cleaning 22lr cases?

[bigjoe]

Hello, just wondering what anyone is doing or using to clean the 22lr cases before sizing them?..I have been putting some in a plastic coffee can with hot water and dish soap and shake them up, and rinse them off...kinda slow though. I'am using a corbin set up I have had for about 20 years...bigJoe

[Hickory]

I clean my 22 cases this way.
First, I sort them by manufacture. After accumulating a batch (1000 or more).
I put them in an old pot and boil them on the stove for about 1/2 hr. This loosens up the residue inside the case. Next, I put them in the sink with dish soap & hot water and swish them around until I get tired of this step of the operation, about 10 minutes. Rince several times to rid 22 cases of soap. shake off excess water. Then they are placed in the oven on a cookie sheet at 300 degrees to dry, about one hour.

For me this does the trick for getting out the crud, and helps reduce the wear on the draw pin when removing the rim from the 22 case. ;-)

[Bert2368]

Has anyone tried an ultrasonic cleaner for this? I have been using one on my .22 hornet brass, you could eat off the brass after using it. Probably overkill, I know...

[deltaenterprizes]

I put mine in a pillow case and take them to the laundramat and wash them in the washing machine, then I bring them home and put them in the dryer. Make sure the pillow case it tied closed real good!

[lcclower]

Bert... Tell me about the ultrasonic cleaner, make and source?

[pjh421]

Bert,
If it protects your tooling from wear its not overkill. If I was swaging .22s that's what I'd use. Great idea! It probably wouldn't hurt to clean the dies like that once in a while too.

Paul

[Bert2368]

Decap with a Lee universal die.

The ultrasonic is a 2.5 litre heated model, just like the one Harbor Freight sells. I fill the tank with warm water about 3/4 to top, place in it a disposable plastic beer cup with about 40 hornet cases and enough cleaning solution to cover the brass. I run one long (480 second) cycle with universal products low foam cleaner, one cycle with 1/2 white vinegar/water, a short (180 second) cycle with a little baking soda and finish with a short plain water cycle. Finish with a blow off with compressed air. Dry in low oven if I'm in a hurry, or just let them sit if not. If the water is hard, I would use distilled water for the final rinse-

The cleaning solutions are good for several uses, I pitch it when I can't see the brass anymore. The brass comes out as clean inside and in the primer pockets as anywhere else, no picking media out of flash holes, no primer pocket brushing, no neck brushing, my dies and neck expander stay clean. Universal will send you a free sample of the low foam cleaner, I use it at 1 - 2% so it goes a long way.

[MIBULLETS]

Bert,

How do you get the free sample from Universal? Do they have a website?

Thanks,
Dan

[Bert2368]

http://www.ipcol.com/

Click on samples at top of page.

Micro 90 is great for cleaning Iron or brass moulds. LF2100 is what I use for the ultrasonic cleaner.
Both these products are NOT recomended for Aluminum, they have an Aluminum safe cleaner I have not tried yet.

[MIBULLETS]

Thanks Bert, I requested some.

[sagacious]

I boil the cases in plain for about 20 minutes, and then rinse.

Then I anneal the cases. This bakes-off some of the grime inside the cases, and loosens and helps break-down the abrasive primer residue still trapped in the case rims.

After that I soak the cases for 5 minutes in a large glass bowl filled with a solution of boiling-hot Birchwood-Casey Brass Cleaner concentrate. It's a re-usable "pickling" solution that removes the grime and powder/primer residue inside the case, as well as chemically reversing the tarnish and any corrosion-stains on the outside of the case. A bottle of this stuff lasts a long time. This leaves all the fired 22lr cases with a clean, bright but uniform matte finish inside and out.

Makes 'em look like new brass, and not old, fired 22lr cases. After drying, the fired cases are ready for de-rimming and drawing.

Hope this helps, good luck! :drinks:

[Bullshop Junior]

I use a rock tumbler full of hot soapy water, and annealing them with the wood stove. I can do about 500 in a drum and my tumbler has two drums

[bigjoe]

Great! thanks guys this gives me a starting point...bigjoe

[Jim_Fleming]

This thread is yet another reason why I'm so daggoned glad I found this Board!

(just chipping in my subscription to this thread, just ignore me, lol!)

[plumber]

Thanks Bert, you cost me another trip to Harbor Freight!!
I'll let you guys know how it works out.

[303Guy]

Jim, not only is this an informative site but the folks here are cordial too! It is indeed a great site!:drinks:

[plumber]

I tried the ultrasonic cleaner and the inside is as clean and shiney as the outside!!!

[swage86]

Does the ultrasonic cleaner get the primer residue out of the rim before the cases are straightened out?

I used a ultrasonic jewerly cleaner on my watch band of 15 years and in only a few minutes, it looked like new with all the crevices cleaned out. It was amazing!!

[MIBULLETS]

swage86, it does get the residue out before cases are drawn into jackets. I am loving it. It will save my drawing punch from wearing out so soon!

Federal cases don't seem to work as good for me. The priming mixture must be quite different.

[swage86]

swage86, it does get the residue out before cases are drawn into jackets. I am loving it. It will save my drawing punch from wearing out so soon!

Federal cases don't seem to work as good for me. The priming mixture must be quite different.
I checked out Harbour Freight and that unit is only $59. Just unbelievable!! Awhile back I was looking at ultrasonic cleaners at the industrial supply and they were at least a couple of hundred. I think this may work better to clean BPCR cases than the Thumlers Tumbler & ceramic media or at least it's alot cheaper. It's probably alot quieter. It sure pays to check Harbour Freight out first.

Back when I was doing rimfire jackets, I wore out alot of punches, actually they didn't seem to last very long at all. I wish I knew about Casenit as I would have tried to case harden the punches. I would have loved something that would get out the rim residue. People getting into it now are fortunate they have so much available to them including equipment and info on boards like this. I had only 2 sources. Corbin's book and Corbin himself.

[plumber]

Most of the cases I cleaned are as clean inside as out.

[swage86]

Just noticed Hornady has a real nice sonic cleaner. It retails for $139 and $97.5 at Midsouth.
http://www.hornady.com/store/Lock-N-Load-ultra-Sonic-Cleaner/

[Jim_Fleming]

Guys, one thing I found out the HARD way, is that you DON'T want to tumble the empty annealed cases, and then as you're actually tumbling them in nice dry media, you DON'T want to add too much 'recharging' chemicals to the media...

Bloody Hell I played getting that damp media out of 1,925 empty, annealed, nice and shiny.22 RF cases... I finally buckled down and used a .218 drill bit and my variable speed hand drill and literally drilled that media out of about 85% of those clogged up cases...

How do I know I had 1925 cases...? I don't, but I did the math on 2.75 lbs of empty cases that weigh about 9.75 grains...

UGH!!!!! :violin: [smilie=b: [smilie=b: [smilie=b: [smilie=b: [smilie=b:

One other thing that concerns me, (edited in) is that I'm sure that several if not most of those cases have a few grains of tumbling media inside of them, which means I probably should re-wash them so as to be sure that I've gotten most of that accursed media out.

[shooterg]

Jim, I feel your pain ! I did the same, albeit on a much smaller batch. Not being a patient sort, I tossed 'em in the recycle bucket.

[Dannix]

Anyone tried stainless media on 22LR cases?

I got the media in, but I'm still waiting on BuffaloArms to ship out the Thumber B HS I ordered last week. :?

[Jim_Fleming]

I would think that Stainless media, being so much harder than brass would be destructive to the brass. I mean no insult or injury, but I've been metal working since 1972, and have a pretty good idea that media would be VERY aggressive to say the least...

[Dannix]

Hum, well I'm doing it based on the recommendation of a older-timer who spent a lot of time in the ammo manf. business. The SS media is very light, and in an aqueous medium as well -- perhaps this is the kicker. I had thought the SS media, wet media route was common knowledge here.

[ANeat]

They have several kinds of stainless media, some is very agressive, some more of a burnish/polish type.

I wouldnt mind trying it on finished bullets

[sagacious]

The main rub with fired 22lr cases to be used for jackets, is that the inside needs to be cleaned. A fair amount of primer residue remains inside the case, and especially within the rim. That residue is abrasive, and the process of drawing/swaging those cases into jackets is made considerably smoother by removal of that residue.

Stainless media, or any other kind of media, will not remove the priming residue within the rim. Boiling, chemical treatment, or ultrasonic cleaning is the way to remove it.

If one wishes to polish the finished bullets, stainless media works very well for that. Walnut or corncob media can sometimes clog up hollowpoint cavities, whereas the larger stainless media won't.

Good luck! :drinks:

[ANeat]

The main rub with fired 22lr cases to be used for jackets, is that the inside needs to be cleaned. A fair amount of primer residue remains inside the case, and especially within the rim. That residue is abrasive, and the process of drawing/swaging those cases into jackets is made considerably smoother by removal of that residue.

Stainless media, or any other kind of media, will not remove the priming residue within the rim. Boiling, chemical treatment, or ultrasonic cleaning is the way to remove it.



Ultrasonic is what I use for the insides, I was amazed at the stuff that comes out of "clean" 22rf cases.

Here are a couple I opened up, one ultrasonic cleaned and one not

http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=153&pictureid=1706

[dragonrider]

Having just gotten into 22LR case swagging I used the ultra sonic cleaner because I saw it mentioned here and happened to have one from HF. I didn't expect great results but was very surprised at how clean the cases were after cleaning. I used Simple Green cleaning solution mixed with water. I put the cases in a cut off piece of old pantyhose, tied it closed, into the machine, 30 minutes later I rinsed them and placed them on the coal stove to dry. Seemed to work well.

[plumber]

Pantyhose... Great idea, the worst part of the cleaning foe me was scouping them out.

[Jim_Fleming]

I can't say you're incorrect, but I can ask forgiveness, since I missed it, for missing the information about using stainless media in an aqueous solution.

Forgive me...? Please... LOL! :groner: :groner: :groner:

Simply put, I had no idea that the tumbling technology had evolved so far. I'm still in the Middle Ages and using my Lyman 1200 with treated and ground up walnut hulls. I know that I sound like a wise acre, aka smart alec, and I _really_ don't mean to be sounding impudent.

Stainless Steel tumbling media...? Wow that stuff should last forever working against brass!

Now is when Jim gets busy and reads up on everything that he's just missed!

Thanks, *seriously*, for the correction and information.




Hum, well I'm doing it based on the recommendation of a older-timer who spent a lot of time in the ammo manf. business. The SS media is very light, and in an aqueous medium as well -- perhaps this is the kicker. I had thought the SS media, wet media route was common knowledge here.

[Jim_Fleming]

Did you try stretching the nylons over a bucket, then pouring the washing solution and brass right down into the waistband of the nylons? Then just lift the whole kit and kaboodle right out of the washing solution?

However, I have to agree that getting those pesky fired cases out of those stretchy nylons would have to be a severe nuisance. Would turning the garment inside out have helped at all?


Pantyhose... Great idea, the worst part of the cleaning foe me was scouping them out.

[vinceb]

lime-away

[dragonrider]

Well I am still in testing phase so I was only cleaning maybe 50 cases. I cut the panty hose off at the ankle so getting them out was not a problem. Could also use a chip clip to keep it closed.

[Jim_Fleming]

Good move, Paul.

[Dannix]

^No worries Jim. A google of Thumbler Model B High Speed or some such should to the trick if you are interested in it. Make my centerfire look like new.

[shooterg]

Harbor Freight has the small ultrasonic on sale for $25 . Got one today to try - only runs in 3 minute cycles - ran a couple hundred RF cases through 3 cycles (9 minutes) and they're nowhere near as clean as the example shown above. I guess either my unit doesn't work , need more cycles, or you really do need the bigger unit. How long total do y'all run the cases on average ?

[ANeat]

On mine it was 20 minutes with vinegar/water/and a drop of dishsoap. Then 20 minutes with water and a little baking soda (a tablespoon perhaps)

Also you dont just let the cases lay in the bottom (dont know if you did that or not) Whatever you clean needs to be suspended in the tank.

[shooterg]

I'll run a few more cycles - the little one does have a basket that holds the cases up a bit - I'll make a rig to hold 'em centered . And if it don't work, I'll go back and get the big one !

[ANeat]

Just off the bottom is the main thing, direct contact with the bottom will load down the transducers and cause them to die an early death.....