Ultrasonic Cleaner - what's best to put in ?

[tridiumk]

Hi all,

What is best to use in my Ultrasonic cleaner. I've got demineralised water, just not sure what else to use. I have Brasso, but am told the Ammonia in it causes the Brass to stress or something. Some people are suggesting Cream of Tarter, or Baking Soda...

Any suggestions and the amount to use ?

Oh, also, how many minutes do you run yours for ?

 

[kyhuntclub]

Lemi shine. You can get it at kroger. You will find it with the automatic dish washing detergent.

 

[wtopace]

I use Birchwood Casey Case Cleaner. A little bit goes a long way and the bottle will last a very long time. Cleans brass inside and out very nicely.

 

[KelsonAK]

Have been using the Hornady product for a while. It works well in the ultrasonic. I find that whatever it is, it works best if it's hot.

 

[barryaclarke]

I see a lot of replies that are all good and I found the one thing that cuts the cleaning time in half is to have the solution "HOT". Just my two cents worth and hope you find it helpful............

 

[Jeffvn]

+2 Hot solution (my ultrasonic has a heater, but I put hot tap water in the tank first then run a cycle with the heating unit working before I put my glass beakers into the solution. It takes only a fw minutes for teh beaker solution to heat up to teh same as the tank. Cleaner works much faster regardless of the solution.

I use Citrinox, but the citric acid approach seems to work as well.

Jeffvn

 

[Bob 964]

My cleaning solution mixes 2 tablespoons of anhydrous (powdered) citric acid in 1 gallon of tap water, with a splash of dishwashing detergent (such as Dawn).

1. Fill the ultrasonic cleaner tank with tap water, to 1" below the maximum fill line.
2. Fill a 600ml Pyrex or Kimax laboratory beaker about half-way with cleaning solution.
3. Place the beaker in the tank and allow the cleaning solution to go through 3 or 4 8-minute cycles. This will remove the bubbles from the solution and enhance its cleaning ability.
4. Place 25-30 de-primed cases in the beaker and run for 3 8-minute cycles.
5. 1 8-minute bath using hot tap water.
6. 1 8-minute bath using distilled water.
7. Place cases (mouth up) in a loading block and permit to dry (air dry or hair blow dryer).

Works great for me.

 

[tridiumk]

Interesting. thanks for that !

I am finding my brass it getting a kinda coating on it. Not super squeeky clean like i'd like. I think i need to use the distilled water to stop the coating...

 

[tridiumk]

My cleaning solution mixes 2 tablespoons of anhydrous (powdered) citric acid in 1 gallon of tap water, with a splash of dishwashing detergent (such as Dawn).

1. Fill the ultrasonic cleaner tank with tap water, to 1" below the maximum fill line.
2. Fill a 600ml Pyrex or Kimax laboratory beaker about half-way with cleaning solution.
3. Place the beaker in the tank and allow the cleaning solution to go through 3 or 4 8-minute cycles. This will remove the bubbles from the solution and enhance its cleaning ability.
4. Place 25-30 de-primed cases in the beaker and run for 3 8-minute cycles.
5. 1 8-minute bath using hot tap water.
6. 1 8-minute bath using distilled water.
7. Place cases (mouth up) in a loading block and permit to dry (air dry or hair blow dryer).

Works great for me.

So i've got this right. You have water in the ultrasonic tub. You put the 600 ml beaker in the tub, and the beaker is sticking out the top of the ultrasonic bath, so that none of the tap water is getting into the beaker. The point being i assume to use the U/S machine to shake the bubbles out of the solution within the beaker... Question. Why not just fill the U/S Tank with the cleaning solution and run it for the 3-4 cycles to remove the bubbles before putting the brass in ?

 

[Emouse]

Take a look over on 6BR.COM,...long article on ultrasonic mix. I am using 50/50 water/white vinegar mix for 24mins then 8 mins with either a capful of the hornady cleaner or ordinary dish detergent (stops the acidic action of the vinegar). Finally a 7-8 minute cycle in clean water.

Result: Clean inside and out including primer pockets,..as clean as factory new brass.

 

[Bob 964]

tridiumk - yes, you've got it right. Filling the tank wastes cleaning solution and is messier than the way I do it. It's a matter of personal preference I guess.

 

[fireEMT5]

I've found that with my Hornady Magnum cleaner, about 1 tsp. of lemishine and a good squirt of Dawn + heating water to about 130 degress on 10 - 12 min cycles works really well. Run 2 cycles, rinse well under hot water, dump onto an old bath towel to dry and start another batch.

 

[tridiumk]

I used
1) 50:50 vinegar water + dish soap
2) tartar powder (to neutralise) + water
3) hot water
4) distilled water

Did the relevant times on each. Brass this morning after leaving overnight is going slightly green.... Does that mean the vinegar hasn't been fully removed or neutralised? They looked awesome when all the cycles finished!!


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[tridiumk]

Update - tried Baking Soda at stage 2... worked better, but still having my brass go from shiny yellow, to a darker coloring..

 

[jjones88]

Limi shine, vinegar, and tap water

 

[KelsonAK]

use lots of water to rinse. I take mine from the cleaner and put it in a Tupperware (or other container laying around that is clean) and set it in the sink under the tap. I run water to fill and dump several times - usually hot water, but no matter there. Lots of rinse usually leaves the brass pretty residue free. Water here isn't very hard or have much iron in it, but toweling dry (most of the surface wetness anyway) helps prevent water spots, and on .223 cases I find myself giving the primer pocket a quick blowout as I pull them from the rinse. Works just fine without, but what the hell. I have seen a fine blue coating come from salt - water softener perhaps?

 

[gewehr]

Alconox and heated water works pretty good at getting rid of carbon


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[Jeffvn]

I too use the beaker approach. It dramatically reduced the amount of cleaner that I was going through. when doing multiple batches, I have my 2nd and 3rd batch sitting in the clear waiting to go... yo can see it cleaning while sitting on the counter. When the tank water is hot, it quickly heats the beaker water to temp, where the cleaning process seems to be much more effective.

Jeffvn

 

[rw496]

ttt

 

[Doc68]

I use:
1 cup hot water(put in microwave for 45 seconds)
1 cup of vinegar
1 tablespoon of salt(regular table salt)
1 tablespoon of soap

Come out looking like new. 3 10 minute cycles. Then rinse in hot water. Stand them up neck down to drain all water out on a papertowel. Let dry. Works great.

 

[Melsy]

I have been using 50/50 distilled water/distilled vineger with a grain of baking soda per oz of solution with a drop of dawn. do that for 2 480 cycles.
Then i run a cycle of distilled water and baking soda to neutrealize
Then just plain distilled water.

I also use regular water in the tank and 2 beakers for the cases. HOT cycles also help.
This will mirror the inside of the case and primer pocket. The outside's are clean but not shiney but i dont care about that anyway.

 

[gigamortis]

Just tried Lemishine in my Hornady Magnum Ultrasonic Cleaner. It takes 3 quarts of water to fill it, so I figured 1 tablespoon of Lemishine per quart of water for 3 tablespoons total. Added 1 teaspoon of Tide HE washer detergent and let it rip. 50 cases were clean in half the time it took me when using the Hornady One Shot Cleaner.

After getting the brass out of the cleaner, I always rinse with the sprayer in the kitchen sink to start with. Then I fill the sink with about 2" of water and dunk all the brass for a final dilution/rinse. I then shake dry as possible and anneal the necks to finish the drying process. No more expensive cleaners for me.

 

[Ring]

i can tell you 1 thing to NOT put in it... simple green... it will make your brass look like it was buried in the dirt for 10 years...

 

[damoncali]

I tried plain hot tap water ~140 degrees. It didn't work very well. Got some of the crud off, even a few primer pockets, but not nearly enough.

Then I tried a quarter teaspoon of lemi shine per quart of hot (tap) water. Cleaned it right up. As soon as it's done I rinse thoroughly and blow it dry with a compressor. Works great.

 

[damoncali]

Just tried Lemishine in my Hornady Magnum Ultrasonic Cleaner. It takes 3 quarts of water to fill it, so I figured 1 tablespoon of Lemishine per quart of water for 3 tablespoons total. Added 1 teaspoon of Tide HE washer detergent and let it rip. 50 cases were clean in half the time it took me when using the Hornady One Shot Cleaner.

After getting the brass out of the cleaner, I always rinse with the sprayer in the kitchen sink to start with. Then I fill the sink with about 2" of water and dunk all the brass for a final dilution/rinse. I then shake dry as possible and anneal the necks to finish the drying process. No more expensive cleaners for me.

I bet you can cut way back on the lemishine and it will work almost as well. I only use 3/4 of a teaspoon total in my Hornady Magnum, and no soap. Gets 100 cases pretty (not perfectly) clean in about 15 minutes.

 

[3blackdogs]

if you had to buy one first what would you guys buy a tumbler or a sonic ? I really like the sonic idea but can it do it all? New to relaoding. Thanks

 

[damoncali]

if you had to buy one first what would you guys buy a tumbler or a sonic ? I really like the sonic idea but can it do it all? New to relaoding. Thanks

The achilles heal of sonic is the size of the unit. Big ones get very pricey. The Hornady Magnum Ultrasonic tops out at about 80-100 rifle cases per batch. You can get a tumbler for the same money that will hold quite a bit more.

Tumbler Pros:
-relatively inexpensive
-cases come out dry and ready to load

Tumbler Cons:
-dust and media tends to spill
-separating media from cases is a pain
-will not clean primer pockets
-slow (2-3 hours/batch)

Sonic Pros:
-fast (15 min/batch)
-cleans primer pockets and inside cases (if you decap first)
-relatively quiet. Mine squeals a bit, but it's not too loud.

Sonic Cons:
-small capacity
-cases come out wet and take a long time to dry on the inside unless you have compressed air (or some other means) to dry them

For the shooting I do, ultrasonic is the way to go. I rarely have batches over 100 cases, I like that the primer pockets get cleaned, and I hate separating media from cases.

 

[338RUM runner]

To speed the dry time get a heating pad and put a towel over it and turn to high, the warm brass will dry faster.

 

[jsthntn247]

2 drops of Dawn and 1 tablespoon of Lemi Shine in with 100 pieces of brass for 4 cycles of 8 minutes. Stir the brass between each cycle. Take out, rinse in clean tap water for several minutes. Towel dry then stick cases in the dehydrator upside down for 1 hour. Special attention will have to be taken to the inside of the necks or seating pressure and E.S. will be all over the place.

 

[Melsy]

also a cheap dehydrator can be used to dry them fast. mine dries 200 cases in loading blocks neck down in about 30 minutes.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

My additive is a small squirt of Dawn and half an envelope of Unsweetened Lemon Kool-Aide (priced about a dime a pack at Wal-Mart). Gets things clean inside and out. The Kool-Aide is as effective as the other products.

Letting the brass presoak in hot solution for a half hour or more reduces the ultrasonic cycle time accordingly. This allows you to use smaller batches, presoak them all concurrently, and then run them through the ultrasonic a lot more quickly.

Be sure to rinse afterward. I run my brass through the separator to remove the bulk of the water before shaking it in a towel to get about all of the rest of the moisture. What's left dries overnight.

If you want a polish, skip the toweling step and simply run the brass through the vibratory case cleaner for about 10 min. The walnut will polish the cases and absorb any remaining interior moisture.

Greg

 

[KNIGHT11B4]

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[Jungle George]

My cleaning starts by de-priming the brass. Then I use a Lyman 6000 ultra sonic cleaner. The solution is cheap and easy, in fact I use to wipe my boat down, mop floors, wipe down counters, clean carpet etc. Mix about 4 parts water, 1 part white vinegar, a TBL Dawn, a TBL ammonia, a little salt. I run it about 15 minutes then put it in a large case media separator (I use a Dillon), and spin out most of the water. Then into a tumbler (again I use a Dillon CV2001) with corn cob media and a cap full of Dillon Rapid Case Polish 290 and tumble for about an hour. Cases come out dry and looking like new inside and out.

Cheers,

George