Mark120555
Well-Known Member
Looking at buying brass cleaner. Would anyone who knows reccomend wet tumbler or ultrasonic. Many thanks
Brass cleaning
- Thread starter Mark120555
- Start date
I use a homemade wet tumbler. It works very well and can clean even very tarnished brass.
A few people I know have ultrasonic cleaners and rate them, although the cheaper ones tend to be smaller, thereby limiting how much brass you can clean at a time.
You could try a vibratory tumbler initially - probably the cheapest and I found mine worked well!
A few people I know have ultrasonic cleaners and rate them, although the cheaper ones tend to be smaller, thereby limiting how much brass you can clean at a time.
You could try a vibratory tumbler initially - probably the cheapest and I found mine worked well!
I have both. A small ultrasonic and a 3kg rotary tumbler both off ebay. If I had to choose just one I'd have the ultrasonic as for me it gets the primer pockets clean quicker and you don't have to worry about pins getting left in the cases but they both were cheap so I have both. I decap, ultrasonic clean, resize, trim, chamfer, debur and then tumble to remove lubricant, then into the £10 salad spinner to separate pins from cases then ebay dehydrator to dry before loading. Quick, easy and you have spotless brass where you can see any cracks easily. Others' views will differ but this process works for me. The dehydrator is great for drying all kinds of mushrooms and I'll use it for jerky and biltong, but the salad spinner is just for media separation. The ultrasonic is great for cleaning bike chains as well which is what I actually bought it for. I expect it will come in handy for cleaning all kinds of other things too.
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I use both. Steel pins after annealing, then an ultrasonic clean as the last stage in my brass prep.
Regards
JCS
Regards
JCS
But it is pleasing to the eye.
I de-prime, clean out primer pockets and tumble in nut husk media for a couple of hours, i do need to remove media from primer pockets, but a chainsaw file , that has been ground down to a fine point lets me pick them out very quickly.
Ultra sound does a good job, but you have wet brass that then needs drying out ,and that's a pain in the arse, its half a dozen of one 6 of another etc
good luck
Ultra sound does a good job, but you have wet brass that then needs drying out ,and that's a pain in the arse, its half a dozen of one 6 of another etc
good luck
paulbshooting
Well-Known Member
Got the lyman wet tumbler, works a treat. Run for min one hour and brass all good.
Rinse in warm water and dry in dehydrator
Rinse in warm water and dry in dehydrator
Foxyboy43
Well-Known Member
Hmmm. You need the advice of the greatest living expert on tumbling; sadly he has signed himself in again gone off to the Dark Continent for a while but when he returns……..
In the interim you may wish togawp marvel at his May 2022 masterclass on annealing which segues neatly into a discussion on the merits and otherwise of cleaning brass with stainless steel pins - if he it hasn’t already been deleted for reasons of SD members mental health.
You are welcome.
In the interim you may wish to
You are welcome.
Utectok
Well-Known Member
As has been well documented by cleverer people than me clean cases look pretty but shoot the same as dirty ones (including dirty primer pockets). I do give mine a spruce up in a media vibrating thing but mainly to get the lube of. Otherwise knock yourself out but it’ll make zero difference to the actual ammunition.
Got all three types, the ultrasound was good and quick, if you heat the bath to 70C, it doesn't take long to get really shiny cases, with a tiny bit of citric acid, but I never got the primer pockets really clean. Switched to a cheepo Vevor tumbler with hot water and the same half teaspoon of citric acid and a two-hour tumble in steel pins, got the primer pockets really clean then use a corncob media tumbler at the end to get them really shiny.
To answer the question, I have both and use the wet tumbler which I think is the better option.
To answer the question, I have both and use the wet tumbler which I think is the better option.
I think the primer pockets would be clean after 2 hours in an ultrasonic cleaner, especially if the cases went in as soon as they were decapped.
I have just changed to a wet tumbler after using a dry tumbler for the last 5 years and I feel like I have been wasting my time dry tumbling!!!
www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk
New Tumbler
I started the reloading journey about 5 years ago - I now do 38/357, 44 magnum, 303, 308 and will soon start on 45-70. When I bought my kit, I decided on a Lyman 1200 vibratory dry tumbler. I'm sure well all know the one and that it basically makes the cases cleaner but not the primer pocket or...
www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk
I know you should never read the manual but mine says the max runtime is 1 hr. I only ran it for 30 minutes max as after that the cases went dull, probably due to the combination of citric acid and temperature, but nope, never got the primer pockets as clean as wet tumbling does. It's certainly clean enough after ultrasound but not as clean as after wet tumbling and I pride myself on having the shiniest brass in the village, including the parts that you cannot see. I'm not arguing that it has no effect on accuracy but reloading is a hobby in itself for me, so I like to spend the extra time on it.
Given my Chinese Vevor tumbler was £65 and my stainless 2l ultrasound bath was £80, if you have to choose one or the other, I'd say go with the wet tumbler.
One interesting thing I learned in my research was that you should use some sort of detergent, not only for cleaning but because it holds the dirt in the water, however, it loses this effect after about 4 hours so that gives you the max wet tumbling length, though I'm at about half this. Dry tumbling at the end with a drop of Autosol gets the wax off and the shine up.
Foxyboy43
Well-Known Member
Sooo many complicated methods and magic potions.
Bung your brass in a cloth bag, stick it in the washing machine on a 40 degree wash, empty bag onto tray and place near fire or radiator. Job done.
ps
make sure the bag neck is well secured and that the boss is defo out well beyond the end of the cycle. Wot could go wrong just might…..
Bung your brass in a cloth bag, stick it in the washing machine on a 40 degree wash, empty bag onto tray and place near fire or radiator. Job done.
ps
make sure the bag neck is well secured and that the boss is defo out well beyond the end of the cycle. Wot could go wrong just might…..
grizzly adams
Well-Known Member
Wet tumbler with SS pins. Good and shine.
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