Case Cleaning ideas

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RoyceP

New member
Calibers I reload: 45ACP, 45 Colt, 44 Special, 38 special, 357 Magnum

In the past I have used crushed walnut shells with a vibratory tumbler. That works OK but you have to be careful to dump any stuck media out of the primer pockets. If I deprime first this can be a big problem. If I deprime afterwards then I have to clean the primer pockets in a second step. I find the walnut shell media is no good after using it 4 - 5 times. I have been adding a golf ball sized glob of Silver Metall or Simichrome polish, this makes the cases come out pretty shiny.

Recently I got a Hornady 2 Liter Ultrasonic Lock and Load cleaner. The Bass Pro Shop didn't have any of the Hornady solution in stock so I bought the Lyman stuff that was in stock.

Any tips on setting this stuff up and using it effectively? Should I deprime first? Should I use the vibratory one before the ultrasonic? Or the other way around?
 
J

jetinteriorguy

New member
I deprime, clean primer pockets, toss them in the tumbler with an occasional shake of Bartenders Friend and let it run for a couple hours. I use the crushed walnut from Harbor Freight. I never get media stuck in the primer holes and the brass is more than clean enough for reloading. The Bartenders Friend keeps the media so it flows incredibly good which I think couples with how fine the Harbor Freight media is crushed to prevent it from blocking the flash hole.
 
U

Unclenick

Staff
In all the ultrasonic cleaning I've done, I've cleaned first in the U.S. with a citric acid solution, followed by drying and then, if I need them polished, I tumble them. This has the advantage the lead in the water-soluble compounds in the primer pocket residue become chelated by the citric acid, which sequesters it molecularly, making it unavailable to act toxically and safe to flush down a drain. With the lead gone, it goes into the vibratory tumbler with media that has never been exposed to primer pocket residue so there is no toxicity to be picked back up there.

Citric acid is cheap. 10 lbs at around $27. Get is here, postpaid, or, if you have Amazon Prime to cover the shipping, you can save $0.47 getting it there. The old Frankford Arsenal (from just after WWI, when it was still an actual arsenal) formula is 5% citric acid by weight in water, or about a cup of crystals in a gallon of water. That is way stronger than is in general use in the formulas provided by manufacturers. Hornady's, for example, is a concentrate with about 30% Citric acid and 0.5% diethanolamine (an anti-oxidant, anti-corrosive). You then dilute it 40:1. This means mixing 57 ounces of citric acid powder and 1 ounce of diethanolamine (also available on Amazon) with a gallon of distilled water. Then you dilute it 40:1 to use it in the ultrasonic. So, 10 lbs will make close to 3 gallons of concentrate or 120 gallons of working strength solution.
 
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RoyceP

New member
I have to use up the remaining 10 pounds of walnut shell media and the rest of the Lyman solution but that's great advice from both of you. Much appreciated!!!
 
L

LE-28

New member
I deprime first, then run it through my 2500ml ultra sonic with a heaping teaspoon of Lemi-Shine, a citric acid crystal you can buy a Wallmart, and a few drops of Dawn dishwashing detergent.

I have found after doing this for 10 years that 16 minutes in there will clean my brass completely clean.

I dry mine under heat and the brass tarnishes quickly that way, so after cleaning and drying I run them through my tumblers for about half an hour and they look like new.

Like Uncle Nick, I won't put dirty brass in my dry tumblers, I never have.

My ultrasonic cleans everything from my pistols submerged in Hoppes #9, (in a separate container) to my wife's jewelry, to my shower heads in CLR.

They work well.
 
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Nodak1858

New member
I bought a Lyman ultrasonic cleaner. I used it a few times but wasn't real excited about the job it did. I don't think the small units have the power to really clean up the brass. Large commercial units are a totally different class than these. What it does work good for are the wife's rings, just a few drops of dish soap and couple cycles and they come out shiny. And small greasy parts of works well if you have the ones with a heater in the tank. Just use some Dawn or Simple Green if it's not aluminum. I use wet tumbling with stainless pins or i just run them in my old vibrating tumbler.
 
R

RoyceP

New member
I deprime first, then run it through my 2500ml ultrasonic with a heaping teaspoon of Lemi-Shine, a citric acid crystal you can buy a Wallmart, and a few drops of Dawn dishwashing detergent.
Click to expand...

I went to the Lemi Shine website and they have about 15 products available at Target and Wal Mart near me.

Which Lemi Shine product? I used the search feature on this website and found a hundred or more references (spent well over an hour reading them) to Lemi Shine but none say specifically which of their products to use?
 
D

Doyle

New member
I deprime, wash in a bath of car wash detergent with wax, lube, resize, then run in the tumbler for just long enough to make sure the lube (home-brew lanolin) is off. I don't do high volumes though so my process might not work for everyone.
 
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marchboom

New member
I start by depriming the brass. This allows the primer pocket to be cleaned and prevents air from being trapped in some cases thus preventing the liquid solution from cleaning the inside of the case.

Put the cases in an ultra sonic cleaner for 1 hr. Solution is 1/4 teaspoon of Lemishine to 1 pt of water. Add 2-3 drops of Dawn soap.

NOTE: Don't keep brass in solution more than 1 hr or increase the amount of Lemishine. Your brass will turn pink.

The ultra sonic cleaner solution will contain the primer and carbon residue that would have contaminated your tumbler dry media. Therefore, your dry media will last a long time as it is only used for polishing and not cleaning. This method also keeps primer & carbon residue in a solution and not in a tumbler where it can become airborne.

Dry in a Lyman Cyclone brass dryer for 1 hr.

Tumble for 60-90 minutes in walnut shell media (I use Zilla Ground English Walnut Shells Desert Blend from Amazon) with some Nu-Finish car polish. This media will not get stuck in flash holes. Throw in a used dryer sheet to keep down the dust.
 
G

Grey_Lion

New member
I spent some 6 months changing up formulas on dry tumble media trying to make it do all I wanted. I still have my Franklin - but I typically only use it to remove the worst of the mud when I get bulk outdoor range brass, which is rare.

Tried corn cob - 2 uses at most then toxic trash

Tried corn cob with jeweler's rouge - NEVER AGAIN - makes the powdered corn cob stick in every nook & cranny and the rouge seems to get on EVERYTHING. Hated it.

Tried corn cob with porcelain polishing pellets - now here's a formula that get's seriously stuck in pistol ammo - don't recommend it.

Tried crushed walnut - liked this the best but it was expensive and you only really get 2 or 3 uses out of the media. I some day hope to own a grove of walnut trees. Don't have one yet.

Tried crushed walnut w/ porcelain polishing pellets - same as corn cob - gets seriously stuck - didn't clean any better than plain walnut shell

Tried making my own crushed shell media out of pistachio shells grinding them up in a coffee bean grinder. If you don't sift this for size you spend MOST of your time clearing stuck shells out of brass. Hated it. Tried it because it was a resource I had on hand.

Tried making my own media by finely chopping bamboo hoping the fibrous material and natural wax on the bamboo would make a good media - it didn't.

Then I tried different blends of all of the above and even tried adding in used primers.

End of the day - plain sifted walnut did the best, plain corn cob next. but it never really did the trick great for me and after all of this experimenting, I moved on to wet tumbling with stainless steel pins and lemi-shine w/ a drop of dawn and never looked back.

For a short time, I didn't pull the primers thinking the media MIGHT enlarge the primer pockets and cause loose primers. After some 20000 rounds with primers removed before tumbling, I haven't had a loose primer yet. And - with the primer out if you DO get a shell with media stuck in it or missed an odd piece of brass that then seated in another piece of brass it's GREAT to have a cleared flash hole to push stuff out.

I enjoy shiny brass with all GSR and carbon deposits removed so I can inspect the primer pocket as well as the base of the shell interior to look for defects. I also look for flash hole burs which might make for an imperfect powder burn - find this in about 1/3rd of the RP and WIN .40 casings I reload from range pick-up.
 
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DMY

New member
Popular tried and true formula

I used RCBS corn cob media for a long time. I thought picking stuck media was just a necessary evil. Read many posts which suggested Petco reptile bedding aka lizard liter with a capful of NuFinish car polish and a cut up, used dryer sheet. Works well, brass is shiny and smells nice. I typically tumble 250 - 300 cases at a time in a FA vibratory tumbler and am able to run at least a few thousand cases through. I usually run the tumbler for 4 hours. Make sure to run the NuFinish without cases for at least 30 minutes without cases or the wet-ish polish will cause the media to collect inside the cases.
 
T

TruthTellers

New member
Nodak1858 said:
I bought a Lyman ultrasonic cleaner. I used it a few times but wasn't real excited about the job it did. I don't think the small units have the power to really clean up the brass. Large commercial units are a totally different class than these. What it does work good for are the wife's rings, just a few drops of dish soap and couple cycles and they come out shiny. And small greasy parts of works well if you have the ones with a heater in the tank. Just use some Dawn or Simple Green if it's not aluminum. I use wet tumbling with stainless pins or i just run them in my old vibrating tumbler.
Click to expand...
I have the 2L Hornady and have had the same results you had. It's not great for cleaning brass, the larger and more expensive units may be better, but ultrasonics don't polish brass and make it look brand new. They are great for cleaning metal parts, so they're not a total waste IMO.

I recently found around 150 pieces of 10mm brass at the outdoor pistol pit at my range. It had rained that morning, so the cases had a fair amount of mud and dirt in them and after a quick rinse in the tub I pulled out the ultrasonic to loosen up the packed dirt in the bottom of the cases and it did an alright job.

That said, I could have saved money buying a Harbor Freight ultrasonic instead.
 
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Hawg

New member
I use a vibratory tumble with Meguiar's polish and crushed walnut shells. I don't deprime first and don't bother cleaning primer pockets.
 
R

RoyceP

New member
Here's a batch that I cleaned yesterday using corncob media with a dollup of Simichrome. It does a nice job but probably 50% of cases have a piece of corncob stuck in the flash hole. I punch those out with an ice pick.
 

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M

marchboom

New member
I used to have the same problem until I switched to this:

Zilla Ground English Walnut Shells Desert Blend from Amazon.

It's small enough that it doesn't plug the hole and it cleans brass great.
 
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