1911Prof Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 If I was planning on sonicating my cases, what should I use as a solvent? Also, should it be done before or after tumbling them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glockman1000 Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 I don't use a sonic cleaner, but I use a citric acid based cleaner. Lemishine, with warm water an old plastic container & let it soak for 10 minutes. Rinse in cold water & blow it out with compressed air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FightFireJay Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 You'll get about as many answers as you do responses, basically something with a light acid and a little detergent will work well. To much acid or to long and it can damage the brass finish and I have heard it will leach the Zinc out. If you deprime first the pockets will clean up a bit, if you don't decap you will get residue from hard/city water in the primer pockets. Plus deprived brass drains and rinses quicker. Some will say to add a little baking soda to the rinse to neutralize the acid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justmike Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 If you want your brass to be shinny you will have tumble after the sonic clean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FightFireJay Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 Just to clarify... The hard water residue in primer pockets is no worse than primer ash. If I clean in smaller batches of brass and keep the cleaning solution fresh I can get very clean and bright brass, but it's never as polished and shiny as tumbled. I really want to do the wet stainless steel media system, cleans in and out (including primer pockets), doesn't get stuck in cases, and polishes the brass up as well. But I don't have the cash to buy that system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoLeft Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 I have been wet tumbling my brass w/stainless steel media, a small amount of Dawn dish soap and a little Lemishine. I'm using a Thumlers Tumbler ( about $180 ) Tumbler for 1 1/2 hours( instructions say 4 hours, but I have experimented with thousands and thousands of pieces of brass and this seems to work best for means my lack of patience...) I then set the oven for 250 degrees. Rinse the brass in a media separator and pour the freshly rinsed brass on a towel on the kitchen counter ( my wife is the best! doesn't say a word, unless there is company coming over ;-) Then put the brass on 2 cookie sheets and turn the pre-heated oven off. Put the cookie sheets in the oven and walk away....I really push the envelope as how much brass this little tumbler can handle. I put LOTS more brass and less water( about 1" above the brass ) than the instructions recommend. I usually tumble 350-500 .45ACP or about 500-700 9mm. I am planning on building a DIY wet tumbler that can handle atleast 2k of 45 brass. There is a great thread on building a DIY wet tumbler on here if you search for it. Just my 2 cents, YMMV.Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roostershooter Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 (edited) If I was planning on sonicating my cases, what should I use as a solvent? Also, should it be done before or after tumbling them? To answer the OP's question. It all depends on how your water is. For instance, I learned a long time ago, through winemaking, that the water where I live is very high in lime due to the natural deposits where it comes from. For my water to be appropriate for sonic cleaning I only put about 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of LemiShine in a gallon of water. However, 1/4 teaspoon is pushing it! Too much LemiShine and you will get an orange tinge if you leave it in too long. With LemiShine, a dab will do ya! More is NOT better with this product. I've been using the same can that I bought 2 years ago, and I still have half a can left. I've read where some guys will even add a very small amount (1/8 tsp.) of 'Simple Green'. However, it all depends on your cleaning preference. I choose not to use Simple Green because it's just something else I have to add. Simple is better in my opinion. Edited July 31, 2012 by roostershooter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck s Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 go to harbor freight and get the 2 cylinder rock tumbler for 40 bucks, add your brass to each, then water, a dash of dawn and a pinch of lemishine and tumble for 3 hours and you will never go back to dry media tumbling. I have not found the need for the SS media at all. I do not deprime befopre tumbling and have never seen the need to. One interesting thing happens when an aluminum casing accidently gets in the mix, the brass comes out looking like a new penny, very copper colored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babaganoosh Posted July 31, 2012 Share Posted July 31, 2012 I have been wet tumbling my brass w/stainless steel media, a small amount of Dawn dish soap and a little Lemishine. I'm using a Thumlers Tumbler ( about $180 ) Tumbler for 1 1/2 hours( instructions say 4 hours, but I have experimented with thousands and thousands of pieces of brass and this seems to work best for means my lack of patience...) I then set the oven for 250 degrees. Rinse the brass in a media separator and pour the freshly rinsed brass on a towel on the kitchen counter ( my wife is the best! doesn't say a word, unless there is company coming over ;-) Then put the brass on 2 cookie sheets and turn the pre-heated oven off. Put the cookie sheets in the oven and walk away....I really push the envelope as how much brass this little tumbler can handle. I put LOTS more brass and less water( about 1" above the brass ) than the instructions recommend. I usually tumble 350-500 .45ACP or about 500-700 9mm. I am planning on building a DIY wet tumbler that can handle atleast 2k of 45 brass. There is a great thread on building a DIY wet tumbler on here if you search for it. Just my 2 cents, YMMV.Best of luck! As someone who has made his own tumbler you think you want to tumble 2000 cases but in reality its not that feasible. 2k of 45 cases weighs approx 26 pounds. That means you want at least 26 pounds of ss media. Ideally 30 pounds. That's 56 pounds plus approx 2 to 3 gallons of water at roughly 8 pounds a gallon. So somewhere in the neighborhood of 78 pounds. Add the weight of the drum. 10 pounds for a drum. So 88 pounds. Not very easy to work with. I do 1000 at a time. I wouldnt want to do more or I'd blow out my back and there would be water, ss pins and brass everywhere because working with that large and heavy a drum is a royal pain in the ass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glockman1000 Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 Interesting ideas guys! I'm going to experiment with some of the tips here. Deprime some brass, throw it in a couple of Gatorade big mouth bottles with hot distilled water with a pinch of Lemishine. Put them in my Lyman/Dillon hybrid tumbler & run it for 15 minutes & see what happens. Shouldn't hurt to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gm iprod Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 Imperial Gallon weighs Ten Pounds according to an old guy who should know. I am sure he was around when it was invented. I have just started using Sonic Cleaners for certain jobs. Distilled water is by far and away the best way to go as it does not contain anything that is likely to react to the brass (Copper and Zinc). I use a Jewelery cleaner that just seems to rip the crap out off the cases. Detergent based. But you need to rinse the cases thoroughly and to get them shinny the corn cob or walnut tumbler is required. I tried the Stainless Pins and Water etc trick. Just takes too long, too much weight if you need to clean shed loads. Really clean though, inside and out. The Lemishine is wonderful. Any detergent containing a small amount of citrus oil or acid is going to work if you can't get Lemishine in your area. We can not any longer, so I replaced with a natural bio degradable Citrus based cleaner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 The easiest way to dry cases after stainless pin tumbling is to remove the pins with a seperator and then dump the cases in an old bath towel and shake briskly for a little while. Then dump into vibratory tumbler with corncob and Nu-Finish for 10 or 20 minutes. Will really look good after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babaganoosh Posted August 1, 2012 Share Posted August 1, 2012 The easiest way to dry cases after stainless pin tumbling is to remove the pins with a seperator and then dump the cases in an old bath towel and shake briskly for a little while. Then dump into vibratory tumbler with corncob and Nu-Finish for 10 or 20 minutes. Will really look good after that. After I SS wet tumble I never need to dump them into a vibratory tumbler. It looks like brand new brass. Weird that you would have to do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 It isn't necessarily for polishing, although it's done in corncob with Nu-Finish. It's done to finish the drying process after the bath towel ( don't use your wife's favorite bath towel, as it discolors them ) Also, the Nu-Finish seems to make the balance of the loading process go a little more smoothly and also keep the shiny finish if you don't load the brass for quite a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glockman1000 Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 (edited) Another way to dry wet cases, if you have an old pair of sweatpants, cut the legs off, tie one end off, dump the cases in, & shake rattle & roll. The thing I like about Lemishine or citric acid based cleaners, is that it can give you a visual cue to where you brass is weakening. If you see splotches of discoloration after drying them, that is where the brass is giving way, when I see brass that comes out that way, I know its time to save it for the recycling can. No reason to take a chance on a split case or separation. Edited August 10, 2012 by Glockman1000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoLeft Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 I have been wet tumbling my brass w/stainless steel media, a small amount of Dawn dish soap and a little Lemishine. I'm using a Thumlers Tumbler ( about $180 ) Tumbler for 1 1/2 hours( instructions say 4 hours, but I have experimented with thousands and thousands of pieces of brass and this seems to work best for means my lack of patience...) I then set the oven for 250 degrees. Rinse the brass in a media separator and pour the freshly rinsed brass on a towel on the kitchen counter ( my wife is the best! doesn't say a word, unless there is company coming over ;-) Then put the brass on 2 cookie sheets and turn the pre-heated oven off. Put the cookie sheets in the oven and walk away....I really push the envelope as how much brass this little tumbler can handle. I put LOTS more brass and less water( about 1" above the brass ) than the instructions recommend. I usually tumble 350-500 .45ACP or about 500-700 9mm. I am planning on building a DIY wet tumbler that can handle atleast 2k of 45 brass. There is a great thread on building a DIY wet tumbler on here if you search for it. Just my 2 cents, YMMV.Best of luck! As someone who has made his own tumbler you think you want to tumble 2000 cases but in reality its not that feasible. 2k of 45 cases weighs approx 26 pounds. That means you want at least 26 pounds of ss media. Ideally 30 pounds. That's 56 pounds plus approx 2 to 3 gallons of water at roughly 8 pounds a gallon. So somewhere in the neighborhood of 78 pounds. Add the weight of the drum. 10 pounds for a drum. So 88 pounds. Not very easy to work with. I do 1000 at a time. I wouldnt want to do more or I'd blow out my back and there would be water, ss pins and brass everywhere because working with that large and heavy a drum is a royal pain in the ass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoLeft Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Those are some great points that I may have overlooked Thanks for the heads up. I'll definately put some more thought ( and calculations) into this before I start the build. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ofishl1 Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 (edited) Those are some great points that I may have overlooked Thanks for the heads up. I'll definately put some more thought ( and calculations) into this before I start the build. Thanks again! I shoot USPSA competitions 2 sometimes 3 matches a week,...constant bullet factory for .40 and .38 super going on,....I have the Lyman Sonic cleaner and two Corn/tumblers. The Lyman gets the .38 super, i can run 400+ rounds in there using the SONIC fluid stuff for brass sold off the shelf, I think its a few capfuls in the full basin (distilled H2o)...2- 4 minute hits W(heat on) then spin-em in the Dillon separator,........ toss in the tumbler for 10 to make pretty...bingo, ..........when I need stuff done in a hurry, I love this unit for any brass ..or gun parts that needed cleaning too,...simple and quick .40 is just easier for me to toss 500 in each corn tumbler set a timer and leave em go as head to work,....separator spin....load em. The only time primers are punched is when I run em through the 650...never saw a reason for the added step. (my timer broke a couple weeks ago, forgot about the tumblers for two days sitting under the boat cranking away for 24 hours a day in 115 deg heat here in Az...they were clean. ..., tumblers are tougher that I thought!!) Anyway, the great methods all the guys in here employ are what works best for them after trial and..more trial, YMMV,.. try a few methods, extrapolate your own and modify to taste. Be safe... O1 Edited August 11, 2012 by Ofishl1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GR8GIFT Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 (edited) A friend of mine was shooting lots of matches in the early 80's bought a home/mini cement mixer to polish his brass. He was going through 20,000 primers every couple of months. Don't remember what he used for media I think corn cob but he could pretty much put in every piece of brass he could find in his tumbler! This would probably work just fine http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200356927_200356927 Edited August 11, 2012 by GR8GIFT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now