Cleaning Brass

[Plumose]

I de-prime the cases, then place the brass in an ultrasonic cleaner with warm water and bi-carbonate of soda.

It normally takes about 20-30 mins to clean a batch of cases if they are not too heavily tarnished.

ukrifleman

Can I ask why the bicarb, as most suggestions are citric acid?

[ukrifleman]

Can I ask why the bicarb, as most suggestions are citric acid?

Two reasons really.
My wife suggested that baking powder which contains bicarb would work, (she was not wrong!) and second, there is always a tub of it in the cupboard!!

[bradaz11]

i pin tumble as the cases are clean in one hour, and vibratory cleaning seems to take hours. so it's more energy efficient in my eyes,

just don't do as simg and reload wet brass !

[bradaz11]

Oh, and don't mix brass with different bullet diameters. I cleaned some 9mm and 45acp together and 90% were stuck inside each other wedged with pins. Took forever to sort out.
You can do things like 9mm and 38spl and 38s&w all in the same drum though as necks are the same dia

[DavidRees]

Hello
Seems like a bit of a faff, think I will stick to my vibratory cleaner with media, works well for me

I've been using a vibratory case cleaner for 29 years, and completely agree. Only extra (and optional) step once cleaned is to clean out the primer pockets following case depriming. I use the vibratory case cleaner before removing the old primers, to avoid the media clogging the primer flash hole and/or primer pocket in deprimed cases.

[capper]

I’ve only ever used a lyman 1200 with crushed walnut media, I add a drop of liquid car polish to the mix & they come out shiny in an hour. I’ve never used a wet clean but the results look good but the overall time taken is much more.

[nic]

i dry clean with walnut media, but mostly full length size, so use a lube, so they are not shiny anyway.... but it seems wrong not to clean them first!

[Airbrush]

i dry clean with walnut media, but mostly full length size, so use a lube, so they are not shiny anyway.... but it seems wrong not to clean them first!

Glad to hear you use a lube.

[ovenpaa]

LEM Plus Cleaner (Ours came from Kranks) with micro needles and a drop of Sea Clean 2 gives absolutely perfect results plus I can take a handful of cases out ans inspect them while the machine is running.

[nic]

Glad to hear you use a lube.
[/quote]

I worry about damaging the chamber if you go in dry................................