Brass Cleaning - Made the switch

praetorian97 · April 9, 2012, 12:35 PM

For whatever its worth.....

I have only Sonic Cleaned up until this point and never had any real issues. I usually only clean in batches of 200-400 max after a weekends shoot.

1. Sort out Calibers.
2. Sonic Clean in Small Batches.
3. (3) 8 minute cycles - Kind of a pain to have to remember to keep going out and hitting the restart button.
4. Rinse
5. Shake loose water and spread out to dry for a couple of days depending on the outside temps.

I went through a weapons qual recently and was reminded of how pretty shiny new brass is. I have only shot reloads for so long that I have forgotten. With that said Sonic Cleaning cleans the brass real well, it just doesn't give you that shine when the case has been reloaded a few times.

I've acquired about (2) 5 gallon buckets worth of mixed brass during that qual. There is no way I'm going to Sonic Clean that much through the process stated above. So I've decided to give tumbling a try. So far I'm impressed. The inside of the casing is not as clean as one that has been sonic cleaned but the trade offs make it well worth my while. Plus I get that exterior shine. Half the fun of reloading for me is staring at that pile of completed ammo. The #1 perk from tumbling is I enjoy just flipping on the switch for a couple of hours and let the tumbler go. That sure beats coming out every 8 minutes to restart the Sonic Cleaner.

Also I'm still going to stick with Sonic Cleaning my 223 brass. Getting media out of the smaller neck seem like it would be a pain as well as I scour pad the outside to remove the case lube during the trimming stage.

Marquezj16 · April 9, 2012, 01:04 PM

I have not made the switch from tumbler to sonic cleaner. I'm waiting for the Hornady Magnum Sonic Cleaner to go on sale. When I do switch, I'd still use my tumber for the final shine.

praetorian97 · April 9, 2012, 01:39 PM

I did go back through and tumbled the brass I had already sonic cleaned. I'm still thinking it would be too much for me to do both.

Look into Harbor Freight. Same as the Lyman branded one with just different labels.

April 9, 2012, 12:35 PM	#1
praetorian97 Senior Member Join Date: May 9, 2011 Location: Boise, ID Posts: 455	Brass Cleaning - Made the switch For whatever its worth..... I have only Sonic Cleaned up until this point and never had any real issues. I usually only clean in batches of 200-400 max after a weekends shoot. 1. Sort out Calibers. 2. Sonic Clean in Small Batches. 3. (3) 8 minute cycles - Kind of a pain to have to remember to keep going out and hitting the restart button. 4. Rinse 5. Shake loose water and spread out to dry for a couple of days depending on the outside temps. I went through a weapons qual recently and was reminded of how pretty shiny new brass is. I have only shot reloads for so long that I have forgotten. With that said Sonic Cleaning cleans the brass real well, it just doesn't give you that shine when the case has been reloaded a few times. I've acquired about (2) 5 gallon buckets worth of mixed brass during that qual. There is no way I'm going to Sonic Clean that much through the process stated above. So I've decided to give tumbling a try. So far I'm impressed. The inside of the casing is not as clean as one that has been sonic cleaned but the trade offs make it well worth my while. Plus I get that exterior shine. Half the fun of reloading for me is staring at that pile of completed ammo. The #1 perk from tumbling is I enjoy just flipping on the switch for a couple of hours and let the tumbler go. That sure beats coming out every 8 minutes to restart the Sonic Cleaner. Also I'm still going to stick with Sonic Cleaning my 223 brass. Getting media out of the smaller neck seem like it would be a pain as well as I scour pad the outside to remove the case lube during the trimming stage.

April 9, 2012, 01:04 PM	#2
Marquezj16 Senior Member Join Date: April 3, 2011 Posts: 2,088	I have not made the switch from tumbler to sonic cleaner. I'm waiting for the Hornady Magnum Sonic Cleaner to go on sale. When I do switch, I'd still use my tumber for the final shine.

April 9, 2012, 01:39 PM	#3
praetorian97 Senior Member Join Date: May 9, 2011 Location: Boise, ID Posts: 455	I did go back through and tumbled the brass I had already sonic cleaned. I'm still thinking it would be too much for me to do both. Look into Harbor Freight. Same as the Lyman branded one with just different labels.