Lee Loader

I've dry tumbled brass for 12 hours that didn't come out as shiny as 30 minutes with soap and water...and I still had to wash the dust off.

I broke down and replaced 2 tumblers left behind both had their best days behind them .

I really tried to talk myself into the ultrasonic cleaner . I was actually impulse buy close to doing it . It just wasn't deep enough to take a whole revolver ....
I haggled with me to do a wet tumbler too but I know how I am about follow through and it's worse if I can rely on a timer to turn things off . Pink brass is a bad thing and I'm having trouble enough with brass getting dark and spotty on me . I opened up a box of 200 neatly stacked , full prepped 358 Winchester , to find corrosion to some degree on 45 of the top layer of 50 . So the whole box got the maiden voyage through the new vib-cleaner full of new crushed walnut hills . Sent the 45 still stained back through with 50 equally as unhappy 45 Colts and 20 45-70 cases that were recently empty . It was the same price as the on sale ultra sonic cleaner with no electronics to fail , no runaway heaters , no mixing , and environmentally friendly used components that are able to be used a dozen times then used to fire form brass with no fear of the chickens or goats eating it .

this all sounds like a "Ford vs Chevy" battle ....

I'll stick to my Nissan


jd

I always wanted to be a Dodge guy but the Ford's kept following me home ......

https://toolboom.com/en/catalogue/ultra ... -cleaners/

If you buy industrial rather than specifically for cleaning cases you can save and yet get a bigger unit.

I've used the industrial ultrasonic cleaners for 40 years in the jewelry business. Running nearly all day long, heated, drains for empting hot cleaner, only way to go for cleaning. I can clean the cases without an ultrasonic, I use the tumbler and polishing compound to polish. Many people confuse the two. Since I handle each case several times while reloading I like them cleaned and polished.

Gotta love it !! The most talked about but, probably the least important part of hand loading??
Well, in ancient times, all I did, was to wipe off the outside of the case with a little
mineral spirits on a rag??
Now, All "New To Me" fired brass gets wet tumble with pins & A heavy squirt of dish soap, 45 minutes later,
they look like new. I do this because when they are sparkly, it's easier for my old eyes to see imperfections.
After that, all they get is tossed in A buzz bucket with walnut shell & bit of New Finish car wax.

The comment about the polishing compounds is partly correct. They are abrasive, but not nearly enough to be any issue with carbide dies. Carbide needs diamond grit to shape and polish. Brass, copper, gold, silver, are much much softer, extremely softer. I had not thought of steel dies, (all my dies are carbide), I suspect the steel is hardened enough for the compound to not be an issue, but to be safe I would not recommend using jewellers polishing compound on brass that is going to be used in steel dies.

I have a Hornady vibrating case cleaner and a Lyman Ultrasonic. Typically I do the ultrasonic first, then put them in the vibrator for a couple hours. In the past I have been using ground pecan shells from a guy on eBay.

Last week I was at the LGS and they had the Hornady corn cob media on sale so I bought some. Guess what? The results are vastly improved! An hour in the vibrating case cleaner and they look better than my previous process. No more pecan shells for me.

Yea, like you I found the corn cob works much better than walnut, in both of my tumblers. I found it is easier to separate the shells from the medium.