Is it worth buying a case cleaner? And if so what do I get?

Clean cases make it easier to see if defects are developing. Also IMHO shiny brass just looks better.

I have rolling and vibratory tumblers and an ultrasonic unit. Clean cases are nice.

I would buy the ultrasonic unit from Harbor Freight. Looks just like the Lyman but at less cost.

BigB

Clean brass is nice to work with and it looks good too. I have an el cheapo Midway version that has been working fine for the last 15 years or so.

The Berrys vibrator is a great deal. I like the clear top. That combined with some treated media from Lyman will leave you with shiny cases for years.

Sorta depends.

Do you do alot of reloading? In large batches, 50, 100 or more at a time or large batches of target loads? If so, I consider a tumbler, vibratory or ultra-sonic unit a real must-have. I have an ultra-sonic & Lyman vibrator with three top units, one Corn Cob (for really crud encrusted cases), the second Walnut Shell (polish) and the 3rd for Moly coating bullets (yes, some of us still do this).

If you're loading 20 rounds in a small batch for seasonal hunting loads you can get everything accomplished with an electric screwdriver and some polish or 0000 steel wool in a pinch but the machines take all the manual labor out of cleaning and today aren't the serious investment they once were. Depends on how much time you would like to invest in clean cases or if you desire clean cases at all. Some of my Buddies consider it a total waste of time - I'm of a different opinion.

I load at least 200 cartridges a week and spend time daily in the loading room with cases in different stages of the loading process for large batches of ammo; so for me it's just part of the routine.

I consider clean cases the mark of a good loader who spends the required (IMO) attention to detail for top handloads; makes case inspection easier and leaves you with the same batch of cases in the same condition for every loading. I'm pretty anal about what gets put into my rifle chambers.

There's no Free Lunch though as even cases dumped in a vibrator for a coupla hours or overnight still have to be wiped off to remove the crud (fine powder residue from the media); then brush out the inside of the case necks (some don't bother) and each case has to be inspected for potential grit/media that's stuck in the primer hole and removed with a punch/pin (sure way to get a dud or hang-fire or break/snap a depriming pin) so it adds time & effort to your overall loading scheme that some folks simply don't want to invest effort into.

Some claim they do not want to invest the time in bulk .223 cases that get thrown around the range from their AR platforms or hundreds of cases from a Colt .45 - personally I consider these cases (pun intended) exactly where a case cleaner shines (another pun).

Whatever Floats your Boat.

Just washing them with a good degreaseing soap and a little lemon shime works wonders also.

I thought the walnut was for dirty cases and corn cob was to polish...with polish added. Read on other sites lizzard bedding was crushed walnut...from Petco...cheaper. Picked up my second vibrator. Was going to have one of each....Please correct me if I have them backwards. I was also going to try dryer sheets to pick up some of the dust that forms.

If you volume-load on a progressive machine, I consider it paramount to use clean cases. Less than sparkling cases, will hinder smooth cycling and bring along their share of jams (often with broken -but essential- small parts). Personally, I use one of my two vibrators loaded with different coarseness of cleaning medium, according to the dirtyness of the brass.

quote:

..... one Corn Cob (for really crud encrusted cases), the second Walnut Shell (polish) .....

Phat Phish .....

I've never been accused of being the brightest bulb in the circuit; so being corrected won't come as a novelty to me.

If I've got it correct Corn Cob w/wo an additive will clean cases pretty clean; especially those with alot of tarnish & crud on them but will not afford the high polish or shine that Walnut Shell with rouge added to it will.

Anyone care to contribute?

I haven't thought of adding a Dyer Sheet to the bowl to see if it'll suck up some dust ..... not a back idea although a whole sheet may be a bit much - I'll try cutting off a corner first.

My brother and I just bought a thumblers steel media wet tumbler...cleans 'em shinier than new inside and out even the primer pockets! Like has been said previously, if you are a serious reloader and like shiny cases, this is the way I'd go. We used to use a vibratory tumbler with walnut, which works, but the new wet tumbler works that much better!

I agree with CoyoteKiller. The tumbler process can be messy at first but once you get the hang of it it does a great job.

i like using mine. i use the MIDWAY vibratory tunbler brand..

I've got a old, old midway tumbler. I use corn cobs. I wipe each case down with a soft cloth before reloading. I use the tumbler to clean the case after I've resized it. Clean brass is good; shiny brass don't get any extra points in the match nor kill stuff deader. I don't think that having super shiny brass means you're a good reloader, it merely means you're pretty anal.

This is what I've switched to ... Stainless Steel.

I only clean cases when I get a lot of once fired brass that had some truly cruddy cases in it.
First the cruddy cases get an acid cleaner dip to destroy the corrosion and finger prints.
The they get tumbled just enough to expose any defects. After that I just keep them clean with warm soapy water and hot water rinses followed by rinsing in alcohol to promote almost instant drying.

The sparking brass is not for me. They need to be clean to protect the bore from dirt and other foreign material. And they need to be clean to protect the dies. Other than that, take care of them to extend their life but they are expendables - they are not jewelry.

If you do smaller quantities, such as you might with non-military centerfire rifle, then, as someone said above, a cordless screwdriver and some 0000 steel wool does a fine job, although it won't clean the inside of the case or primer pockets. Doesn't take that long either, less than 5 seconds per case, and, there's no clean-out of media required.

AND, you can use the same arrangement for case-length trimming, chamfering, and, by chucking the primer pocket cleaner, primer pocketing cleaning:

Lee Case Conditioning Tools

Just looked this up from Dillin:
Inside the bowl of a vibratory case cleaner you
add two agents that actually clean and polish the
cases. The first is the tumbling media itself. The two
most common types of tumbling media are ground
corn cobs and crushed walnut hulls. Walnut is
slightly more abrasive and can sometimes be found
in medium and fine consistencies. If you are cleaning
smallbore rifle cases, the finer consistency
flows out of the narrow case mouth more easily
than ground corn cob. Many people prefer ground
corn cob for a final polish. Either of these media
types will eventually clean the brass,

I just mix 50/50 Corn Cob and Walnut Shell in my Lyman 1200 turbo Classic and cases are pretty clean; I don’t necessary want them high polish just clean enough for my dies and not messy for my hands and finally I wipe each case down with a soft cloth before reloading.

It is well proven that shiny cases shoot more accurately than non shiny cases.

I can say this definitely as all my friends who are National F Class champions shoot very shiny cases .

Since correlation equals causation, I stand on firm technicals grounds with this.

For pistol ammunition, I tumble everything to get the spider webs, rocks, out of the cases, as a lot of my cases are range pickups.

I have an ultrasonic cleaner, a Turbo Tumbler and a Thumblers Tumbler with the stainless medea. The Thumbler Tumbler works the best by far but takes the most time and effort. Also the most expensive.

The Turbo Tumbler is faster and easier because you don't have to dry the brass.

The ultrasonic is usefull for cleaning parts and other stuff. Great for a breech plug on a muzzle loader.

My favorite is the large Dillon vibratory.I also have a Thumblers tumbler that I have used for years.When the tumblers media is totally fouled I would put it into a pot with gasoline,let soak for a couple of hours then with a piece of 1/4" hailscreen mesh cut + formed into a "chinese hat/funnel" set atop a bucket,put newspaper on the screen + deposit media;let dry.I have used the same media for years using this policy.As far as your walnut media used in the vibratory,go to the pet store + get a bag of Parrot litter.Same stuff at a fraction of the cost.Oh + while we're on the subject of me being cheap but somewhat knowledgeable about products;if you want to make good points with the Ms. go to the Scientific chemical supply.You can get a gallon of methel ethel keytone (MEK) or 111 Trichlorithane for the same price that she pays for that tiny bottle of nail polish remover.Oh + by the way,Tandy's leather cement is the same as formica cement @ 100 times the cost.

I'm not familiar with the ultrasonic cleaners, how do they compare to the vibrators and tumblers?

quote:

Originally posted by Hunter1234:
I'm not familiar with the ultrasonic cleaners, how do they compare to the vibrators and tumblers?

Better than vibratory, not quite as good as a tumbler...although a bit less work involved with ultrasonic compared to a tumbler.

I have one of the old Midway vibe tumblers.....I have found it adds more satisfaction to my hobby than expected. Clean shiny cases are easier to inspect, nicer to load, and make me feel better about the final product.

Worth having in my book,

Cheers,

Dan

Cleaning cases is important for various reasons.

They generally feed a little better if the crud and muck is off them. This is an issue for pistol shooters primarily and their brass gets the dirtiest.

Most importantly it saves your dies. Now guys will come and tell us how hard dies are etc., but they can be scratched by dirty brass (if the case has fallen on the ground in the sand or mud).At the very least clean or rinse such cases before loading.

If you are a high volume shooter and happy to spend a bit, then the stainless tumbling media and rotary Thumblers tumbler is like nothing you have ever experienced. It cleans inside and out and is IMO preferable to the ultrasonic which I have also tried. The volume it can take is bigger (in most cases - you do get very large unltrasonic cleaners though) and it cleans better and is less irritating (you need to genreally flip the switch on the ultrasonic three times to do a complete clean and you need to sort of watch them to know when to run them again etc.). I hate that sound...

A vibratory tumbler is okay, but there is no contest IMO.

The stainless tumbling system is the best reloading gadget I've bought in a long time.

If my rifle brass is clean (ammo box to the rifle and back to the box) then I just clean the necks with Never Dull to remove the carbon, brush the necks and reload them. I will do this if I'm loading low volume like in load development.

I've been using the Midway vibratory tumbler for several years and it works well. I use walnut with three capsful of oderless paint thinner (Stoddards solution) and a heaping tablespoon full of BonAmi cleanser. Cases are clean and shiny in one to two hours.

I always clean before resizing for the reasons others have given. Cases that required sizing lube get run through again after sizing for about 30 minutes to remove all traces of the lube. When clean and lube free inspect, prime and load. It saves wear on the dies and other loading tools and allows careful inspection of the cases and it just looks good.

Steel and ceramic wet media in rotary tumblers like Thumlers will be cleaner yet, especially on the inside and in the primer pocket, but it is more hassle and much more expensive and I would still need to run again to get the case lube off and the cases are wet when finished requiring time to dry.

Jerry Liles

will steel media work in vibrator cleaners and why?

quote:

Originally posted by Hunter1234:
will steel media work in vibrator cleaners and why?

I would say no . . . first not sure a vibratory could take the weight, and second would say they work best wet with a shot of dish soap and a shot of Lemi Shine. Not sure the SST would do much cleaning in dry mode.

+1 to the Thumblers and SST, NO more cleaning primer pockets is worth the cost and added steps involved, and you'll never have to go buy any more media, ever, so if you live long enough saves you money! Great stuff. I've changed my tune over the years and like sparkling like new clean cases