Case Cleaning

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Rimfire McNutjob
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Case Cleaning

Post by Rimfire McNutjob »

So I have and kind of hate the traditional vibratory case cleaner. They take forever and really don't seem to get the job done to the level I'd prefer.

So the alternatives that seem to be mainstream are the ultrasonics and the tumblers. I'm leaning toward getting an ultrasonic for the simple reason that it would help me clean circuits boards as well.

But before I buy something, I want know if the tumblers with the pin media (or whatever is in vogue) are quicker, easier to use, and do just as good a job as an ultrasonic. Thoughts?
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by GunnyMack »

I've been debating this as well.

Nice thing about the ultrasonic is they can also be used for gun cleaning.

Be interesting to see what others say.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Ray »

I know I have an old fashioned corn cob shaker somewhere but it hasn't been used in a quarter century. For my low-volume reloading rate, a few twists with a dollar store stainless steel pot scourer shines the outside and a brief scrapping with a small screwdriver cleans the primer pocket. Black powder fouled brass gets a bath and drying first.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Bill in Oregon »

I have the Thumler's Tumbler and use the SS pins from Buffalo Arms, but also have some ceramic media that I have not yet tried.
Also have a cheap Harbor Freight ultrasonic that I bought for cleaning the parts of one of those gnarly Gahendras from Nepal, but it has not proven to be very useful. I have not tested it for case-cleaning, however. Might do that today just for the heck of it.
Gave up on the vibratory cleaners years ago.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by JimT »

I have an old RCBS vibrating cleaner that I bought in the 1990's. I have used it since then and continue to use it, with corn cob or ground walnut hulls or plain white rice. I throw the brass into it when I come in from the range and let it run until the next day. Cases are clean and shiny by then. If using the ground media I add some sort of liquid stuff that comes with the media ... I add it about once every 4 or 5 months if I am doing a lot of shooting. I have rebuilt this cleaner about 4 times in the 30 years that I have used it. The last time I bought a cheap on sale cleaner and pulled the motor out and put it in the RCBS cleaner. It'll work till I quit. :D

Try things until you find something you like. From the 1960's until the 90's when I bought this cleaner all I did was toss the brass into a small can with gasoline in it, shake it around and pour out the brass on shop rag and let 'em lay in the sun until the gas evaporated. They were blackened and burnt looking in places but they shot just fine. I never worried about what they looked like .. I did not clean the primer pockets .. and I shot lots of game and some pretty durn small groups on targets with 'em. All I wanted was any grease or grime or dirt off them.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Rockrat »

I use the vibratory cleaner sometimes and the tumbler at times. I quit using the pins. Pain to seperate, sometimes quite literaly. Rotary tumbler with the lemi-shine, Dawn and car wash/wax mix, works real well just by itself.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Rimfire McNutjob »

JimT wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 8:00 am I have an old RCBS vibrating cleaner that I bought in the 1990's. I have used it since then and continue to use it, with corn cob or ground walnut hulls or plain white rice.
I have the same from the 1990's. I suspect mine has seen far less mileage than yours ... just a guess. :)

I think I'm going to try the ultrasonic route due to 1) speed and 2) applicability to PCB cleaning after assembly. Normally I will hand clean a Printed Circuit Board after assembly with flux removers and a soft toothbrush but that get's tedious. I didn't realize how fast the heated ultrasonic units were at cleaning.
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Re: Case Cleaning

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I have both a Lyman & Dillon big vibratory cleaner and recently bought a tumbler from Midway (Frankfort Arsenal) tumbler; along with a sonic cleaner I bought from Harbor Freight several years ago. The sonic cleaner got used for my black powder silhouette brass, 2-5/8" long... tried using with my 45 Colt BP brass, but it wasn't big enough... I decapped at the range and put the empties in a jug with water & dish soap (whatever brand the wife bought). I use walnut media in the Dillon and whatever Lyman media is, (looks & feels the same as the walnut, I buy in bulk, but a different color), in the Lyman. The Dillon is great, as it hold a couple hundred 45 Colt cases easily. With a couple dollops of car wax, cases come out clean & shiny, but only on the outside. (After running over nite, if BP, and 4-5 hours if smokeless). I use the slightly smaller Lyman for my 45 Auto and Cowboy45Special brass and use a dollop of car wax in there also. It's not quite as shiny as the walnut media... but... clean is clean. After I got the Frankfort Arsenal tumbler with the pins, I was astonished at the difference. I like clean primer pockets for rifle brass and if you decap first, the pins clean them out like nobody's business! Brass appears new! Shiny, inside & out... which when loading small charges in large cases makes it very easy to see the level your powder is loaded to. I have one of the Midway (Frankfort Arsenal?) media separators and use it for both separating dry & wet media. Works a treat in either case. The wet tumbling is a little faster in the tumbling phase, but... if your brass is really dirty, you may need to rinse a couple of times to get the dirty water out of everything. That and separating the pins is a little more time consuming than dry media. Some of my cowboy pards use a large magnet to separate media... yes, the ss pin are slightly magnetic. For my BP stuff, it becomes a push as to which is faster, with smokeless, just two hours running in the wet media (ss pins), and brass is bright, shiny inside & out, then an hour in the oven spread out over a paper towel on a cookie sheet @ 170ºF and it's dry! Another hour to cool off and it's ready to store or load!

AFAIK, the only difference between clean, bright shiny, or clean, dull or stained brass, is that the clean, bright shiny stuff is easier to find in the grass!
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Walt »

I have had an RCBS vibratory case cleaner for decades and although it's a smaller, earlier model it cleans well and it is quiet. I tumble brass most weekends and my media lasts about a year before it leaves deposits on my brass. I do add a couple of dollops of Lyman case cleaner before every cleaning session and the brass comes out looking like new. I store rounds in plastic boxes of 50 or 100 and clean only one box at a time so I don't need to worry about case length and crimping variations in straight walled cartridges. When my walnut shell media is new, cases are done in a couple of hours; it takes longer as the media ages and then I run the tumbler overnight. Last August I bought another RCBS tumbler of much larger size and I thought it worked great because the counterweight was heavier and therefor vibrated harder. However, after 4 or 5 months the heavy vibration either shook something loose or the motor burned up. I sent it back to RCBS which has a 2 year warranty period and a new unit is on the way. I like using more than one tumbler at a time so I can clean one box of dirty brass in each one. Yep, I'm old-fashioned and set in my ways so I'll keep using what has worked for me.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Bullard4075 »

Griff please expand a bit on the car wax, never heard that before. What kind, what's a dolip/ how much? Thanks.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Bill in Oregon »

I don't mind the noise of the rotary tumblers, but then I usually have rock tumblers going in the garage near my loading bench. To me, it is almost soothing compared the buzz of the old vibratory machines.
I wish case trimming was as simple as cleaning. I hate trimming.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

Rockrat wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 9:26 am I use the vibratory cleaner sometimes and the tumbler at times. I quit using the pins. Pain to seperate, sometimes quite literaly. Rotary tumbler with the lemi-shine, Dawn and car wash/wax mix, works real well just by itself.
Agreed. The pins are a pain. But I haven’t tried tumbling without them.

I use an old Dillon tumbler that has been doing the job for many years.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by marlinman93 »

I have no experience with ultrasonic cleaning of cases, but most of them I've seen appear to not have as much capacity to fit my needs anyway. I switched to a wet tumbler and ceramic media years ago, and absolutely love this combination. My ceramic is tubular shaped rods and they clean extremely well, and much faster than my dry vibratory tumbler ever did. The inside of cases, and primer pockets come out clean, and my ceramic never gets stuck in flash holes, or cases.
One of the best parts is how fast it cleans, but also how cheap it is to use. Just water and a little dishwashing soap in each run is all it takes. I dump the water, and then dump the cases into my separator that I used to use for separating dry media, and crank it until all the ceramic rods fall into the bucket. Then dump the brass on a old towel and let it dry for a day. Takes less time to dry if it's sunny outside, and I take the towel outside to dry in the sun.

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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by piller »

I had a vibratory cleaner from Harbor Freight. It didn't last as long as I had hoped. I plan on getting a wet cleaner soon.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Walt »

"What kind, what's a dolip/ how much? Thanks."

Of course, a dollop is an inaccurate measurement. The Lyman Turbo Brite Brass Polish I use is pretty thick stuff and it doesn't come out of the bottle a drop at a time. It comes out as a thick blob and I use the smallest amount I can coax out of the bottle at a time. I let the tumbler run for a minute or two before I put in the brass in order to distribute the polish. It does an excellent job.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Rimfire McNutjob »

marlinman93 wrote: Sat Apr 29, 2023 8:48 am I have no experience with ultrasonic cleaning of cases, but most of them I've seen appear to not have as much capacity to fit my needs anyway.
I'm giving the ultrasonic a try since I never need to clean more than 150 pistol cases or 40 or so rifle cases at a time. I'm pretty low volume.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by AJMD429 »

.
I run it in the barn overnight so my vibratory cleaner taking time and making noise isn’t an issue…
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Rimfire McNutjob »

AJMD429 wrote: Sat Apr 29, 2023 5:00 pm .
I run it in the barn overnight so my vibratory cleaner taking time and making noise isn’t an issue…
Ah ... mine is on the counter top in my office. Which, since the pandemic, I'm in 10 - 12 hours a day working from home.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by marlinman93 »

My wet tumbler has a timer built into it, so I set it for 1.5-2 hrs. and walk away. Cleans the cases well, and doesn't run overtime wasting electricity.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Ysabel Kid »

GunnyMack wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 4:45 am I've been debating this as well.

Nice thing about the ultrasonic is they can also be used for gun cleaning.

Be interesting to see what others say.
+1

But I haven't used an ultrasonic cleaner for brass cleaning.

I've used the same vibratory cleaner for 30 years. It is a MidwayUSA unit, old enough not to be marked Franklin Arsenal. Used to get upset about the level of clean and then realized that with the amount of brass I have, and the small volume I usually reload at a time, I'm not in a hurry. Like Jim, I throw them in and let them shake for a a day. They come out really shiny. :D
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Griff »

Bullard4075 wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 11:16 pmGriff please expand a bit on the car wax, never heard that before. What kind, what's a dolip/ how much? Thanks.
I said "wax" when I should said "polish". I use whatever I have on hand, usually Turtlewax. (Hence "wax"). A dollop is that exacting measurement similar to the German spec "gutentite"! More than a finger full but less than a palm full.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by COSteve »

I think the difference between the dry vibrating tumblers like Frankford Arsenal's, Berry's or even Harbor Freight's using walnut and the wet ones with or without pins and Lemon Shine is what your individual tastes go to as far as what you consider to be clean. There is clean so running them through your dies won't damage your dies and then there is new looking.

If you want your brass to look new, the wet ones, while more work are what you'll want. If you just want your brass to be clean, then any of the dry vibrating ones will work. I found walnut cleans much better than corn cob and a great, cheap source for it is PetsMart's Lizard Litter and a bit of Turtle wax liquid every few bowls full of tumbling.

For me, I just want them clean enough to got through my dies without crudding them up so I use 2 Harbor Freight tumblers I've had for over 10 yrs. with Lizard Litter and a bit of Turtle wax. I run my brass for up to 1 hr. depending on how dirty they are and they come out almost new looking on the outside. I don't care what they look like inside as long as there isn't any crud left. If they're really dirty or I find some range pickup, I run them for 2 hrs.

For my precision rifle loads I have a simple primer pocket cleaning tool but 99% of my rifle loads don't need that. Heck, my son has shot a 5/8" group at 100yds of .223 with my handloads that didn't have the primer pockets cleaned separately so I'm really not sure how much going through the trouble of cleaning them adds.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Walt »

I have found that when loading new, unfired brass on my Dillons, it is difficult to pull the brass off the neck expanding die. My solution is to put the deburred, chamfered brass into my vibratory tumbler for a few minutes and apparently the fine dust from the ground walnut shells provides enough lubrication that the brass slips off the die easily.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Rube Burrows »

Griff wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 3:02 pm I have both a Lyman & Dillon big vibratory cleaner and recently bought a tumbler from Midway (Frankfort Arsenal) tumbler; along with a sonic cleaner I bought from Harbor Freight several years ago. The sonic cleaner got used for my black powder silhouette brass, 2-5/8" long... tried using with my 45 Colt BP brass, but it wasn't big enough... I decapped at the range and put the empties in a jug with water & dish soap (whatever brand the wife bought). I use walnut media in the Dillon and whatever Lyman media is, (looks & feels the same as the walnut, I buy in bulk, but a different color), in the Lyman. The Dillon is great, as it hold a couple hundred 45 Colt cases easily. With a couple dollops of car wax, cases come out clean & shiny, but only on the outside. (After running over nite, if BP, and 4-5 hours if smokeless). I use the slightly smaller Lyman for my 45 Auto and Cowboy45Special brass and use a dollop of car wax in there also. It's not quite as shiny as the walnut media... but... clean is clean. After I got the Frankfort Arsenal tumbler with the pins, I was astonished at the difference. I like clean primer pockets for rifle brass and if you decap first, the pins clean them out like nobody's business! Brass appears new! Shiny, inside & out... which when loading small charges in large cases makes it very easy to see the level your powder is loaded to. I have one of the Midway (Frankfort Arsenal?) media separators and use it for both separating dry & wet media. Works a treat in either case. The wet tumbling is a little faster in the tumbling phase, but... if your brass is really dirty, you may need to rinse a couple of times to get the dirty water out of everything. That and separating the pins is a little more time consuming than dry media. Some of my cowboy pards use a large magnet to separate media... yes, the ss pin are slightly magnetic. For my BP stuff, it becomes a push as to which is faster, with smokeless, just two hours running in the wet media (ss pins), and brass is bright, shiny inside & out, then an hour in the oven spread out over a paper towel on a cookie sheet @ 170ºF and it's dry! Another hour to cool off and it's ready to store or load!

AFAIK, the only difference between clean, bright shiny, or clean, dull or stained brass, is that the clean, bright shiny stuff is easier to find in the grass!
I tried the wet tumbling once before and when I put my cases in the oven they tarnished on the side that was down and left the brass funky looking. Whats the trick to that? What did I do wrong.

I normally use a vibrating Lyman and corn cob media which I put a dab of bore cleaner in and it makes them pretty shiny.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Griff »

Rube Burrows wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 1:30 pmI tried the wet tumbling once before and when I put my cases in the oven they tarnished on the side that was down and left the brass funky looking. Whats the trick to that? What did I do wrong.
I normally use a vibrating Lyman and corn cob media which I put a dab of bore cleaner in and it makes them pretty shiny.
Only thing I can think of is you got them too hot. I just set the oven at 170º... or whatever temp it is that the oven light comes on sez it's "cookin'"... Always try to remember not to leave in there too long.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Rube Burrows »

Griff wrote: Wed May 03, 2023 1:33 pm
Rube Burrows wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 1:30 pmI tried the wet tumbling once before and when I put my cases in the oven they tarnished on the side that was down and left the brass funky looking. Whats the trick to that? What did I do wrong.
I normally use a vibrating Lyman and corn cob media which I put a dab of bore cleaner in and it makes them pretty shiny.
Only thing I can think of is you got them too hot. I just set the oven at 170º... or whatever temp it is that the oven light comes on sez it's "cookin'"... Always try to remember not to leave in there too long.

Thanks. Maybe I did have them to hot.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Griff »

Rube Burrows wrote: Wed May 03, 2023 3:25 pm
Griff wrote: Wed May 03, 2023 1:33 pm
Rube Burrows wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 1:30 pmI tried the wet tumbling once before and when I put my cases in the oven they tarnished on the side that was down and left the brass funky looking. Whats the trick to that? What did I do wrong.
I normally use a vibrating Lyman and corn cob media which I put a dab of bore cleaner in and it makes them pretty shiny.
Only thing I can think of is you got them too hot. I just set the oven at 170º... or whatever temp it is that the oven light comes on sez it's "cookin'"... Always try to remember not to leave in there too long.
Thanks. Maybe I did have them to hot.
The other thing that might be the cause, did you have them in direct contact with metal. I always lay a couple layers of paper towels down on the cookie sheet to absorb any moisture that might steam outta the cases as they dry.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Rube Burrows »

Griff wrote: Wed May 03, 2023 3:48 pm
Rube Burrows wrote: Wed May 03, 2023 3:25 pm
Griff wrote: Wed May 03, 2023 1:33 pm
Rube Burrows wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 1:30 pmI tried the wet tumbling once before and when I put my cases in the oven they tarnished on the side that was down and left the brass funky looking. Whats the trick to that? What did I do wrong.
I normally use a vibrating Lyman and corn cob media which I put a dab of bore cleaner in and it makes them pretty shiny.
Only thing I can think of is you got them too hot. I just set the oven at 170º... or whatever temp it is that the oven light comes on sez it's "cookin'"... Always try to remember not to leave in there too long.
Thanks. Maybe I did have them to hot.
The other thing that might be the cause, did you have them in direct contact with metal. I always lay a couple layers of paper towels down on the cookie sheet to absorb any moisture that might steam outta the cases as they dry.

I did have them on Alum. Foil.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Rimfire McNutjob »

I ended up with the 6 liter DK Sonic (DK-600E) from Amazon with the must have drain valve. It's got 300 watts of heating which still takes a while to get a gallon of distilled water up to 60 degrees Celsius. It uses 3 transducers for 180 watts of ultrasonic power mounted under the bottom of the tank.

I cleaned some fairly nasty .450 Alaskan brass in it ... maybe a dozen pieces. I used a gallon of distilled and a shot of the RCBS cleaner meant for ultrasonics and wet tumblers. It wasn't all that impressive until the water temp went past about 50 degrees Celsius. Then is cleaned the hell out of 'em. I ran it for 40 minutes ... just getting used to it. Quiet it is NOT.

I pulled 'em and rinsed in small bowl with distilled water. They are drying in the oven now.

Pretty happy with it so far. Time will tell.
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Re: Case Cleaning

Post by Scott Tschirhart »

I’ve tried tumblers and vibrating case cleaners. But my Dillon beats everything I have tried over the last 20 years or so.

But wet with ceramic media is a must for black powder.
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