Ultrasonic case cleaning

6GUNSONLY

6GUNSONLY

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Question for those of you with experience with ultrasonic case cleaners. How well does it work? What do you use for cleaning solution? Was looking at the 6 litre capacity unit that Harbor Freight sells... thoughts?
I currently use a vibratory (Lyman) cleaner with walnut or corn cob media.
 
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Hornady makes an acetic acid (lemon juice) case cleaner that works well. 1 oz to 40 oz distilled water. The ultra sonic does a better job of cleaning the inside of cases than the vibratory ones with regular media. There are systems using both metal pins and liquid that do a better job and likely faster, but I'd limit those to really cruddy cases. A lot depends upon just how nasty your cases are.

It's not necessarily faster than a shake n bake cleaner. Sometimes a long soak will help break the stuff loose.
 
I used a vibratory for a few years, then switched to the ultrasonic, now I use SS pins wet tumble.
Wet tumble is absolutely the best cleaner by far.
Vibratory works well, but nowhere near as well. It does work much better is a car wax such as Nu-Finish is used in the mix. That makes the cases go through sizing easier.
Ultrasonic is a distant third, plus, since it removes everything, the cases have zero oil/lube on then making it tougher in the sizer if no lube is used.
All of the above is my opinion.
Many don't like the wet tumble "It's too much trouble."
I don't buy that. It takes about the same time as vibratory to clean and separate. It's the drying time that folks don't like. Planning ahead remedies that issue. I either let them dry in the sun on a towel overnight or depending upon the humidity just air dry on a towel. Some use an oven to dry (poor planning).
It's super easy and the cases come out looking brand new, inside and out. Even the primer pockets are super clean.
I use a car wash solution and water. Then when removing from the tumbler, a very small amount of Lemi-Shine for spotless cases after rinsing.
 
Ultrasonic is not a great way to clean cases. I used it to strip clean gun parts as I did a bit of smithing. And although the liquid with SS pins cleans cases better than any other way esp for rifle cases...for many it is too much work and many don't care how their cases look ...and clearly not necessary for many. I also do dry tumbling for large batches of pistol rounds Stick with dry or wet
 
I have an RCBS ultra sonic case cleaner and it works well, I use Hornady one shot case leaner in it.
 
I recently switched to an ultrasonic due to concerns about lead dust/lead level scare. Long story, but I was just deciding to try anything and everything possible to reduce exposure.

I bought a brass solution concentrate off Amazon to get started, I mix with water. Seems to work OK, I haven't tried any of the home solutions yet but will get around to it eventually.

Anyhow, my observations (and I'm still learning) is that the ultrasonic will definitely make your brass "clean" but not necessarily "shiny". And sometimes I have gotten really funky discolorations, which I think have more to do with how much brass I try to stack in that thing than anything else. Even the discolored brass is "clean" it just looks funky. None of this matters in regards to how the brass loads and functions.

What I do like is that all of the sludge that is trapped in the wet solution is dust that would have been airborne if I just dumped tumbled brass into the separator. Wet= no dust. I strain the used solution (I tend to get 3-4 uses out of a mix of solution) back into the container, and all that captured sludge goes into paper towels and right into the trash.

The ultrasonic has been useful. If you're the type that does things in advance on a schedule it's no inconvenience at all. I generally air dry the brass for a day or two, if I'm in a hurry I will use a bit of heat to speed things but I'm usually not. If you're the type who notices you're low on ammo Friday night before Saturday's range day, it's probably not for you.

I do still tumble some, in the warmer month's when things can be done outdoors. But the ultrasonic has added options to my game. I haven't tried the wet steel pins yet either, but that's on the radar too.
 
6GUNSONLY said:
Question for those of you with experience with ultrasonic case cleaners. How well does it work? What do you use for cleaning solution? Was looking at the 6 litre capacity unit that Harbor Freight sells... thoughts?
I currently use a vibratory (Lyman) cleaner with walnut or corn cob media.
Click to expand...

You already have the ideal setup for cleaning brass. If cleaning becomes a hobby in itself, you can go to the ritualistic methods of "cleaning", but it's not necessary if you just want clean brass.
 
OK, where do you get the pins for the wet pin cleaning method?
 
I have the Hornady Ultrasonic cleaner. I've tried it with various cocktails of stuff. None seem to work very well. I have a FART tumbler - not terribly impressed with that but it does way better than the Ultrasonic one.

I have been a fan of the vibratory cleaners. Wore out one from Lyman, now I have one from Hornady. I find the pecan shells with a squirt of Simichrome cleans cases in about an hour.
 
I use both vibratory and wet tumbling. The wet can be a bit of a pain with getting the pins out of certain cases but hands down down the best job of cleaning. Vibratory is easy and quick but the dust makes my sinuses hurt if I get to close and the dust dries my hands and makes them crack and split. Slowly I am going all wet. LOL
 
Thank you for a useful answer. Not sure I want yet another brass cleaning widget, but nice to know what's available.
 
I have a wet tumbler with the stainless steel pins, this in my opinion is the best of the cleaners. I purchased the small ultrasonic cleaner from harbor freight years ago and still use it for "not so dirty" brass. It is small and I only load 20-25 rifle size brass or 30-40 pistol sizer brass at a time. I use lemishine, tap water and a touch of dawn dishwashing detergent in the ultrasonic. Both work to my satisfaction. The tumbler with the pins is the better of the two and easy to continue to run until your brass is clean. You have to be carful and make sure all the pins are out of the brass, some like to stick inside since you are tumbling in a wet situation.
 
I have a vibratory corn cob tumbler, plus 2 ultrasonic cleaners. My usual method was to save all my brass all Summer, and then have a marathon reloading event around Christmas, when I was off. So, half were vibrated and half were "soaked".

After soaking and rinsing, I put the cases on a pan and put in the wife's oven. The dry processed of course did not need this extra step. With the volume I had to service, and the time constraints I needed both methods.

Now retired, I have the time on my hands so I usually just simply tumble, but I need to process only a couple of boxes at a time.

Short story long....

Tumbling takes longer. Sonicing takes 2 steps, so in the end the time is the same. Regardless, I see no real difference in case quality with either method.
 
This is a typical sample of the cleaning capability of the pin tumbler.
The primer picket shows what the outside and inside of the case looks like.
 

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