In the comments Sendarius asks:
When you say “clean”, how do you do that?
Vibratory tumbler with dry media?
Rotating tumbler with wet media?
Power drill with a Brasso-soaked rag? /jk
I have been using a Lyman tumbler with walnut shell dry media for years, and I am considering switching to wet solution with those tiny stainless steel rods.
Others at my club have made that switch, and their brass looks amazing.
Any thoughts?
I first sort the brass using a set of these (Amazon also has them for $10 more):
This is how the brass ended up in a five gallon bucket.
There is a similar product available for less money but I have not had my hands on them so I can’t compare the quality:
Amazon sells it for the same price.
I then put the brass in an ultrasonic cleaner (I bought mine from Harbor Freight several years ago but Harbor Freight is slightly more than Amazon for what appears to be the same product):
I use Hornady One Shot Sonic Cleaner Ultrasonic Case Cleaning Solution. I tried a homemade recipe using vinegar and Dawn dishwashing detergent but this works much better. I run the cleaner for at least 24 minutes (three cycles of 480 seconds each).
After the cleaning the brass may not look that great. But most of the remaining dirt/tarnish will come off in the rinse.
I then dump the brass and cleaning solution into a colander:
I stir the brass with a gloved hand to remove most of the liquid.
I then rinse the brass in tap water:
Again I stir the brass with my hand.
I drain and rinse two more times. The final rinse is done with distilled water from my dehumidifier.
After the final draining I put the brass on a rack above my dehumidifier. I built the rack from PVC pipe, a plastic screen, and transparent duct tape:
The dehumidifier puts out warm dry air. I usually let it run for about eight hours and I may stir the brass a time or two.
When cleaning rifle brass I may remove the primers before cleaning. This will result in clean primer pockets as well as a clean interior and exterior.
If I want really shiny brass I will first run it through the vibratory cleaner with the usual corn cob or walnut shell media and a brass cleaner additive. I then follow up with the ultrasonic cleaning.
For many years I just used the vibrating cleaner with the corncob or walnut shell media but the ultrasonic cleaner gave me a faster throughput and the cases are cleaned on the inside as well as the outside.
I considered buying a wet, stainless steel pin, type cleaner but I decided what I had worked well enough.
Like this:
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