Timg Posted August 29, 2010 Share Posted August 29, 2010 First I am new to reloading, except for the Lee reloader I used when I was a kid. so read every post here practically, thanks for all the help guys. I chose the Dillion 650, cartridge feeder, etc. stocked up on 10K of primers, brass and projectiles. Getting real sick of cleaning this brass and it was taking too long. corn cob, blah blah, got an ultrasonic unit, good one. tried all the recipes here there and everywhere. Poor results with everything. Board this morning and trying to figure out how to clean the brass faster. Tried corn cob with Brasco, and many many other compounds. Nothing worked, well, worked fast enough. This morning I took about everything out of my chemical cabinet. Carb cleaner, Weslyes Wheel white, Goof Off, you name it. Nothing was working. Then went back and grabbed things I knew were not going to work, that’s why I didn’t try them in the first place but figured what do I have to loose. Sprayed samples of two cartridges with everything above. Then in the next batch was Resolve Triple action carpet spot remover. Right before my eyes the cases got bright. Put two handfuls in a bowl and sprayed about 10 sprays on them and tossed them around. It was like magic. Rinsed and dried them and I was done. WOW. So now I put 50/50 Resolve in the ultrasonic and put in 4 handfuls of shells on 5 minute cycle. Incredible in and out. The pictures are as follows left to right: Un-cleaned shell, corn cob for 5 hours, tossed in a bowl for 2 minutes with Resolve, ultrasonic 5 min. 50/50 Resolve and water. The picture with the fifth shell shows discoloration on the shell. Get one of those out of every 100 or so. May be the Resolve reacting with oil or something on the shell. Try it and see what you think. Am I losing my mind or is this really working? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timg Posted August 29, 2010 Author Share Posted August 29, 2010 sorry pics didnt attached correctly. here are the other two Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOne Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 Nice results, but why the hurry? And as far getting the inside of the case clean, it's just not necessary. Hell, cleaning really isn't necessary....Put them in the tumbler and mow the yard, go to Lowe's or Home Depot, get back, take them out, put them in a ziploc bag, suck the air out, put on the shelf...start over. Nice, shiny brass doesn't make the bullet fly any straighter....When you clean the brass, all you kind of need to do is remove the tarnish on the outside, to make loading easier, but even that isn't necessary most of the time. Or do you just like showing your brass off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timg Posted August 30, 2010 Author Share Posted August 30, 2010 shiney doesnt make it go straighter? wow good to know, thx. well why the hurry, I can clean cartridges in 5 minutes now instead of dragging it out for hours and get better results and dont need cob or a vibrator, seperator, etc. sorry didnt know you had so much time to kill. wow guess I'll keep my finds to myself. got a great deal on brass, bullets, 231 and primers the other day too, all 40% off. But you probably will blast me for that too so I'll keep it to myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superdude Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 Wow! very impressive. anything that would speed the cleaning process will be welcome by (most) reloaders. now comes the critical question - does the Resolve damage the brass in any way? serious question - i don't know the answer. many brass cleaning products are specially formulated to prevent damaging (weakening) the brass while cleaning it. Dillon's Rapid Polish notes that it is "Ammonia Free." anyone out there have knowledge they want to share on this topic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokshwn Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 Timg....dial back the attitude this isn't that kind of forum. As to what your wonderous brass discovery..you may be losing your mind..do you know for a fact whether or not the resolve is damaging the brass as it cleans it??? With the collective experience on this board there has been many explorations as to how to clean brass (many other boards as well) over and over again, good agggressive media, and a little polish seems to offer a solid solution. No its not quick but most of us find a way to multitask several other reloading chores while the tumbler runs making the net effect of polishing time ZERO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOne Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 shiney doesnt make it go straighter? wow good to know, thx. well why the hurry, I can clean cartridges in 5 minutes now instead of dragging it out for hours and get better results and dont need cob or a vibrator, seperator, etc. sorry didnt know you had so much time to kill. wow guess I'll keep my finds to myself. got a great deal on brass, bullets, 231 and primers the other day too, all 40% off. But you probably will blast me for that too so I'll keep it to myself. Good for you! On another note, how many cases can you put in your sonic cleaner at one time? How long does it take them to dry afterward? Did you take that time into account? Me, I can do about 500 40 S&W cases at one time in the tumbler, with crushed walnut, it takes about 2 hours to clean, while I'm loading another 500..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff686 Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 Hope there is no ammonia in the carpet cleaner. Ammonia + brass = bad. I think your expectations are way too high. Tumble them for a couple of hours, then reload. I used to wash my brass before I got a tumbler. Personally, I think drying the brass is a bigger pain than just tumbling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 (edited) 10K worth of primers is stocked up? If I don't have 50K extra, I start to get worried! Oh, please ditch the word "shells" with the 'tude Edited August 30, 2010 by G-ManBart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 While a lot of people go for shiny brass, I'm just looking to get any dirt off. I recently got one of the ultrasonic cleaners from a jewelry supply (like the Hornady only less money). I ran a bunch of .223 through it in batches and it works just fine for that. Here is an ingredients list for Resolve. My chemistry is very rusty but, basically, that's rubbing alcohol and a solvent (propylene glycol blah blah blah). Neither of these should react with metals. What there is about this that appears to loosen the residue in cases, I'm not sure. But I also wouldn't rush out to start using this until some additional testing was done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timg Posted August 30, 2010 Author Share Posted August 30, 2010 not worried about shine just want to get the cartridges clean without wasting a bunch of time. appreciate all the helpful comments; thats why I posted my results so I could get some input from the vets of reloading. of course I dont want to damage them. I put 150 45's in the ultrasonic for 5 min. rinse well, tumble around on a big towel for 1 min. and they are dry and clean. saves 1 hour 54 minutes compared to corn cob. If i had time to waste I guess I wouldnt have bought a progress press either. I prefer spending my time shooting rather than cleaning and reloading. look forward to some assesment by the chemists of the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aglifter Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 Been a long time since organic chemistry, but I'm guessing the methoxy group is reacting w. the tarnished brass? Don't know what carbinol is. Are you using this to remove the powder residue, or just polish the brass - there's plenty there, prob. the isopropyl alcohol mostly, to remove residue - bit mystified by the polishing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aglifter Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 FYI, please be careful - use a ventilated area, etc - when randomly mixing household chemicals. You can end up generating some fairly toxic/explosive/flammable compounds that way. I decided to generate some Cl gas in HS one time - didn't quite realize how much I was going to get... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin Orr Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 (edited) Cleaning brass with a commercial polish in the media does help to make the brass a little "slick" and, IMHO, easier to size. I have reloaded a lot of brass fresh off of the indoor range floor after LEO training classes and it definitely requires more effort to size than the same brass after I polish it with Dillon's liquid polish.... While I am a end result type of guy I do appreciate a nice shiny loaded cartridge.... I think it is possible/probable that they are less likely to be "sticky" and possibly cause extraction problems than a dull and tarnished case - especially in rifles.... YMMV.... Edited August 30, 2010 by Merlin Orr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerba Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 I put 150 45's in the ultrasonic for 5 min. rinse well, tumble around on a big towel for 1 min. and they are dry and clean. saves 1 hour 54 minutes compared to corn cob. Inside of the brass are dried also? So you are sitting around for 2 hours as the brass are being tumbled? Just raising the question and pointing out what others have said...you are not waisting time if you are doing something else while the brass is tumbling. Remember...faster is not always better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corey Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 ive used ultrasonic cleaners before and i didnt like going through the hassle of rinsing and drying brass. even though time was less, it seemed like more work. Now, i come home from the range, throw brass in a tumbler, go clean my gun, take a shower, eat lunch, take a nap, etc etc while the brass cleans. I just go about my day not wasting a single second on the tumbler. I bet i can seperate my brass/media in less time than it takes you to watch the Ultrasonic cleaner, rinse and dry the brass. just seems like overkill for this game, thats all. That being said, the brass you have pictured is coming out very very nicely! just be aware of the chemicals as others have listed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokshwn Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 (edited) I put 150 45's in the ultrasonic for 5 min. rinse well, tumble around on a big towel for 1 min. and they are dry and clean. saves 1 hour 54 minutes compared to corn cob. Your newly discovered method is not faster. I just put 1200 or so 9mm/40/45 cases in a Dillon 2001 with walnut and polish. Takes about 1 min. Turn it on and do whatever I want, load, go to the store, run errands, watch tv,case gauge match rounds, etc etc. Take the rounds out, and sift which takes about 1 min. which equates to about 600 rds a minute (1200rds for roughly 2min of work). That's 400% more production than your method (150rds/min). This illustrates pretty clearly that there is no time advantage to your method. Edited August 30, 2010 by smokshwn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 OK, let's call it a draw on time and move on. Care to compare the noise issue for a while? I think that the initial post has gotten lost in a "my ways is better than your way" debate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokshwn Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 (edited) OK, let's call it a draw on time and move on. Care to compare the noise issue for a while? I think that the initial post has gotten lost in a "my ways is better than your way" debate. With respect to "my way vs. your way" the facts are pretty simple. 150 cases/minute vs. 600 cases/minute. Questionable/unknown/untested chemical reaction with brass vs. Tested and known safety of cleaning process. Doesn't seem like much of a debate. To address the noise issue, I don't carry the tumbler around with me like a boom box. I close the door to the tumbler room and it is no bother to me at all. Edited August 30, 2010 by smokshwn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corey Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 i close the door to my reloading room when tumbling brass and doing other things. usually i cant hear it and forget its even on, haha. 6-8 hours makes for some pretty darn clean brass! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOne Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 My tumbler is in my reloading shed, 35 yards from the house...You might say it's a bit hard to hear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmurch Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 Mines away from the main house too. Sometimes I forget all about it and it runs all night. Brass is really clean and shiney! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bshooter Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 For those of you who like to tumble their brass for hours, that's great. Anyone who comes up with a new solution to cleaning brass in less time should be commended. I will be giving it a try. If it works for me, I will be using it. Bshooter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Smith Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 OK. So many people have a relatively isolated location for their tumbler. Suppose you didn't. Suppose you had to listen to a (somewhat muffled) tumbler doing it's thing for a couple hours. Point is, an ultrasonic cleaner is a viable option for a some people who have noise issues with a regular tumbler. And for those people, finding a really good cleaning solution is worth some experimenting. That said, cleaning out the cabinet under the sink and trying everything that's there is not necessarily the best way to approach this. And that said, it would appear that at least one thing (carpet cleaner) is worth a closer look. It might turn out to be the best brass cleaner, bar none. Or it might turn out to be a dud. Either way, it's not worth dismissing out of hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZip Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 Well, I'm gonna try this on snme old 30-06 brass I got from a friend, then sell it. I'm still going to use the tumbler too. That is one flat-out great pic there smokeshown. I REALLY miss the days of the ghetto blaster. I had some pretty nice boxes that we used to lug around. We'd even build racks for them, and cruise around town before any of my friends had a car. Back to OP, maybe not the holy grail, but then who knows? thanks for the tip though. JZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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