I was having issues with cases getting stuck in a Redding Reloading titanium carbide resizing/decapping die. I spoke with a Redding tech support agent and was told that this was highly unusual. He mentioned that I might be over polishing the brass, because he said highly polished brass can leave brass flakes and particles inside the resizing die which builds up and could lead to stuck cases. He told me that he uses a mixture of 1 cup vinegar, 3 tablespoons of citric acid, 2-3 drops of detergent and boiling water to clean cases in a five gallon bucket. Typically I have tumbled in media with primers still in cases, as I use a progressive press. I have tried his suggestion a few times, but then decided to purchase a ultrasonic cleaner. I have not tired it yet, but read the instructions that state to remove primers before cleaning in a ultrasonic cleaner, because otherwise the primer pockets will not be completely dry when decapping and reloading which could lead to misfires. Has anyone used an ultrasonic cleaner for brass and do I have to remove primers first?
Thanks
Steve

I have a Hornady ultrasonic cleaner and yes decap

I don't like my finished brass out of it but I do deprime

I also use spay lube even on pistol brass in my progressive

Going to stainless pins and rotary tumbler in the future but can't buy a big one so I'm building a 5 gal unit

I deprime first with my Hornady ultrasonic cleaner, mainly because it allows the primer pocket to be cleaned, saving me the step of scraping the gunge out.

It's nice to see the insides of the cases clean, too, something my case tumbler with walnut doesn't do well at all.

It does tend to leave watermarks on the cases from drying. I can live with that.

sounds like bs to me - measure a case of 3 and see if the dies isn't oversizing. wouldn't be the 1st time redding guys have spread a sit of it

Occasionally I use my Hornady Ultrasonic Cleaner for a batch of cases. In addition to getting a good cleaning of primer pockets removing primers first should also promote faster internal drying of the cleaned cases. What I usually do is clean cases in the morning, remove them from the solution and drain them on old newspaper for a few minutes. Then Transfer them to another old newspaper and put all outside in the breeze ( in fine weather ). They are completely dry internally ( but double check anyway ) and loadable by the afternoon. I don't get spotlessly clean cases, but definitely cleaner than pre- ultrasonic cleaned. If you are fussy about appearance cases can be polished with fine steel wool but it's a tedious manual job.

I have an ultrasonic cleaner. It cleans brass inside and out, including the primer pockets.
My formula is, hot tap water, teaspoon of LemiShine and a couple of drops of Dawn dish soap.

No need to wipe lube off cases, the hot water and soap take care of that! Lemishine makes the brass pretty and the ultrasonic knocks off all the carbon crud!
Rinse cases when clean. Put them on a paper towel in 170 degree oven and presto! They are dry and ready to go! If you have a convection oven that moves air around, even faster!
All of this done including drying, in less than an hour!
Seriously, I gave my case tumbler, NIB, to my friend!

I'm new to this forum, so I hope you don't mind if I jump in here. Been lurking for a while, but this thread finally got me register. This might be WAY more than you'd ever want to know about cleaning, so just jump past if it's too boring.
I too use the Hornaday Ultrasonic cleaner as well as a Harbor Freight Tumbler for my 223 brass. I only tumble on an as needed basis, not regularly. But if you want really clean case necks, you should probably tumble. I start by loading about two dozen de-capped and sized cases in a 4 cup plastic measuring cup, add 3 cups of really hot water, a good squirt of dish soap (necessary to clean powder residue) and a teaspoon or two of lemishine which is really just citric acid. This goes into the US cleaner with about 1 inch of clean water.

More later on how to set up an ultra sonic cleaner, but for now, after cleaning I rinse in COLD water with a 1/4 teaspoon of Lemishine, remove and blow off with compressed air. I dry using a hot box (more later). Then into the tumbler with corn cob media and a bit of polish compound (came with my media, but can be bought separately). After about 3 hours, I remove and rinse again in cold water as above and blow off. Back into the hot box for 10 minutes to dry. Now they're ready to sort and load.

Some things to know about ultra sonic cleaners. The Hornaday Ultra Sonic Cleaner appears to have a stainless steel tub, but in fact it is a Nickel plated steel tub, very thin material. So use nothing but approved cleaners or clean water. After turning mine into a sieve by using a mixture of vinegar, salt and hot water, I now use only clean water, but here's the trick to good cleaning. Water fresh out of the tap contains a lot of dissolved air which acts as a impediment to the sonic action. So I keep a container of water at least several days old to use in the US tub as the air has had a chance to escape. One can also just run the cleaner with fresh water for 20 minutes or so prior to cleaning. This will get a lot of the air out, but not as well as "stale" water.

I place the above mentioned 4 cup measuring cup (glass or plastic) into the pan and add water to about 1 inch deep. I turn on the cleaner and then raise the cup slowly until I get the most noise from the cleaning action. This is how you know it is working its best. Now, how to hold the raised cup in that position? I used a piece of plastic cardboard like material sold in hardware stores as a "garage sale" sign. I cut a large hole in the middle of a piece that fits nicely over the top of the cleaner, and adjust the hole size to hold the measuring cup at just the right height. You can play with the height of the cup, depth of water in the tub, and amount of water in the cup to get the best cleaning action. Sounds complicated, but its not. And once done, you don't have to fiddle with it anymore. You'll have to experiment with length of cleaning, amount of soap and Lemishine to get the best cleaning action, it'll take all of a couple of sessions to get a all the details worked out.

Now, about that hot box. I would like to discourage everyone from using kitchen appliances to clean anything to do with guns or ammo. Lead, powder and primer residue is nothing to have around cookware or cloths washing appliances. It is simply too easy to have a good drying box that'll be nowhere near food or clothing. I start with a small cardboard box, around cubic foot or less, and cut a 2 inch diameter hole in one side and then make some radial cuts outward from the hole about an inch long or so. Take a standard hair dryer and insert the output nozzle into the hole. Cut a vent hole in the opposite side of the box. Turn the dryer on low heat, low volume. If you want you can stick a cheap meat thermometer through the side of the box to monitor temps, this rig will get up to about 160 degress F with the top mostly closed, but not tightly closed. If you restrict the air coming out the box too much, it'll overheat the hair dryer and can cause it to melt. Most new hair driers have an overheat switch to prevent this, but play safe and give the dryer some airflow. Airflow more than heat is what evaporates the water trapped in the brass. Dump in your brass and after about 10 minutes, turn the dryer on to airflow only, no heat. Remove brass after a 5 minute cool down.

Once you have all this set up, cleaning and tumbling is quite easy and effective. Some will argue that clean cases are unnecessary, but to me it is an integral part of case prep for maximum accuracy.

Ok, I admit I've gone overboard here, so I'll log off and give your eyes a chance to heal. Lots of good reading on your site, so I'll just lurk for a while. Good shooting!