I recently purchased some Hornady One Shot Sonic Clean Solution (currently on clearance at Midway USA). This is only for cleaning brass, not gun parts in general.
I put a bunch of dirty, deprimed, brass in the sonic cleaner with the solution diluted 40:1 with water and let it run for 30 minutes while stirring every six minutes or so. The result is quite pleasing:
The interior of the brass and even the primer pockets are shiny clean. This is faster than using the tumbler with corncob media and gets the interior clean as well as the exterior.
Nice looking brass!
After using that solution on your brass, be sure to do a rinse cycle of 8 minutes using 1/2 teaspoon of Baking Soda per 12 oz. of Distilled Water to neutralize any remaining acidic deposits inside your brass from the Hornady Solution.
I use a solution of White Vinegar (which is much cheaper) than the Hornady Solution. The formula is as follows:
Step 1 –
50/50 Distilled Water / White Vinegar –
with a couple drops of Dawn Dishwashing liquid –
Ultrasonic for 16 minutes
Step 2 –
1/2 teaspoon of Baking Soda per 12 oz. of Distilled Water
Ultrasonic for 8 minutes
Step 3 –
Rinse Cycle – Clean Distilled Water for 8 Minutes
Be sure to dry the cases thoroughly after the cleaning process.
I always do this procedure before I start any annealing of my cases to be sure that they are clean. Annealing also dries the cases in the process.
I hope this helps in your quest for great looking cartridges.
Bruce
Da Squirrel Hunter
Thanks for the tips.
I rinsed the brass four times with clean water. Draining, in all directions, between rinses. Probably not as good as using the baking soda, but probably good enough.
I then put them on top of the dehumidifier for several days to dry.
Good job, your good to go. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
I made a drying rack out of a plank and some weed wacker cord. I drilled a couple hundred slightly angled holes and feed 4 inch length of cord plug into each hole. I lean the board up near the wood stove in the winter and in the sun come the brief nw summer. Each rifle round hangs on one. I thought about using compressed air but other than canned air most home compressors have some oil in the spray.
I’ve heard mixed reviews on the sonic systems, and some good reviews on the stainless steel pin medium in a rotary tumbler. Not sure which way to go. Maybe it depends on how dirty your powder is.
Joe; I’m interested in knowing how dirty cases were after firing, but those primer pockets sure do look good. And are those plain brass cases? They almost look like nickel on my monitors.