A brass cleaning question

[Bigeasy]

My old vibrating case cleaner has finally bit the dust.  Now that its time for a new one, I have been looking at the new hot liquid cleaners as apposed to the traditional corn cob / walnut shell vibrators.
 
Anyone with experience with both systems care to comment?  I usually clean a variety of handgun and rifle brass, though not often in huge numbers.  Not having to pick cleaning media out of brass, and less dust seems like a benefit to the newer system?
 
Thanks for the replies
Larry

[Ranch13]

The ultra sonic will not "shine" the brass, but it'll get it absolutely spotless as far as any crud left either in the case or the primer pocket. But to get the "shine" on a trip thru the vibrator is still necessary.
The thumblers model B using ceramic media is probably the best of both worlds. It'll get the brass absolutely spotless and shiny all at once. The trick to making that work real well is to not use much over a couple of pounds of media.
 The RCBS case media seperator has prooven to be a real good purchase for not having to dig media out of cases, with either the corncob or the ceramic.

[Ranger99]

it appears to be the wave of the
future. i'm not to that point yet,
have several viberatory cleaners
and enough media for a long time.
if i were starting fresh i believe i'd
be going that route.
i've seen the results of ultra-sonic
gun cleaners, and i think there is
a level of cleaning you can't get
with a tumbler and media.
i've never felt getting stray media
out of cases was that big of a deal
since they need to be inspected anyway,
it doesn't take a second or second and a
half to get stray media out of a case.

[Larry L]

I have an RCBS Sidewinder that goes both ways- liquid or walnut. The advantages of a liquid are that it's extremely quick. I can take black military brass and turn it new in 20 minutes where a vibrator type may never bring it back to new. You do have to rinse and I put mine in the oven at 150F for 30 minutes and they're ready to process. You also don't have to dig out media from flash holes which drives me nutz. You don't have a build up of rouge or polishing compound on the brass. The biggest down side, expense. It's not a cheap date, at least a Sidewinder isn't. You need to factor in the liquid crapola that makes the liquid work and remember, you're only gonna use it one time and then it's trash. I've gotten mine down to using 2 cups cheap vinegar and hot water with a couple of drops of Dawn mixed in a gallon container. I use enough of the brew to cover the brass in a container and just use my hand to clean and mix the water around. For once fired brass it'll almost come out like new. Rinse and dry and it's ready to go. I don't use the Sidewinder much at all anymore as this home brew works so well. The sonic cleaners are going to be about the same thing. But if you have dark or black brass, liquid is the bees knees!

[Land_Owner]

What the heck do you want to "clean" the brass for?  You're just going to shove it back down the chamber and pull the trigger.  The bullet doesn't care if the case isn't "spotless".

That said, I use a cascade of 5 minutes in lemon juice and warm water, drying, and 30 minutes in walnut media and vibratory cleaning.  Works great. 

I have used liquid vibratory cleaners for jewelry and small drafting ink pen parts, but not cases.  Would work fine though.  Liquid media is probably more expensive than walnut.  Less capacity in hoppers with liquid I think.  Messier too maybe.

[Ron T.]

When I got into reloading 'way back in 1961, I was in my early 20's, just married and didn't have much money... and so I "scrimped" as much as possible.  I was fortunate enough to find and buy a used rock tumbler/polisher with a thick rubber "drum" which has served me well for over 50 years and it's still going strong.  I have to oil the electric motor once in a while, but other than that... there' no other maintenance.

I use the chemically-treated ground up (hard) walnut shell medium which polishes the cases making them look better than "new".  I don't de-cap the cases until AFTER I've tumbled 'em which totally eliminates any medium getting stuck in the case's flash-holes since I have an RCBS primer-pocket cleaning tool made up of multiple, small diameter steel "rods" with a handle which does an excellent job of cleaning out the "crud" in the primer pockets.  As a result, my reloads look BETTER than new factory loads.

The rolling rock-tumbler/polisher works great and the thick rubber drum makes for a fairly quiet operation.  Granted it takes a few hours of tumbling to get the cases all bright and shiny, but that's ok 'cause I don't sit there and watch it  roll over and over... I do something else.

I have put more than 50 cases of several different calibers (.338 Win. Mag., .300 Savage, 7x57mm, .222, .45 ACP, .357 mag, 9x19mm, and others) and close to 100 of some of the smaller cases and the  tumbler does it's job, so I'm very happy with the ol' rock tumbler/polisher... not a bad deal for a used 20 buck rock tumbler, eh?   


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.
 

[Grumulkin]

Now I mostly use a Thumler's Tumbler with stainless steel media.  Even though it may not make much difference on the target, I like my cases to look pretty and stainless steel media with Dawn dishwashing soap makes them very pretty.

[cybin]

I have used a rock tumbler for many years myself--I also gave it up around 12 years ago. Just took way too long. When you leave it on for over 24 hours and the brass still doesn't look like new--I just said to heck with it. I have used severala different polishing media.
 
Now I sledom clean my brass-with no ill effects. If the brass looks crudy--I just put it in the Lee brass turning chuck in my hand drill and use some scotch bright and polish the brass and go on.
 
To each their own.
 
cybin

[original]

I just got done ordering the Thumlers tumbler with the stainless media right before I read this post, can't wait to see how it works.  There were tons of great reviews on it so I figured I would give it a try.

[gypsyman]

I had a contest with a couple Hornady reps a few years ago, when they bought out their sonic cleaner. 100 .223 cases went into my Lyman tumbler, and 100 went into their liquid sonic cleaner. It did take less time for the sonic one to get the brass clean. There wasn't any noticable difference in how clean either batch of brass was. But, I figure, with time spent rinsing the brass and making sure their dry on the inside, probably about even. Just personal preference, but, if the old Lyman ever gives out,(it's around 30 years old) I'll just buy another one. Just to keep the dust down on new corn/walnut media, I add roughly 2 tablespoons of additive to the bowl, and a couple more when it starts to wear down. I'm generally in no hurry when I do this, so the tumbler might run 3 to 4 hours. One time, I forgot I had it running, had some nickel cases in it, and it ran over night. The next morning, drinking a cup of coffee, I heard it running.(I run it in the basement,which by the way, will help in keeping it from running hot and shortening the life of the tumbler) Needless to say, the nickel had just about been vibrated off, and the brass was showing thru. Oh well. gypsyman

[Bigeasy]

After factoring in the costs of cleaning fluid, long term reliability, etc., I decided to go with another RCBS vibrating type cleaner.  It's a system that has worked well for me in the past, and I guess I am just used to it, not to mention I have about 20lbs of cleaning media still sitting around.  Thanks to all who replied..
 
Larry