Hornady Ultrasonic

[Don McDowell]

A friend of mine left me his Hornady Ultrasonic case cleaner when he was out here antelope hunting. Said he didn't really think he liked it all that well.
So I decided to give it a whirl. It did an alright job, the primer pockets could of been better, but it got the rest of the case pretty good. These cases had laid around for a week -10 days after firing. 1/2 oz of the cleaning solution with 20 oz of tap water. Before, first 8 minutes and second 8 minute
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[Idaho Sharpshooter]

It would take me about a hundred years to clean all the brass I have on a monthly basis shooting.

Rich

[Dragoon 45]

I was wondering how good those sonic cleaners where. Best luck I have had is using ceramic media in a rotary tumbler. Takes about two hours to clean them.

[Don McDowell]

I think this thing will come in especially handy for cleaning up a days worth of cases at a match or preparing for a match.
I don't think it'll replace the tumbler, but it'll certainly clean the cases up enough to not have to worry about getting them home in a week or so, or even load a few during a weeks worth of shooting travel.

[Bane]

Don:

We use an ultrasonic cleaner at work

Use a slightly higher concentration of cleaning fluid, and dont use tapwater, use filtered or otherwise "Cleaned" water- tapwater has all kinds of additives that take the edge off the cleaning fluid.

Also ensure that the ultrasonic cleaner is isolated from the environment, they usually have rubber feet to prevent the vibrations from being disrupted by certain materials however using a pad of memory foam or similar under the feet wouldnt hurt at all (Remember Ultrasonic cleaners just use incredibly high-frequency vibrations, certain materials such as Wood and Aluminium are natural vibration dampeners)

[Don McDowell]

Bane the intructions did say to use distilled water for best results, but it's 40 miles to town , and our well water tests out better than most of the "purified" bottled water you can buy when you get to town.But I will get a gallon of distilled next trip to town to have on hand for the next trial. I would like to see how it handles 50 cases at a time.
It was interesting to watch the vibrations in the water, and little blops of stuff start floating to the top right away.
Thanks for the tip about the foam under it, will give that a try the next time.

[bigted]

don...got my interest up again with this thread about ultrasonic cleaners. does this method clean the primer-pockets well? also how does the neck area come out?

my method thus far is as follows.......shoot,,,De-prime and throw into milk jug with water and dawn dish soap. i swish this around twice a day till i get to cleaning them. then i rinse with hot clear water till it is soap-less ,,,then i use my Lyman rotary tool to clean the primer pockets and a brass brush of .50 to clean up the neck area,,,then into my vibrating cleaner with corn cob media for 3 to 5 hours.......clean as a whistle but the drawback is the primer holes need cleaning out as the corn-cob gets stuck in every primer hole.

just looking for a bit faster method but i want the same cleanliness as well.

[martinibelgian]

Bigted,

An ultrasonic cleaner will get those cases cleaner faster - without individual handling and treating of cases - than any other cleaning method except ceramic media.
However, I do like to give mine a rund in a tumbler with walnut media for the shine, so I still need toget the media out of some of the primer pockets. A good Ultrasonic cleaner will remove 90+% of all residue - neck, primer pocket, you name it It probably is the best way to clean primer pockets, and really gets in there like no other method is able to.

[Don McDowell]

Ted I share gerts opinion on the fast and cleaner deal.
The primer pockets were ok, they had black stain in some of them, but some of these cases are several years old and have went thru dozens of firings so I'ld expect some discoloring .
All in all this thing will be just the ticket for going to a week long shoot, where you can clean a days worth of shooting cases in less than a half hour and not have to worry about them until you get home, plus they are clean enough they could be loaded right there on the spot if you have the fixins with you.
Also great for when you just pop a few rounds and don't have enough to justify firing up the tumbler.
For weekend matches I'll still bring those cases home and run them thru the thumlers and ceramic, due to the large quantity gathered up in 2 or 3 days.