Hornady Sonic Cleaner

[TXGunNut]

Have a new piece of reloading equipment and I'm not sure what to think of it. Bought the Hornady LNL 2L sonic cleaner during Cabelas employee pricing sale last weekend, finally got it in service tonight-after making another trip for the cleaning solution that I forgot last weekend. Have some cases that have been fired 5-6 times and they had pretty cruddy primer pockets and other deposits that my vibratory cleaner won't clean. So far the cases have been running 25 minutes and the primer pockets are almost clean, external deposits are gone and the insides are almost shiny. Think I'll run it a little longer, cases should look like new pretty soon.
Any tips? Thinking about running my little pocket 380 thru it to check out the other solution after the brass solution gets dirty.

[trochilids]

I have a fairly new Hornady sonic cleaner (not sure which model) and have used it a number of times on various pistol cases. I, too, use the Hornady solution in it, and it does OK. That might be the best I could call it. "Normal" volumes of brass shot after a day at the range would probably work in a sonic cleaner, but larger volumes take too much baby-sitting (limited cycle time allowed). You get shootable cases after a couple cycles, but if you want to run LARGE numbers and get them new-case shiny, then this probably isn't your best option. One thing that I noticed is that the interior of some brass comes out very clean, but others are still dirty. I'd pull the clean ones and run the still-dirty ones on another cycle or two -- and sometimes that didn't really help. They're probably fine for reloading, but still troubling if you are OCD... I'm keeping the sonic cleaner for cleaning other stuff (a valuable tool), but am transitioning to SS pins and a rotary tumbler for my brass. But that's just me...

[Zymurgy50]

When your jug of brass cleaning solution runs out you can use Lemishine and a drop or two of dish soap. Distilled water seems to give me the best results. Rinse the brass well after cleaning with hot tap water, and dry quickly to avoid water spots and/or tarnishing.

[engineer401]

I have a Hornady magnum sonic cleaner. It does a great job. I found it takes a few times to clean out the primer pockets of brass reloaded several times. Once-fired brass pockets come out very clean. You can use a Q-Tip to clean the primer pockets while they are still wet. It takes a lot of time and Q-Tips but is helpful. I gave up doing that as I lost interest. The primer pockets are still cleaner than when I used a vibratory tumbler. I am very happy with the sonic cleaner.

[TXGunNut]

I had to load the cases soon after cleaning so after rinsing I tossed them in the oven @ 250 for 30 minutes, after cooling they were ready to load. I guess I was expecting like-new appearance but they are quite a bit better than tumbling in walnut shells. Outside may be shinier with the dry cleaner but I like the clean insides, the case neck sizer felt different and I think that may contribute to a more consistent load.