The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Whats better? Standard Tumbler or Ultrasonic cleaner for brass

Magnum Wheel Man · March 13, 2013, 06:35 AM

I've got a scratched die, likely from decapping dirty brass, so I picked up a Lee universal decapping die ( if you read the reviews, which I did, & bought an extra decapping pin, they must have changed them, as there are a couple people talking about broken pins, & mines been flawless even on crimped military primers, & running into a couple Berdan primed cases )... a couple things to remember, one, don't force it, & don't over tighten the decapping pin, & you haven't sized your cases yet, so when you set up to load, after your brass is clean, you need to resize, even though the cases have already been deprimed

BTW... I used to tumble ( with a rotary ) with walnut shells & or corn cob media, I bought a Hornady ultra sonic cleaner, & then some stainless pins for wet tumbling in my RCBS Sidewinder... I'll never use walnut or corn cob media again, & now only use the ultra sonic for a handfull of cases, or for nickel plated cases... I run my wet tumble load, rinse well, & knock the pins out, & set the brass in my strainer in front of a small fan forced space heater for a couple hours, I use a couple drops of dish soap, & 3-4 cc's of crystalized citric acid, & 3-4 hours of wet tumble with the pins, gets me cases that look brand new, every batch, no matter how ugly they look before

March 13, 2013, 06:35 AM	#14
Magnum Wheel Man Senior Member Join Date: July 26, 2006 Location: Southern Minnesota Posts: 9,333	I've got a scratched die, likely from decapping dirty brass, so I picked up a Lee universal decapping die ( if you read the reviews, which I did, & bought an extra decapping pin, they must have changed them, as there are a couple people talking about broken pins, & mines been flawless even on crimped military primers, & running into a couple Berdan primed cases )... a couple things to remember, one, don't force it, & don't over tighten the decapping pin, & you haven't sized your cases yet, so when you set up to load, after your brass is clean, you need to resize, even though the cases have already been deprimed BTW... I used to tumble ( with a rotary ) with walnut shells & or corn cob media, I bought a Hornady ultra sonic cleaner, & then some stainless pins for wet tumbling in my RCBS Sidewinder... I'll never use walnut or corn cob media again, & now only use the ultra sonic for a handfull of cases, or for nickel plated cases... I run my wet tumble load, rinse well, & knock the pins out, & set the brass in my strainer in front of a small fan forced space heater for a couple hours, I use a couple drops of dish soap, & 3-4 cc's of crystalized citric acid, & 3-4 hours of wet tumble with the pins, gets me cases that look brand new, every batch, no matter how ugly they look before __________________ In life you either make dust or eat dust...