Ultra sonic cleaner

[Philwilk]

I have often wondered whether an ultra sonic cleaner would be worth having. Does anyone have first hand experience of these, and if so, could you recommend a cleaner that would accommodate fifty 308 cases at one hit (or am I being naive and maybe it is the norm to do smaller batches?).
Thanks,

Phil

 

[Dovebob]

Phil,


There are many on here who rate ultrasonic cleaners and use them to clean cases. I have a fairly heavy duty stainless one that is designed for light industrial / electronics work. I out ten 6.5 x 55 cases in at a time. I could do more, but it works better with fewer. I think you'd need quite a big one to do 50 at a time.

if you have a search you'll find quite a few threads on it.

Cheers,

Bob

 

[mel]

I mainly tumble my cases to get them clean but every couple of reloads, once the old primers are out, I stand all the cases upright in the ultrasonic cleaner and that does the primer pockets. A screwed up bit of kitchen roll poked around in the primer holes whilst they're still wet gets them spotless again.

Mines an 'Ultra 7000' which I got off fleebay, but it does the job. I get about 40-50 308 cases in there stood upright but not fully submerged

 

[Philwilk]

Thank you gentlemen for your feedback, will explore this further now. My tumbler does a good job on the case walls but its the primer pockets that I hate doing and often I have to 'overcook' the cases in the tumbler to get the necks clean. It has since come to my attention that there is a small ultra sonic cleaner in our assembly shop at work so I am going to take a few once-fired cased in and give it a go.

Phil

 

[j0e_bl0ggs]

Thank you gentlemen for your feedback, will explore this further now. My tumbler does a good job on the case walls but its the primer pockets that I hate doing and often I have to 'overcook' the cases in the tumbler to get the necks clean. It has since come to my attention that there is a small ultra sonic cleaner in our assembly shop at work so I am going to take a few once-fired cased in and give it a go.

Phil

Have a couple of Kerry Ultrasonics, the one I would normally use for brass is a heated version which will take 120+ .243 standing upright in the basket, fully submerged!
Generally polish the brass in walnut media (no additives)
Decap then into the Ultrasonic approx 5% citric acid and 1/2 tab washing powder.
Rinse then Dry - ready to go!

Cases when finished are clean!

 

[Philwilk]

Maybe I was expecting too much of the cleaner. This morning I took a handful of very dirty once fired 308 cases to work and enlisted the services of one of our VERY attractive Polish assembly operatives to take me through the process with the ultra sonic cleaner.

The cases went through four separate 10 minute cycles with some detergent in the hot water. I was fully expecting the cases to come out shiny bright, as new. I was quite disappointed. The gunge in the primer pockets did come out..eventually, but it would appear, from what Joe Bloggs says, that I still need to use my tumbler.

I was talking to Waldy at work, he was telling me that there are some posts on here about using cheap coke for cleaning. Must do a search. All-in-all an interesting exercise.

Phil

 

[j0e_bl0ggs]

Maybe I was expecting too much of the cleaner. This morning I took a handful of very dirty once fired 308 cases to work and enlisted the services of one of our VERY attractive Polish assembly operatives to take me through the process with the ultra sonic cleaner.

The cases went through four separate 10 minute cycles with some detergent in the hot water. I was fully expecting the cases to come out shiny bright, as new. I was quite disappointed. The gunge in the primer pockets did come out..eventually, but it would appear, from what Joe Bloggs says, that I still need to use my tumbler.

I was talking to Waldy at work, he was telling me that there are some posts on here about using cheap coke for cleaning. Must do a search. All-in-all an interesting exercise.

Phil

Phosphoric acid in the coke will do the cleaning! Loads of stuff out there for cleaning, cheapest by far is washing powder!
Will get some dishwasher tabs and give that a go, I imagine they would work well.
Ultrasonic will not polish the cases, it just removes the crud!
I use the tumbler just to put a shine on the cases (no abrasives added just crushed walnut).