Hello everybody!

I am currently in the market for a case cleaner. I am leaning towards an ultrasonic. Can anyone share their experiences and pros/cons? Money is a non-issue. Thanks for your input.

I have a two gallon Ultra Sound cleaner that I use to clean cases as well as gun parts. The liquid cleaners work well if you follow the instructions for mixing.
My cleaner has heat as well. This improves the brass cleaning by 50%.
You want to use distilled water for the cleaning and the after wash.
It is fast,less noisy than a tumbler and does not wear the brass as some tumbles can if left running.
When the cleaner is dirty you can filter it through coffee filters and increase its life.
The down side is that the cases have to dry for loading.
If your in a rush you can shake out the cases and soak them in alcohol to aid in drying.
I use a 35mm film dryer. Since film is dead you can buy a dryer for a few bucks on fleebay. It has heat/fan and a desiccant can to absorb the water very quickly. Mine will hold 50 cases of .30-06 at a time. Takes about 15 minutes to dry the cases.
You don't have to use the expensive cleaners. A cup full of vinegar and a cap full of Dawn added to the water does a very nice job of cleaning the brass.

If you want to clean them right, inside, outside, and flash holes, use a Thumblers Tumbler with SS pins and dish washing liquid. Do a search. I sold my ultra sonic cleaners.

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
If you want to clean them right, inside, outside, and flash holes, use a Thumblers Tumbler with SS pins and dish washing liquid. Do a search. I sold my ultra sonic cleaners.

+10000

I wish this was the route I would have taken before buying an ultrasonic

Does tumbling with cylindrical steel shot thin the case walls? I don't know, just a question.

According to my ball mics, No.

Thanks, butchlambert, I have always wondered about aggressive tumbling with steel shot.

Never used steel shot and can't verify either good or bad.

Sorry, I should have said SS tumbling media.

quote:

I am leaning towards an ultrasonic. Can anyone share their experiences and pros/cons?

If you can afford a two gallon industrial US, get it. If you mean one of the small, low powered units sold to reloaders, well .. IF you only want to clean a couple dozen small cases at a time, don't mind giving the thing personal attention every five minutes or so, don't mind the wet mess and long drying time before you can load the cases you can certainly get your cases surgically clean. Of course that only matters if you're planning on using them in surgery.

I played with a moderate sized US for a short time, went back to my vib tumbler and don't plan to experiment with wet steel pins either. Of course I have to admit I'm an old guy who no longer jumps on the current fads. YMMV.

I have a Harbor Freight Ultrasonic cleaner.

It does a great job. I use hot tap water, a kitchen teaspoon of Lemi-shine and a drop of Dawn dish soap. Usually 3-480 sec cycles cleans inside/out and primer pockets too.

Rinse, pat dry and place on a cookie sheet in a convection oven at 170. Everything all clean and dry, cooled and ready to reload in an hour.

What Rusty said!!

http://forums.accuratereloadin...2511043/m/8411060881

Rusty, my US is the larger HF model, it's exactly what Lyman sells, ditto Hornady I think. You're right, about 3 maximum run time cycles will do great but I have to be right there to reset the clock on each cycle or it can ake a LOONG time to get through a small batch of cases. and they have to be small batches, I sure can't just fill the tub with brass because the oscilator and transducer is too weak for that. Then I have to start another smallish batch and repeat it until All I need cleaned is done. We don't have a convection over and momma wouldn't like me using it for a brass dryer if we did, but I suppose you can make efficent use of the oven drying time by cleaning and drying up around the wet unit.

On the other hand, I can toss several hundred cases into my vib tumbler and walk away until I want to come back. My cases will be clean, dry and redy to use as soon as I seperate the media; maybe 3-4 minutes?

I am fairly new to reloading and just got a 2 liter US and I am not finding it to be very helpful. Like the other reply, attention, wet, drying time. Why do all that when I can vibe in the walnut while I do something else. I am thinking I may use it for small batches of rifle brass or mixed brass. It will NOT clean if you load a lot of brass in it. you have to do batches. It is faster but not if you add the drying time.

By the time you wait for the walnut shells to do their job, usually a few hours to several, you could do several batches of ultrasonic cleaning.

And you don't have to wipe all the media dust off your cases after their done.

One addendum to Rusty's excellent post: take a scrap piece of 1/2" plywood cut to fit inside the Kitchen oven. Draw a grid of 1" squares on one side. Pound a 3 1/2" nail into each intersection. Wait until Mamma is gone for the day, and put your freshly sonic'ed cases one per nail, dry them at 170-degrees. The nail point is perfect to hang each case on by flashhole...