Ultrasonic Case Cleaners Vs The Stainless Steel Pin

[Tamitch]

What are the pros and cons to each method. I'l be cleaning 100/200 cases at a time.

Terry Mitchell
Danville, IL.

[BIGRED]

No comparison SS wet tumbling wins hands down. After the initial investment, it basically runs for almost nothing. Few hours with a gallon of water, a squirt of dish soap, tsp of lemishine and brass.
It will blow your mind....

[Gillie Dog]

After 20 years of corn cob and walnut hulls in a vibratory cleaner I went to ultrasonic and liked it a lot. Then I got caught up in the S/S media hype and had to do that also.

Each has their place, vibratory cleans and allow various coatings to be applied, S/S with Dawn and Lemishine will flat make brass shiny and clean, and ultrasonic with Dawn and Lemishine will make brass spotless clean but not very shiny.

For boat loads of pistol brass I use the S/S and make sure my solution is set up to only tumble one hour or so. That way I prevent case mouth peening from occurring or if it does it is minimal. (Many folks have discussed ways to minimize and or stop this by how much brass or S/S is used, I have not fooled with it yet)

For small batches of Lapua rifle brass I ultrasonic clean only and live with the super clean but not shiny brass. (Wish I had a very powerful commercial machine) No chance to peen the mouths or do any other potential mechanical damage.

Each has their own place in how and what I personally do and your mileage may vary.

Good luck

GD

[rainyday]

i have done both but use steel shot instead of stainless pins. i have to say that a rotory wins by a land slide. i preclean with dishsoap then size and trim. then run again but add rcbs sidewinder liquid

[bobthenailer]

ive used the ultrasonics , and still have a vibratory, the wet tumbling method with in the past bb gun bb's and now with SS pins is the best! Period ! i have 2 Lortons a QT6 & QT12 model, they just run forever !

[Love Life]

I haven't use the Ultrasonics yet.

SS cleans the brass very well, but peens the case mouths. This is fine for brass that still needs to be sized and trimmed. Not so good if you just finished prepping brass, and the now squared case mouth is peened.

Walnut is good, but leaves a satin finish.

CC is good and leaves a very nice polish, but does not clean as well as walnut.

I'm thinking ceramic media is the way to go...

[dragon813gt]

Neither one is necessary. You don't need shiny brass for a bullet to shoot well. I think people get caught up in the shine. I personally think that the pins are going to work the brass to much over time. Brass is a softer metal. Now will they work it enough to be an issue? I don't know.

I use an ultrasonic for all my rifle and hunting loads. And it's only to clean the primer pockets because I hate doing it manually. I only do it upon initial prepping so it's a once and done process. I've found no difference in accuracy w/ the pockets being clean or dirty.

I live in a humid environment so a vibratory cleaner w/ nufinish is a must. Otherwise the brass tends to tarnish quickly.

[Love Life]

People do get caught up in the shine, but it (cleaned brass) is also easier on my sizing dies as well.

[Case Stuffer]

Walnut is good, but leaves a satin finish.


My experience with walnut treated with a little Nu Finish is that brass comes out extremely shinny. I used corn cobb media for many years before trying walnut and now that is all I use, it even cleans the primer pockets if deprimed first.\

Not only is clean brass easier on the dies but the Nu Finish provides a bit of lubication and shinny brass is easier to find if it goes in leaves or grass.

[Love Life]

Interesting. I ended up with the satin finish on my brass even with the additives. I was using the ground stuff sold by Lyman I think. Maybe I'll give it another try. I'm headed to see a guy who has a ton (literal) of the stuff so I can pick up some.

[dragon813gt]

You won't get a high polish shine w/ treated walnut. But it shouldn't be satin. And I understand that clean brass is easier on the dies. But all that's really required is a quick wipe w/ a rag. Assuming it's not mud caked range pickups. A quick citric acid bath will clean quite well w/ no agitation needed as well. Some movement does help w/ the cleaning.

As to the OP's question. It depends on what you're looking for. W/ small batches the ultrasonic will most likely be quicker. W/ large batches there is no comparison as SS pins are the better option.

[johnny_boy]

I have both. A small batch that needs a quick cleaning suits fine for Ultrasonic cleaner. I have 308 Lapua brass that I throw in after a range session. 25-50 at a time for about 16 minutes. I have a Harbor Freight one, which is not very good, and I won't put more than 25-50 at a time. It does work if you put more, but very slow. HF USC seems to clean only in the middle of the pot, and not very much towards the outer edge. It cleans inside, primer pocket, and outside, but the inside is not nearly as clean as outside. What you use for cleaning agent makes a big difference. I only used water and soap the first time, and while it cleaned them up, it was not nearly as effective as Hornady ultrasonic cleaning liquid. It contains citric acid from what I hear.

SS Tumbling. It takes longer like 2 hours, but I put a bunch more in at a time. It comes out more shiny both inside and outside. Also with plain water with soap it does not come out very shiny, Lemi-shine helps a lot. Again, my understanding is that Lemi-shine is ctiric acid.

So you can do about the same amount of brass cleaning in a given time using either method, but with US cleaning, you will have to go swap stuff out every 16-24 minutes. I think if you have a real US cleaner and not a HF one, it would do way better. You need to have more than one conductor/transducer? in order to have even spread across the whole pot. You do get what you pay for. I won't use HF US cleaner for any big volume batch cleaning like 9mm and 223.