ultrasonic cleaners

[furtaker]

How many of you use them? Do they work good? Whats a good one for rifle cases? I see Hornady has one now. Thanks!!!

[270winforlife]

i bought the cheap one from Harbor Freight and though it would only fit about ten rifle cartridges, with the right polish cocktails, it would clean them alot better than most media i've used.

[furtaker]

does it clean the insides very well? What kind of cleaners can you use in them, do you have to use special stuff. What did yours cost if you dont mind?

[Taroman]

Everything you could ever need/want to know on the subject:

UltraSonic Case Cleaning

[Old Grump]

I like that site and that was a good article. Guess I better dig mine out if I can remember which pile of boxes it's in. Don't ask, things go in those piles, make a trans-dimensional shift and sometimes aren't seen again for years.

[Crashbox]

I use an ultrasonic cleaner exclusively and absolutely love it. I bought it a few years prior to myself taking up reloading as a hobby, it's a Crest 1/2 gallon commercial/industrial-grade unit.

I use Kafko Oil Eater at a 3:64 dilution with the liquor at about 120-130 degrees Fahrenheit and run the casings (after first decapping them) for about 20-30 minutes. Works pretty good IMO.

[PDXGS]

I use one of the heated Harbor Freight models on tumbled, resized and decapped brass. It does remove some of the carbon crust but not much. It does do an excellent job of degreasing the cases. Mine holds about 50 cases for degreasing, less for removing carbon. I use a tiny amount of phosphate powder detergent in distilled water.
I'd second the idea of an industrial grade unit- the Harbor Freight on is relatively inexpensive and easy to use but I think it lacks the power to remove all of the carbon residue.

[snuffy]

Here's my harbor freight UC.



A few once fired lapua cases. See the shiny reflections from the spotless primer pockets? The carbon inside was also gone.



It depends on what you clean them in. There's some cleaners on the market that should NOT be used for cartridge brass. Such is the case for what I used for these cases. This was shooters choice aqua clean. It's a very powerful soap. But it contains a chemical that eats brass, or should I say zinc.

I was just doing an experiment to see how well it works. I hate having to wait for them to dry, then worry they're not completely dry. I mainly use it for thorough cleaning of semi-auto pistol slides, trigger groups and other gun related stuff.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=95563

This 2.5 liter unit could easily clean 100 .223 cases at a time.

[SL1]

I've found that a 1:3 vinegar-to-water ratio in the small Harbor Freight ultrasonic cleaner will take most of the crud out of the inside with one or two of the 3-minute cycles. Just putting the cases in a coffee can with the same solution and shaking them DOESN'T get the crud out of the inside, nor the primer pockets. And, using the ultrasonic cleaner with just soap doesn't do it either. So, the combination of ultrasonics and mild acid seems to give me the best crud-cutting with the least exposure to the acid. Remember to rinse in a baking-soda solution after you take the cases out of the vinegar solution. Otherwise, they will soon tarnish.

SL1

[rattletrap1970]

I bought one of these on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-L-LITER-EUMAX-...item19b7b8903e

1. I resize and decap my brass.
2. Clean in ultrasonic cleaner for 30 min (50/50 mix water & white vinegar + 1 drop of dawn detergent for each cup of liquid used)
3. When that is done I put the brass in a leg cut off of a pair of jeans. I tie the ends and run in the dryer.
4. Then I tumble in a tumbler filled almost to the top with white rice with 6 cups of red rouge media from Lyman. Overnight.

The brass comes out like mirrors inside and out as well as the primer pockets.

[Hey_Allen]

I got turned onto another cleaner by a friend of mine who works in the ground water survey and quality business (well drilling and the like.)

Alconox detergent added in a SMALL quantity to the UC cleaner works wonders on many things, just don't add too much or it can foam up. http://www.alconox.com/

As to the Hornady cleaner, I saw it on their site, but had seen an identical cleaner in generic colors at Harbour Freight, for a good bit less money!

[furtaker]

Thanks for all the replies, ive got one on order! Hey Allen which one do you use? Of the cleaning chemicals that is.

[Crashbox]

I wonder if anyone has tried oxalic, chromic or phosphoric acid on fired brass in an ultrasonic cleaner...? I'm curious and may try these (and others) myself since I have two out of three in stock (the chromic acid would be freshly prepared, of course)...

Assuming, of course, said chemicals do NOT adversely affect the integrity of the brass!!!

[rjrivero]

I've tried it with bulk brass, but it's such a pain in the ass. You use your vinegar solution to clean, then your baking soda solution to neutralize the acid of the vinegar, then rinse. Then you have to dry your brass, then you can reload it.

I'm much to lazy for that kind of work every time I want to reload. I suppose if I were loading Match quality rounds, I'd think differently. But for plinking and 3 gun shooting, my "less than perfect" tumble, size, trim, load method works just fine.

I do use my ultrasonic for cleaning the bolts on the AR's. No scraping, no fuss. Just drop the bolt in with some brownells gun cleaning solution, and let it run for 20 minutes or so. That's a life saver, right there.

[rottieman33]

Why is it such a big deal to get the inside of the case clean. I did some searching and could not find any info on cleaning the inside of the brass inproves the performace of the buttlet hitting the target or effecting the burn of the powder. I do know some people are anal about how there brass look but couple days later the brass starts to get dull unless you put lite skim of oil on it.

[snuffy]

Why is it such a big deal to get the inside of the case clean. I did some searching and could not find any info on cleaning the inside of the brass inproves the performace of the buttlet hitting the target or effecting the burn of the powder. I do know some people are anal about how their brass look but couple days later the brass starts to get dull unless you put lite skim of oil on it.

PRECISELY! It's not important to get the inside of brass clean. If it bothers you, relax, it doesn't bother the brass or the bullet, or the gun if there's some carbon left inside the brass case. AND NO it does not "build up"! Normal tumbling will remove any loose chunks, the rest can just stay there.

Assuming, of course, said chemicals do NOT adversely affect the integrity of the brass!!!

Yes it would/will! Any acid, even the 5% acidic acid in vinegar will start to leach the zinc out of the brass making it brittle, IF left to soak long enough.

[Clark]

I read that 6mmBR article on ultrasonic cleaners.
I got gallons of vinegar, LimiShine, and baking soda.

The primer pockets get clean fast.

The inside of the necks need a straight shot at the transducer in the bottom center of the tank.

So I don't bother.

But the ultrasonic is good for one thing, cleaning Copper solvent from Bronze brushes.

[furtaker]

I fugure I can spend $70 to 100 on a vibrator/tumbler or 75 to 100 on an ultrasonic machine! I choose the ultrasonic!

[James R. Burke]

I never had one, but use to use one to clean instruments in a hospital. They worked really good. Inside and out. I image a nice one would cost some bucks.

[furtaker]

Ya I orderd the Hornady one, im sure its the same one Harbor Freight sales, Hornady just put there name on it and charges more, but im a Hornady fan and my gun dealer got it for me for 98 bucks so I figured what the heck!

[Unclenick]

If you want one, a reason for cleaning cases inside may be increased barrel life. The rationale is in post #25, here.

[Sport45]

I have a rather large ultrasonic cleaner that I use frequently for cleaning small parts. I don't use it for cleaning cases as my Lyman 1200 with Petco ground walnut takes care of that just fine.

[furtaker]

Unclenick, Thats some good reading!!!

[Hey_Allen]

I'm lazy on this as well. The UC works well for cleaning mechanical bits for my other hobbies, but the vibrator tumbler with walnut media does well for my reloading.

I haven't needed to worry about it enough to focus on the extremes of accuracy in my reloading at this point, and the vibe works just fine, especially if I'm not in a rush and let it run for a few hours.

[PDXGS]

I just ran some dirty cases in my ultrasonic cleaner using the 1:3 vinegar to water mix. It's amazing.
Read the attached article that Unclenick posted. Carbon is hard. Having a bullet lap it into the bore with every round cant be good for barrel life.