Ultrasonic Case Cleaning Oz Style

[Gtown]

I was put onto an ultrasonic jewellery cleaner from Aldi for $26. Takes up to 20 243/308 cases at a time.

Water, Cream of Tartar and a drop of dish washing liquid. Set the machine to run for 300 seconds, 60 secs off x 5 or 6 cycles, I flush the cases in clean water and then 'bake' the cases 20 minutes in a fan forced oven and leave upside down in my shell case till next week.

I also rinse the bowl of the machine in fresh water, run it through a single cycle empty and wipe dry.

the cases come out like new.

I do the washing while i reload other cases...and while the SWMBO is not at home, I got caught once reloading in the kitchen....!!!!

Came home the last week to find number one step daughter washing her bracelets and dangly things...so all happy I guess.

[LeoL]

This is slightly different but you can achieve a lot of cleaning by using a 20 litre bucket with hot water and citric acid. Swirl the cases around manually for a few minutes and then rinse in soapy water and then fresh water . Dry immediately. Using USC after decapping to ensure my cases are clean going into the die for sizing. Using exclusively water and citric acid. Very good results.

[LeoL]

Supermarket own brand Coke diluted 50/50 with tap water. Then a tap water only rinse.

Consider this recipe posted in another forum.

[DannyS]

Cleans out your insides as well

[westernsky]

g'day everyone, i know this is an old thread but after reading it to find out more about efficient ways of case cleaning, ive come up with a slightly modified method that i thought might be interesting to some.

considering ultrasonic cleaners are relatively expensive, i was interested in the post about using a microwave (sorry i cant remember the name of the person who posted it). i tried that method and it seemed to work on the outside of my cases but left the soot on the inside.
so, with that method still in mind and thinking back to high school chemistry, i placed 10 of my old 243 cases that have been 3x fired with no cleaning and left for a while, into a pot with the 50/50 vinegar and water mix and placed that onto the stove to boil.

after boiling for only around five minutes then rinsing with hot water i found the cases to be fairly well cleaned both inside and out. it appeared to remove both the old soot and also brass corrosion. im sure by leaving them boiling for longer i could yeild better results, but its a start.

just thought id share my findings to everyone as a fairly cost effective way of case cleaning

happy shooting!

[RJNEILSEN]

westernsky,
If anything, ultrasonic cleaners are becoming very cheap. I know guys that successfuly use the ones from Aldi bought for under $50. It seams the quality of the unit is far less important compared with getting the technique and recipe right.

My concern with any form of heating the brass such as in a microwave, is that you may damage the annealing of the brass and end up with a dangerously brittle neck. I would have to drag out my old uni books on material science to see what temperature does what to brass, however I would always err on the side of caution.

Cheers,
Ryan.

[RAVEN]

500-550°C is required to anneal brass
not sure if putting your brass in the microwave is a good idea
place on a baking try cover in tinfoil to potect the tray turn oven on when has reach 100c put cases in and turn oven off.
best done when wife is out
RB

[westernsky]

ive heard about those cleaners for around that 50 to 100 mark, unfortunately, it seems that aldi, im guessing is some kind of hardware store, is not over here in the west that i know of.
also, the only cheap ones ive seen so far dont have a big enough basket to fit my cases in, i could probably get 3 to 5 in some of them, which is not very practical.
as was just posted before about the annealing temp of brass, i did think of that, but as its sitting in a liquid thats boiling, a gas stove is only capable of heating that to around 110C.
i do certainly appreciate everyones advice however
happy shooting!

[RJNEILSEN]

Aldi is a cheap import store, I think from Italy or somewhere. They sell everything from t-bones to computers. I bought my ultrasonic cleaner from a gun store in Brisbane for $180 and it could clean about 100 x .308 cases easily. Personaly I batch weigh my cases into 50 piece lots, so I never clean more than this quantity at a time. My results are very shiney.

Prior to ultrasonic cleaning my cleaning procedure consisted of cleaning case necks with some hoppes or other copper solvents only. I am sure that my scores have not improved now that I have bright shiney cases. They just look better. Just like red cars go faster.

[LeoL]

Have just tried a strong dose of lime [squeezed] into the water run thru the USC for 3 cycles. Very impressive cleaning especially the insides. Green alternative certainly works.

[jt]

I have been using an Aldi unit for almost a year now.
I put in 20 .308 cases at a time without the plastic basket.
Use hot water(the hotter the water the better the result), 1 heaped teaspoon of Citric Acid and run 3 x 480 second cycles. I cycle until the primer pockets are clean (always 3 cycles), which also has the insides looking like unfired brass inside.
When the primer pockets are clean I put those cases into a warm soapy (dish washing liquid) water container to rinse.
I use the same Citric Acid liquid for cleaning 80 cases in an evening.
When all 80 cases are rinsed then I towel rub them and put them upside down in a loading tray and leave them on a window ledge on the sunny side of the house.
When i come home from work the next day they are all dry and ready to use. I still tend to give them two days though.

Once I cleaned with Citric Acid but only rinsed under the cold tap and about a week after they drip dried I had some with sploshes of green that you find on old corroded copper. Letting them soak in the soapy water for a while has cured that problem.

I have not touched my case tumbler since I have been using the ultra sonic cleaner.

Cheers
jt.

[AlanF]

Here's my case cleaning method :



In case you missed it, here it is again :




Its the same method I use for cleaning my shoes.

Alan

[jt]

Hey Alan, so you don't wear roman sandals, those were your good shoes after years of your cleaning method.
jt

[AlanF]

I do like sandals - they look much the same whether dull or shiney...

[jt]

Doesn't shiney gumboots scare the livestock?
Mine were always hand me downs (two left feet).