Ultrasonic brass cleaning?

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Venti30

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I’ve used wet tumbling for brass, dry tumbling, and am now considering ultrasonic.

My questions are for those that have used ultrasonic for brass:

What model did you choose and are using?

How much 9mm brass can it process at a time?

Do you use a commercial cleaner or a home brew?

Thanks in advance!
 
I've done it in a 2.5 gallon heated Bransonic I originally bought for circuit board cleaning. Took 40 minutes at 140°F to get primer pockets fairly clear on cases that had sat for a decade without depriming after firing (carbon hardens with age). I used the old Frankford Arsenal 5% (by weight) citric acid in water formula, which turns out to be a cup of citric acid crystals in a 1 gallon jug then topped up with water and mixed. I also added a squirt of Dawn to it to help suspend dirt.

The amount of citric acid was unnecessarily high, as that formula is designed to be reused for a time. But I was disappointed that it didn't go faster. I had my brass in beakers to keep separate solutions at work simultaneously. Glass absorbs some of the ultrasonic energy, but so does brass. A basket with one solution at a time may have been a better plan. You don't want the brass directly on the bottom of the tub because of the propensity to absorb energy and detune the transducers.

Subsequently, I learned that a lot of commercial grade ultrasonics that might do the job better or on a larger quantity of brass at one time, have roughly three to five times the energy density (watts/per gallon) my machine and most less expensive ones do. If I were going to use ultrasonic primarily, it would only be if I had three to five grand to drop on one of these industrial units. With patience, the results are shown for the old, corroded brass.

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You say you tried wet tumbling. Did you try the stainless steel pin method? You'll find a number of threads on that topic if you search the forum.
 
I have a pretty decent Ultra Sonic cleaner that I have used for brass many times. I have since moved on to the SS Pin method (FART) and it is far superior and faster IMO.

Save your money and stick with the Pins.
 
I use the Ultrasonic cleaner from Harbour Freight for both bottleneck rifle brass and 45 Colt. Not sure how many 9mm can go in at once, but I usually do 50-75 45 Colt at a time, standing on end with water just over the mouths. Two 480 second cycles is usually what it takes.
 
You say you tried wet tumbling. Did you try the stainless steel pin method? You'll find a number of threads on that topic if you search the forum.
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Yes, I've got the Franklin complete set up I think, Franklin Wet Tumbler, Franklin Dryer, Franklin media separator. I should buy some of their stock if I keep going....

I also have two Franklin dry vibratory bowls, and the huge Dillon vibratory bowl and separator. I'm not afraid to try different methods I suppose.

I found that wet tumbling with the pins was by far the most thorough cleaning I could achieve. I also found that it's by far the most time consuming. I don't have a sink in my reloading area, and no matter how thoughtfully/carefully I approach it, I seem to end up with pins escaping the process.

Sonic is the only method I haven't tried, but most of what I've seen is that to do real volume, you're married to the process, only win here is that you don't have to mess with pins.

I'm a small business owner with businesses in two states, so when I commit the time to case prep, I do what I consider to be a lot. 1-3000 cases at a time/session.

What I've found is that Dry tumbling affords me the set it and forget it approach. I can turn on all 3 tumblers for roughly 2-3 hours, do something else while that's happening, and there's generally less mess involved. One time I forgot to go get my brass out of the wet tumbler and it looked super crappy as a result of sitting there for too long. This doesn't happen on dry tumble.

So, I guess I was just looking for opinions on sonic, thanks for chiming in to all who did.

I just don't know that given my allocated time for case prep that returning to wet will work for me for what I'd call maybe 10-20% better looking brass. At the end of the day, the difference between all methods is the vanity of your cases. They all "work".
 
I picked up a lyman 700 when I first started out. works well for small volume. where I have found it to be useful is rifle brass fresh from the range. I use the ultra sonic to get the brass clean enough to lube and size (after drying of course), then toss them into a vibe with walnut to remove lube and finish polish the cases before reloading. As for cleaning solution, home brew. same as what you pay $14 bucks for at the store. I have found that using distilled water and heating it before use to be quite efficient.
 
Venti30,

If you have the resources to allocate, take a look at the big ultrasonics. Before that $9K price tag scares you off, there are also much smaller systems available for less, and at Brownells as well. They can also clean handguns and the bigger ones take at least two AR uppers at a time. They are meant as full-time armorers tools for police agencies and the like, but if you have limited time, being able to clean guns and large brass volumes faster might be worth it to you.
 
Venti30 said:
I’ve used wet tumbling for brass, dry tumbling, and am now considering ultrasonic.

My questions are for those that have used ultrasonic for brass:

What model did you choose and are using? The $45 model from Harbor Freight.

How much 9mm brass can it process at a time? Around 200 pieces or more. I put them in thin mesh poly sacks, sonicate for 8 minutes with heat, shake the bags to reposition the brass, turn off the heat, sonicate two more times for 8 minutes each, shaking the bags each time.

Do you use a commercial cleaner or a home brew? Home brew of about two teaspoons of citric acid crystals and about 10 to 15 drops of Dawn. Too much citric acid and brass is clean but not shiny, if too much Dawn, lots of bubbles! Can process about five batches of dirty range brass with the same batch of "home brew". Thanks in advance!
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My comments above. I'm very surprised at how well it works.
 
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