I have been using a US cleaner by rcbs and Lyman solution . I am curious as to how my results compare with others. After running a few 30 min cycles the brass come out clean but with the wet residue of the black carbon and soot I wipe it off the exterior of the case with a towel, easy enough. However the inside and primer pockets need qtips to get the grit out. Is this typical? Should I try a different solution?
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Effectiveness of Ultrasonic Brass Cleaners
- Thread starter DenverDave
- Start date
I really don't think it is your solution, but clean solution of any kind will clean better. A few of us here have messed with sonic cleaners, not talking ones sold by gun companies, bigger powerful units. It's the wattage of sonic power the unit has that dictates how clean your brass will be, we are cleaning brass in under 15 min with pockets every bit as clean as ss tumbling w/o dicking around with pins. Brass not as shiny but no ill effects.
I've been using the RCBS sonic cleaner with the Hornady solution and it get them super clean, primer pockets nice and clean also. One trick though that made a world of difference, I heat up the solution HOT on the stove, not boiling but almost.
In my Hornady Magnum cleaner with the Hornady solution, I clean 50 .308 cases at a time. Primer pockets are clean after about an hour. Clean neck IDs take a little longer at about 1.5 hours. I stand my brass up vertical in an old plastic .45 ammo carrier.
One thing I forgot, heat is a must, my unit heats to 80 Celsius, so 170 deg, I put brass in at 78 on the digital readout.
Thanks for the replies.
I will give heating up the solution first a try. I use the heater in the unit, turned up to max (40c I think).
Could I be overfilling it? Not sure how many pieces but I am putting as much brass as fit being fully submerged.
Any one run a q-Tip through the inside of the case? Mine come out black...
As stated above commercial grade units work the best, having higher wattage transducers & more of them using heat is what cleans fastest. Of course very few of us have access or can afford a commercial unit.
Here is some data on the non-commercial units i have.
I've used the magnum sonic cleaner with a 60/40 mix of simple green & distilled water with heat to clean brass. If you put too much brass in the basket, it won't clean as well versus using less brass. Rifle brass had to be standing up to get them cleaned well. This unit cleans brakes pretty good & isn't large enough to clean revolvers.
I recently bought the Hornady 9L ultrasonic cleaner. This unit is much better than the magnum unit probably due to the 4 transducers in it versus the 2 in the magnum unit. I completely filled the basket with Dirty 45 brass & it was perfectly clean in 20 minutes; yes i know i said a full basket isn't a good idea but this was only a test for this 9L unit & it worked suprisingly very well. This unit cleans brakes much better than the magnum unit.
I normally don't use the US cleaners to clean brass just baffles, brakes & stainless revolvers.
Here is some data on the non-commercial units i have.
I've used the magnum sonic cleaner with a 60/40 mix of simple green & distilled water with heat to clean brass. If you put too much brass in the basket, it won't clean as well versus using less brass. Rifle brass had to be standing up to get them cleaned well. This unit cleans brakes pretty good & isn't large enough to clean revolvers.
I recently bought the Hornady 9L ultrasonic cleaner. This unit is much better than the magnum unit probably due to the 4 transducers in it versus the 2 in the magnum unit. I completely filled the basket with Dirty 45 brass & it was perfectly clean in 20 minutes; yes i know i said a full basket isn't a good idea but this was only a test for this 9L unit & it worked suprisingly very well. This unit cleans brakes much better than the magnum unit.
I normally don't use the US cleaners to clean brass just baffles, brakes & stainless revolvers.
+1 on this....low boil water into the sonic cleaner and some dawn/small amount of hornady cleaner. I deprime then toss em in. After I fully orocess I clean in a SS tumbler. Helps having a wife and kids to pitch in on the cleaning part.
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Thanks for the input fellas. Slightly off topic, I have a Surefire socom can ( baffels don't disassembled) can I thrown it into my US cleaner?
When using an US cleaner, items need to be suspended in the solution to avoid finish issues. EX: I put a badger brake in my old magnum US cleaner. It was in the stainless basket & the parkerized finish was worn off after cleaning it becuase the brake vibrated against the basket, i had to get it reparkerized. After this original issue i suspended the brakes in the solution using a rubber coated wire going from end to end making sure it didn't touch the sides or bottom of the unit, no more issues with the brakes. Never put an item directly on the tank floor or sides, it will wear pin holes in the unit. With supressors that have a cerakote coating you can discolor the cerakote, heat may be your enemy here. I tried no more than 100 degrees on a supresor tube, it was suspended in the solution with a rubber coated wire & the color of the finsh slightly changed. After rinsing it in water & drying it, i used some gun oil to restore the finish which worked well but.. i don't know if this will work for all cans or solutions used in the cleaners. Either way make sure you suspend the can & call the mfg to see what their recommendation for cleaning is prior to using the US cleaner. There are several good threads on here about cleaning cans with various methods. I specifically bought my new 9L hornady unit for removable stainless baffles (cleaning them in the basket supplied), Large stainless revolvers (suspending them in the solution with the provided bungee cords), brakes (suspending them with the provided bungee cords), & will try it on some of my sealed rifle supressors when they get out of jail.
This unit is far from unaffordable, and cleans way better than most gun mfg made units.
https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Commer...494934820&sr=1-23&keywords=ultrasonic+cleaner
Good advice on not letting metal touch the basket, I have one can that has the basket imprint on it.
Milo, thanks for the link to the unit on amazon! Not sure of their warranty but it looks like a decent unit. I certainly like the price & brass drain valve on it. Wish i would have known about this unit before today. Oh well live & learn; glad this old fart learned something new today.
$150 for that unit is not bad if it works as well as it should. My RCBS was just slightly cheaper, maybe $135...however it came with a plastic basket which is guess is more useful than I originally thought BUT I can only imagine what it does to your power bill... when I first used my RCBS i clean a lot of brass Month I noticed a large spike on my bill
So far I tried :
-pre heating the water + solution
- using less brass
- using more solution
Really minor improvements is any on the primer pockets. Insides of cases still filthy.
Gonna try a different solution, almost out of my layman anyways. Should I go with Hornady?
Have not tried the addition of dish soap yet but will also give that a try.
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Another tip. And this is where having a family fire team to help is awesome. Shaking the brass around every 10min seems to work well. It is a pain but it does help.
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I have used my US cleaner to mainly get lube off of cases, it's the bigger Harbor Freight model (same as the Lyman, just different branding). Anyhow, I have done several different solutions. First, I started with the multiple step process as stated on 6mmbr.com, which is fucking stupid, by the way. Then, I did water, dish soap, and US solution. Then I did dish soap, water and lemi shine. Now, I just do water and dish soap. I use only cold water as I noticed the hot water discolors my brass significantly. Furthermore, the lemi shine also discolored the brass (just a tiny pinch of the shit) around the necks and rims of the cases. I have zero ideas why this occurs, but it does.
Now, I use an SS tumbler with water and Dawn. I only do the US when I want to get lube off of my cases. Wet tumbling only sucks because of the drying factor, but outside of that, it make the brass brighter than when it came out of the bag/box.
Now, I use an SS tumbler with water and Dawn. I only do the US when I want to get lube off of my cases. Wet tumbling only sucks because of the drying factor, but outside of that, it make the brass brighter than when it came out of the bag/box.
I start with soap and DI water, then a quick rinse in DI water, then a quick rinse with isopropanol to help speed the drying. I'll re-use the isopropanol a few times. I use a crystallizing dish to put the soapy water and brass in and set that in the sonicator and add water deep enough to give lots of energy to the brass in the dish. Sounds complicated but it really isn't. That makes it easy to dump the gunk that comes off in the soapy water.
Well at the risk of sounding like a complete dumb ass I am going to spill the beans on what has become of my US cleaner. While trying out different combos of solution/soap etc I accidentally heated up the unit dry and when I poured the water/solution I had been preheating into the unit it made a popping sound and from then on forward the heating element ceased to function.
I got an RMA from RCBS, boxed up the unit for return, and placed it on my kitchen counter.... The next day, while heating up some water somehow the oven fan blew a piece of newspaper catching fire on the stove and then the nearby box containing the US cleaner. Something tells me that RCBS won't accept the return in its current condition.
So I guess I am now in the market for a new US cleaner. The solid metal design of the model below looks fire retardant which is a plus... aside from this model any others I should look at?
Thanks .
Just in case anyone wanted to know what a charred RCBS cleaner looks like. If anyone thinks they can salvage some parts out of it feel free to contact me.
I got an RMA from RCBS, boxed up the unit for return, and placed it on my kitchen counter.... The next day, while heating up some water somehow the oven fan blew a piece of newspaper catching fire on the stove and then the nearby box containing the US cleaner. Something tells me that RCBS won't accept the return in its current condition.
So I guess I am now in the market for a new US cleaner. The solid metal design of the model below looks fire retardant which is a plus... aside from this model any others I should look at?
Thanks .
Just in case anyone wanted to know what a charred RCBS cleaner looks like. If anyone thinks they can salvage some parts out of it feel free to contact me.
LMAO, they are good about things, call and ask, a hardluck story may be what they need this am and take care of you.
That being said, a friend gave me that same unit, it is why I searched for better. The diff in cleaning times on a suppressor is 85% faster in a decent unit.
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