Ultrasonic Cleaning Brass

[pveng]

Looking for advice, new processess for cleaning brass.
Current process is pretty good but always trying to improve.
My process is the ultrasonic cleaner solution is heated to 60c and the cleaning process lasts for 30mins and come out pretty clean but some come out still dirty, mostly internally.
I use a few drops of dish liquid and 1tsp of cream of tartar per litre for the solution.

What are your processes, looking for really clean outcomes, looking at trying the various products on the market - Lyman turbo sonic case cleaning solution and Birchwood casey case cleaner concerntrate, worth my time and money?

[Triplejim]

How many beakers and cases per 30min cycle? Tank litres?
Number of transducers, presume 40kHz 50w? Heating wattage?
Havent used Lyman, fumes from Birchwood made me feel ill and Boretech next to useless.
Your current recipe is good, buy a PH meter, if under 2, add some BiCarb Soda to make alkaline

[Stvh]

2 teaspoons of citric acid powder ( food grade). 47/50 degrees, 5mins, 60 cases, all come out like new (inside & out).
Using a hornady sonic cieaner.
quickest & easiest way Iv'e found to clean cases.

[CamoWhamo]

I use the Lyman Turbosonic solution. It's not cheap but it seems to work way better than any of the home recipes i've tried.
I put the brass in beakers and dilute it approx 30:1 in hot tap water. I use the heater on the Ultrasonic to maintain the temp rather than try and heat the water.
8 mins and the brass comes out spotless inside and out, including primer pockets.

FWIW i use a cheap eBay cleaner.
When shopping around look at the watts of the transducers and how many transducers they have, then work out the basic ratio of watts per litre.
Some of the larger units don't work as effectively as a smaller one if they have less power per litre.

[pveng]

Interesting replies fellas, will try citric powder first and see what happens.
Later will try the Lyman turbosonic solution...

Seems I'm leaving them in the cleaner for too long...

[PeteFox]

Just my opinion on this, having gone from a cheap eBay machine that failed early to an industrial one.

The effectiveness of an ultrasonic cleaner doesn't lie in the chemical you use. although detergents act as a surfactant which helps. Acids would probably clean brass with simple agitation of the water but do speed up the process in an ultrasonic cleaner.

The work has to be done by the ultrasonics, in the end it is all about horsepower.
You should be looking at getting the highest wattage in cleaning power you can afford, not to be confused with the heating power.

From experience Dick Smith/Kogan/Cheap eBay products are a road to disappointment, fail quickly and don't clean that well. Transducers are not cheap, so a cheap unit will have either crap or tiny transducers.
I looked into making a long tank to clean barrels at one time but the cost of the transducers to do it effectively, quickly killed the idea.

About 200W of ultrasonic power is near the money for about 50 cases at a time done in 30 mins. More cases will require more power or more time.

A downside to ultrasonic cleaning is that the inside of the case necks become very clean and can get a real grip on the bullet if the neck is not lubed.

Pete

[BATattack]

I had a "cheap" eBay unit that didn't clean cases well. Always seemed to be like shadows that wouldn't be cleaned. I tried putting cases in beakers and standing them directly over the transducers and it helped until they died so moved to stainless tumbling.

Both have their pros and cons. For tumbling I use 1 teaspoon of citric acid, 1 table soon of tandil dishwashing liquid from aldi, 2 cups of vinegar and 5 cups of water and gives excellent results. Results where variable until I started accurately measuring quantities and using that dishwashing liquid.

What brand of ultrasonic unit are you using to get good results? 5 and 8 min in very quick?!

[Stvh]

Hornady Magnum 120w with 100w heater

[ivan.wilson7]

I start with FL resized cases use 50 50 white vinegar and water with a few drops of dish washing liquid, 20min at 70 deg, dry in oven at 100 deg, tumble in clean medium to make um pretty, anneal case, molly necks with tight mop or use molly coated projectiles, load and shoot, 1/4moa and low single digit SD. If you use molly coated projectiles you will need to on average up your powder load by a grain to get your MV back. happy shooting.

[macguru]

I bought a stainless steel ultrasonic cleaner off ebay for about 100, maybe a bit less. Its got a heater in it as well. I use dilute vinegar and detergent and let it heat up first. the cases look a bit blotchy until you polish them but they are clean, even the insides and primer pockets which i think is the point. I dry them in a low oven... you definitely dont want to do this every time though its too much work....

actually , i was just thinking it would be awesome to have a long skinny tank that could take a barrel, all the carbon would drop off the same way......

[528hemi]

Using a 3 litre cheap cleaner, clean water, set too 70*c

1 teaspoon citric acid (less is more with this stuff damhik) 1 cap full of HD car wash liquid, 100 308 cases or reduce amount as per caliber, 15 mins and check primer pockets if clean rinse cases in clean water, place in air fryer 10mins @ 80c

The brass and primer pockets get that clean if seating primers takes extra force turn the cases over in the loading tray and spray a light mist of one shot case lube over them, sorts it and has no effect on loads that I’ve experienced.

You can get the citric acid (granular) from “Big Bubble” in WA. As Peter indicated, getting a high quality industrial grade ultrasonic cleaner would likely negate the need for most of these cleaning recipes

[cheech]

Hornady Magnum 120w with 100w heater

I second the Hornady great product

[PeteFox]

The brass and primer pockets get that clean if seating primers takes extra force turn the cases over in the loading tray and spray a light mist of one shot case lube over them, sorts it and has no effect on loads that I’ve experienced.

Citric acid is quite a strong organic acid (triprotic). I would be interested to know the pH of the solution.

If the action of the acid is causing you to have to lube the primer pockets to get acceptable seating force, I would question whether it is acid etching of the brass surface that is the cause, rather than super cleanliness.
A reduction of exposure time or more a dilute solution may fix this.
The long term effects on the brass of repetitive use ???

Pete

[528hemi]

Thanks Pete

No I don’t believe it’s that acidic (will test) as it does not remove the zinc and effect the brass. I’ve had in excess of 40 reloads in Palma brass for club use and still look good but discarded at that. It’s no different when seating projectiles as you indicated but more so applicable with the thinner cup of the federal primers. Seating in NEW Lapua Palma brass is not much different in this area.

I don’t ultrasonic clean every reload, every 5 or so

[BATattack]

If you get the correct ratio of citric to dish washing liquid you should be near neutral PH. I had to start measuring instead of estimating to get consistent results.