Tried ultrasonic cleaning....need info

Brewster20

Brewster20

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I have an old ultrasonic jewelry cleaner I got from Radio Shack on clearance for $15. years ago. Never had much luck with it with commercial jewelry cleaning solutions (Walmart)
Yesterday I came across a recipe on the net for a homemade cleaning solution, 1 cup H2O, 1/2 cup vinegar, 1 Tbsp of soap and 1 Tsp of salt. Just for laughs I mixed up a batch and pulled out the old Radio Shack unit. Threw in about 65 .32's that were really dirty. 20 minutes later I couldn't believe the result...not only bright & shiny cases, but bright & shiny insides also !
Now I am thinking of getting into ultrasonic cleaning for the larger batches of .32's .38's and .45's. The Radio Shack (The Source in Canada) unit is way too small. I have been looking at Lyman, Hornady etc. but cannot find any definitive tests or reviews to determine which is the best bang for the buck. What brands are you using and are you satisfied ?
Thanks
 
I'd think if you wanted to stay with Ultrasonic for larger case numbers it would have to have a heater included.. for the added expense I would switch to SS pins and tumblers etc
 
Brewster20 said:
I have an old ultrasonic jewelry cleaner I got from Radio Shack on clearance for $15. years ago. Never had much luck with it with commercial jewelry cleaning solutions (Walmart)
Yesterday I came across a recipe on the net for a homemade cleaning solution, 1 cup H2O, 1/2 cup vinegar, 1 Tbsp of soap and 1 Tsp of salt. Just for laughs I mixed up a batch and pulled out the old Radio Shack unit. Threw in about 65 .32's that were really dirty. 20 minutes later I couldn't believe the result...not only bright & shiny cases, but bright & shiny insides also !
Now I am thinking of getting into ultrasonic cleaning for the larger batches of .32's .38's and .45's. The Radio Shack (The Source in Canada) unit is way too small. I have been looking at Lyman, Hornady etc. but cannot find any definitive tests or reviews to determine which is the best bang for the buck. What brands are you using and are you satisfied ?
Thanks
Click to expand...

I use a GT Sonic that I found on Amazon.ca. 6.5L capacity with mechanical (knobs) controls. Cost around $240. Has worked great for thousands of pieces of brass but it took me a while to figure out the ideal number per wash load. Temperature of around 50C seems to be good enough. Higher doesn't seem make any difference.
After a certain point adding too many pieces really slows down the cleaning process even though they physically fit in the basket. More smaller batches has been working out better.
 
Don't make my mistake of buying an ultrasonic, then moving to stainless steel. Just go straight to stainless steel tumbling.
I still have the mid-sized Hornady ultrasonic to clean a few gun parts, but mainly sits around unused.
 
They look like good machines. Did you order direct, and if so what was the shipping cost ? (I think we are basically in the same area !)
 
Brewster20 said:
They look like good machines. Did you order direct, and if so what was the shipping cost ? (I think we are basically in the same area !)
Click to expand...

I ordered direct asked for a discount and got a few buck off of course that was before the Canadian dollar went into the dumper, but love the unit, shipping was a little pricey but just could not find one in Canada.
 
I've been so happy with straight ultrasonic cleaning that I just don't see the need to switch to pin tumbling. I don't doubt that it's a better method for serious fouling but to me I've gotten such good results from straight US cleaning and avoid the need for separating the pins from the cases that I'm not going to bother.

I may be about to change my tune though. I shoot a bit of black powder cartridge now and the US leaves the brass badly stained and "browned" on the outside. I may have to look at an wet SS pin tumbler setup that I'll likely use for this to get the brass cleaner and avoid any stickiness for chambering if I run into the staining being more than just an appearance issue.

So where are you folks buying your SS pin media?
 
BCRider said:
I've been so happy with straight ultrasonic cleaning that I just don't see the need to switch to pin tumbling. I don't doubt that it's a better method for serious fouling but to me I've gotten such good results from straight US cleaning and avoid the need for separating the pins from the cases that I'm not going to bother.

I may be about to change my tune though. I shoot a bit of black powder cartridge now and the US leaves the brass badly stained and "browned" on the outside. I may have to look at an wet SS pin tumbler setup that I'll likely use for this to get the brass cleaner and avoid any stickiness for chambering if I run into the staining being more than just an appearance issue.

So where are you folks buying your SS pin media?
Click to expand...

From amazon.com 35$ usd shipped to usa, pop across pick up.
I bought the guntap ones I think. The frankford ones do not fit inside the cases, the guntaps fit inside so you have to check each case (turn upside down before removing from tub).
 
I dump the water/brass/pins into a large funnel that has a screen filter in the bottom, then dump brass/pins into a media separator and gently spin. Pick out the brass, dump pins back into the tumbler, ready to go again!!

I like the small pins that don't get stuck in flash holes or necks. And don't forget to load up new pins and tumble for a day to deburr them before using with brass, they won't mark your brass that way.
 
I've been ordering Ultra .047 Pellet Pins from bullseye-reloading.com. I've been doing lots of pistlol / rifle cases and haven't seen anything stuck in the primer hole.

To the OP, how large of a batch do you want to do at a time? I built my own based on something like the ones available on this site - http://www.biggdawgtumblers.net/tumbling-instructions.html. I have a 6" drum about 21" long and my last load was a bit over 2000 9mm cases with 25 lbs of media.
 
US works perfectly and can multi task whereas SS cannot. I US my rifle cases, build my ammo and then corn cob the finished rounds, they look great. Pistol ain't worth this effort and they get corn cob only because pistol ammo gets eaten up and it doesn't need to be dolled up to do the job.

My US cleans rifle cases, guns, motorcycle parts, household stuff, and my pet turtle. Will your SS do all of this? Nope.

When my turtle learns to wipe his bum he will not have to go through the US but the little reptile seems to like it at 110 degrees F, true he treads water for the cleaning cycle or seems to suffer memory loss when he goes Navy Seal and submerges...

He likes tap water and Johnson's baby shampoo.
 
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