really good to know. Hopefully the very weak solution I have been using did not have long term effects on the brass.

I left a batch of fifty rounds in the cleaner for a few days once (forgot about them). They really did turn very dark. I may have tossed them in the trash. I will check Walmart for the lemon stuff others are suggesting.

[AirportFF]

I was checking out a local cowboy action shoot a while back and saw a gentleman putting his brass in a jar with liquid. I asked what it was and he told me simple green and white vinegar (forgot what proportions) But he said it cleaned all the powder residue off inside and out. After it dried he tossed it in his tumbler with a little nu-finish car wax to shine it up.

[Remington788]

Ran a batch of very dirty .45 last night using vinegar and water.
They came it much cleaner and almost shiny. I put too many in the batch so it did not clean as well as I like (the ones at the bottom were great, the ones at the top not so much).

I will split them up and run them again as two batches.

[Remington788]

Both of these were soaked in a vinegar/water solution.
The top three were then run for 16 minutes in the ultrasonic cleaner. The Ultrasonic cleans the inside nicely.
The vinegar cleaned the outside real good too.

[bogey1]

I would be leery about ammonia if left in too long . Try vinegar on lemi shine or even unsweetened lemon cool aid , does the same job with less aggressiveness .

Ammonia is bad for brass, it makes it brittle (so i hear).

[notenoughguns]

When using vinegar also add a little non iodized salt like a tbs per quart of solution . Don't know why but the old cleaning manuals call for it .

[Jdevine]

I just started reloading a few months ago and was trying to figure out what to buy for case cleaning. I ended up wet tumbling cases with stainless steel media. The media is small stainless pins about 3/8" long and small enough to scour primer pockets (so you deprime first). I don't have decades of experience, but I'm completely satisfied. Cases are thoroughly scoured, and polished to a shine, with no media residue.

The tumbler is a 15lb rock tumbler style drum with 5lbs of stainless media. I fill it 2/3 with hot water, add 2 Tbs of Dawn detergent and 1/4 tsp of Lemon Shine and tumble for 2-4 hours. When it's done I rinse the brass, separate the media then dry the cases on a cookie sheet in the oven at 180'.

I bought the kit online from Stainless Media (something like that) and it came with everything I needed to start.

Jason

[Remington788]

So I broke down and bought this rock tumbler. $30 after a 25% off coupon. Surprisingly quiet.

I did not want to buy 25lbs of walnut shells and don't have any stainless steel pins handy, so put some cases in with some water, lemi shine and a handful of copper plated BBs. It did not take long for them to get very clean. They may not have a mirror finish but they are bright and free of residue inside and out.

Are BBs ok or should I try to get some of these SS pins?

[Jdevine]

Are BBs ok or should I try to get some of these SS pins?

The main benefit of the pins is that they are just the right size to work through the primer pockets and hole. You can buy a couple pounds of media from these guys http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/ and use it with your tumbler.