Here is a trick for you. When your done rinsing and getting all pins out, stuff the tumbler with the brass you just cleaned and a couple 12" x 12" or so micro towels and let it run for 15 minutes. Brass dry and shiny. No more ovens, dehydrators or waiting for it to dry in open air!!!!! Try it, you'll like it😀
I usually use a lyman corn cob tumbler for 12 hrs - the media comes out fairly black! Protip: You do not have to buy new media; put the dirty corn cob in an old cut off stocking tie the end off and wash it well in a laundry tub with detergent. spread on trays in a very low oven to dry and its like new. I have not bought any new media for 12 years this way lol
By your testing, wet tumbling was the clear winner for one hour. Dry tumbling goes longer. A better test would involve cost, time, value, etc... I dry tumble and not seen the need for wet. Brass comes out great. I go from 1-4 hours depending if I remember its running in the shed. :-) Soon as it's cleaned, it's reloaded and soon after, unloaded. Just cannot fathom the effort for wet cleaning unless you're making a presentation bullet.
Wet tumbling is supposed to remove almost all of the lead from the priming compound. Wet tumbling, media separation and drying takes about an hour longer per gallon of brass though. Honestly, it's a tedious pain. Unless maybe I was running 1ce fired brass that was already pretty clean, I still had brass come out dirty after 3 hours in the vibratory tumbler, where the wet tumbled brass is shiny and looks almost new. I never tried corncob, I always used walnut, which I heard was better.
@@TheSuburban15 corncob does break down. i prefer a Walnut as well. i usually load up the vibratory Tumblr and let it run overnight with about a tablespoon of brass polish in it. the biggest issue with ultrasonic cleaners is the duty cycle. most will only run at about 10 minutes per cycle, and you're not supposed to run more than about 45 minutes continuous or the transducers can burn out.
I use a sonic cleaner on heat with distilled water and Simple Clean to get the grime off of it, rinse them then dry and run through the dry tumbler with corn cob media with Dillons polish to polish the brass up and they come out looking brand new with a high polish. I would compare it to a new Hornady case and they look pretty similar.
Yup I’m sold I’m getting a wet tumbler I have 500 really dirty old tarnished even a tiny bit of rusty gold medal match casings and my media tumblers not doing the job at all Thank you for this awesome comparison I’ve been watching so many videos and no one’s done a straight forward test like this thank you very much it’s made my choice between ultrasonic and wet tumbling so much easier
I use a lyman vibritory and it has a vented lid. I placed a heavy terry cloth towel and then carbon filter between lid and bowl. It collects all dust. Can be washed or replaced inexpensively. Towels .50$ at wally world and filter under 10$ that can be cut into many. I also add fitz pollish to media (walnut untreated) and pollish's nice and keeps finver prints from setting in brass. But do have to run fo about 2 to 3 hours on really dirty stuff.
Just a suggestion for the dry media vibratory tumbler, try using 1 o 2 sheets of USED dryer softener sheets (each cut in half to help with wrapping around you center post) This helps with the dust problem. Just a thought.
Couple of observations, I use a Franklin tumbler with dawn and lime shine no SS pins. Repurposed an old food dehydratator to dry. Makes the process pretty simple 3 hour turn around. I do this for rifle and pistol. Thanks for all the videos.
I have heard of some good results wet tumbling with no pins. Although I can typically get my brass clean enough in my dry tumbler in an hour to an hour and a half and I don't have to worry about drying time. I am running pure walnut media with about a cap full of 3M polish at the start of each run.
I wet tumble. Used to use pins but switched to stainless granules. Small enough to easily empty out of the 223 but large enough to not plug the flash hole. Larger granules can sometimes stay behind in the brass after tumbling. After rinsing, I use the media separator to get most of the water out, dump them in an old towel and shake them up, dump them in another towel, shake them up again and then lay them out on a dry towel to finish drying. Brass looks like jewelry.
@@XRING I get the occasional pins stuck in the flash hole of brass now and then but I sort by headstamp so its easy to spot. I've never had any issues with pins getting stuck in suppressor pistons or baffles though. One gallon of water, two tablespoons of Dawn, and one teaspoon of Lemi Shine does the trick for me on a full load.
Add some white vinegar to the ultrasonic cleaner. That mild acid helps clean the primer pockets much better. I use a bit of Dawn, Lemi Shine and about a half cup of vinegar. Works great. To dry, I place them on a cookie sheet, with a towel between the brass and the cookie sheet, and place them in a 200 degree oven for about a half hour. In the summer, it's much easier since I can just place the cookie sheet out in the hot sun (in Texas) for about an hour. There's no need to buy an expensive brass dryer. Just get an inexpensive food dehydrator and use that to dry your brass. I'll be buying one soon.
I have all 3 types of cleaners. The stainless pins with Dawn and Lemishine works the best in the shortest time but you have to take into account the drying time. I use a food dehydrator to dry mine. I only use the ultrasonic cleaner to clean gun parts now. It never worked that well for me. I do still use the vibratory cleaner some with brass polish added. It is noisy but I set it up to run and leave it for a couple of hours. I don't like the dust but it works pretty well and I can leave the brass in it if I am in a hurry. Good video by the way.
Been using a Midway corn-cob- media-fed tumbler since day one, circa 1990. Couple tablespoons of Midway Citrus Scented brass polish, and an hour or so later the results on range worn cases, are worthy of display in a Tiffany's showcase! Transfer time from tumbler to loading-bench-ready, is usually less than ten minutes for a full run of like-new-clean, and dry brass. There's always something new or evolving under the sun, with any hobby or pastime. I've got scores of golf clubs to bear witness to that assertion. For me the results, convenience, and cost (think I paid $69 for the tumbler, $10 for the media, and $3 for the brass polish; still using the same ingredients today) generally dictate whether to stay with what works for me, or go with what's new, popular, or works better for everyone else. Unlike some handloaders, I don't shoot thousands of rounds a year; more like a few hundred, through about thirty different calibers. So...I'm good. Guns N Basses Forever! 🔫🎸
I have been reloading 40 years , media tumbled , ultra sonick and now I " wet tumble " with the stainless pins . I have some media tumblers and two ultra sonic's for sale ! You really need the whole " wet tumble " package to make it fast . I have the tumbler of course , but I also purchased the " rotary basket separator " and " the heat dryer " . The basket separator removes all the pins from my cases quickly and makes it simple to place them back into the tumbler , my dryer has 6 trays and a fan with heat and drys cases in less than an hour. The beauty of wet tumbling is the cases look brand new , the inside of the case is just as clean as the outside and the primer pockets are clean . I love it , on a day off I have wet tumbled 3,000 5.56 cases in a day in between loading. The only down side of the wet tumbler is that you really need an outside sink with water if you like being married " which I do " Both , have an outside sink and like being married .
Over the years I have tried all 3...and hands down the wet tumbling with stainless pins is by far the best for clean brass. The Lemi-shine is used to "soften" the water so the detergent cleans better. If you have really hard water you will need to use a tad more then someone who has very soft water. And NEVER leave brass in the tumbler overnight! LOL I won a Lyman wet tumbler and media separator and they have both given me great service!
@@hub_s550 I believe the Lemi-shine aids in cleaning as well. If you are worried about it try it without on a batch of brass and with on another and see which turns out better. Just go easy on the lemi-shine a little goes a very long way. More than a teaspoon is typically a waste and too much can turn the brass funny colors.
Wow thanks for making this comparison. Ive seen countless people on the tube and web saying that vibratory is quicker than the others without counting in the drying ofc. Seems thats not the case!
I now own all three myself. I plan on using the sonic cleaner for 5 minutes with Iosso Brass Cleaner to pre-soften the carbon and then the wet tumbler with dish soap and steel pins to finish up. The vibratory tumbler will be used with crushed walnut hulls with jeweler's rouge for getting the lube off of the cases once sized and put a high shine at the same time. Then I will wipe them down with a clean rag to be sure and remove any film on the out side of the case.
I agree. I use the SS pins. You use a plastic media separator to separate the pins from the brass. I use a sneaker rack lined with dog screen to dry the brass in the clothes dryer. The cases get clean and shiny inside and out.
@X-Ring We definitely like the rotary tumblers. Have the FA rotary tumbler, affectionately known as the FART. Good end result especially when hot water is used. We reload our training brass for various classes. Since the number of cases for a single class can easily exceed 3500, we got one of those small cheap concrete mixers from Home Depot (about $199 on sale), a bunch of SS media and use the same method as for the smaller FA rotary. Works great and you can do a bunch at one time.
Cool video! I only use my Lyman dry tumbler for powder coating now. The Frankford with pins works so much faster. I did ruin some 45acp with way too much lemishine when I first got it. Great video X-RING
I've tried all 3 but since I've switched to the wet tumbler that is all I use. I tried the pins but they are a giant pain to separate. Now I just hot water and Frankford Arsenal cleaner. Does a great job.
After watching several videos on RU-vid I built my own wet tumbler out of a clothes dryer motor and some spindles and belt off of a treadmill I picked up at the local salvage yard for free. I use lemishine, dawn, hot water and stainless media and it works great.
You would have gotten the same result running the Thumbers Tumbler for 20-30 minutes. An hour is way more than I have to put brass in there. Like you said though, if you are in a hurry the dry media works well as you don't have to dry it.
So I always deprime all my cases 1st then use my commercial grade Ultrasonic Cleaner set at 200 degrees temp. For 30 minutes with just dawn dish soap and half a teaspoon of lemi shine. Prime pockets and inside case come out spotless. Then I Rinse ,dry then resize then I wet tumble without stainless steel media. Just super hot water, Dawn dish soap and Lemi shine to remove cast lube and my brass comes out better than new 😁👊👍
@@Tallhorse89 There's a lot of options, i use a Frankfort arsenal universal deprimer if I'm just in front of the tv and not paying much attention but I actually found it faster and get better results with a lee classic and a small mallet if I took the time to make an alignment disk for it.
My process is pretty involved I start by cleaning the brass with acetone and then I size in D prime and then I put the brass in the steel pin Tumblr and then I’ll take it out of there and put it in my dryer rack and then I go to the corn cob with the Dillon polish by time I get done it is so clean and bright and makes everybody else is ammo look like crap but it is absolutely clean there is a speck of carbon anywhere. I found out with the steel pens if you don’t polish it’ll dial in a short period of time especially if you start handling the brass the same with the ultrasonic it’ll do the same thing that’s why I go to the corn cob in the polish make sure that stays nice and bright. I know some people don’t care what it looks like but it’s embarrassing to go to the gun range and you got crappy looking ammo.
I have heard some guys are substituting automotive car wash'n wax soap into their wet tumblers in place of the Dawn dish soap and it supposedly keeps the brass shiny for a long time similar to dry tumbling with a polish.
Walnut media with some brass polish is best for the initial cleaning. Corn cob with brass polish is best used to get your sizing lube off of your cases and give them a final polish. About an hour to an hour and a half in the walnut and about two hours in the corn cob.
Very helpful. I've been reloading almost 2 years now, but dont have a tumbler. I've always at most, rinsed them off with soap and water. Was looking at Sonic and Vibratory last night.
I picked up two rock tumblers at harbor freight add stainless pins, dawn, and one cap of turtle wax and brass is clean and shiny. Can get 60 to 70 pcs of brass per tumbler.
Very telling video. I've always dry tumbled w/ corn cob media - 50+ plus years. Got to take another look at the stainless steel wet tumbling setup. Just don't like the wet clean-up and drying of the brass after. I like to be able to tumble, reload, shoot. I made a DIY timer that turns the tumbler off after about 3 hours. While I'm in dialysis for 3 1/2 hours, I tumble brass.
Once you wet tumble you'll never go back. The brass is a clean as new inside and out. My Dillon tumbler is now used only for removing lube on cases after prepping, it's pretty fast for that at and can handle large volumes. I bought the Extreme Rebel 17 Rotary Tumbler, it's pricey but quality built and quiet, plus wearable parts are replaceable to it'll last forever, nothing made of plastic to break.
Very interesting. Some precision load work ups would be cool too. Different powders, bullet weights and shapes, seating depths and barrel twist would be very informative. I'm particularly interested in 6.5 Grendel right now.
That lemishine stuff works great to get carbon off your muzzle brakes also. Just mix a little in a cup with water, toss your brake in for 15-30 mins, then pull it out and brush of the carbon.
I used walnut media in a vibratory tumbler for years then my son got a nat geo rock tumbler for xmas, I bought some s/s pins, some citric acid and some washing up liquid and gave it a go. Now I dont use the the vibratory tumbler and my son doesn't have a rock tumbler and my brass is very shiny haha. Seriously I would never go back to walnut/corn media now, the s/s pins does a great job in a fraction of the time.
Nicky neat but I've been loading since 1986 and have always used the large Dillon vibratory tumbler. It is enclosed and does not create dust. My cases are clean, safe for reloading, and since I'm not interesting in impressing myself with how shiny I can get brass since I will soon dirty it again, my results are excellent. I load for 17 different calibers and for Class 3 firearms that cost as much as some cars. The result is I keep shooting and do not waste time staring at my cases.
i use lyman turbo cleaner with a tea spoon of citric acid cleans them very well when i want a really nice shine i put them in the corn cob media after for a hour
wet stainless pin tumbling cleaner is hands down the best cleaner polisher, like new results. but most importantly, the inside of the cases are as clean as the outside. a no brainer for me. tanx. Ron
I use a combo of both stainless pins and corn cob. Rinse the brass and shake dry after the pins. Then corn cob takes the moisture away in 15 minutes. No oven required.
the thumblers tumbler works great with ONLY dish soap and lemishine with HOT water from the tap......you dont need the stainless pins as long as you tumble about a hundred or more (enough to bang off each other) added bonus of not having to deal with pins makes this my preferred method...usually an hour or two makes them like jewelry
If you tumble with ONLY cases, you will never get the insides of the cases/ necks or the primer-pockets clean like you can with the pins going both outside and inside.
@@scottcrawford3745 I use very hot water and Dawn dishwashing detergent with some Lemishine and tumble just the brass - Im talking primarily pistol brass - and Im satisfied with primer pockets and insides.....I concur that the pins are going to be marginally better but sometimes good enough IS good enough and Ive found that to be the case here.
@@bob14219 Ok.. Sorry. Pistol brass, I'm fine with that too.. I shoot F-class Precision Rifle, and I'm a bit ADD about my brass being squeaky clean and precise. When I shot IPSC, I'd be totally fine with Visually clean.
I use the frankford and works great I also use dawn and lemi shine and have great results with it but if you buy the frankford wet brass cleaning solution it comes out even brighter
I prefer sonic for 20 min with dawn and lemishine. Rinse then wet tumble with dawn again. Rinse, dry (old food dehydrator cheap and quick) then I like to tumble with nu-finish and walnut media for a polish. Yes takes time but the results are great and the polish really helps keep the tarnish down in long term storage. Good point on the lemishine it pulls the zinc out of the brass, not just bring it to the surface. Prolonged exposure will weaken the brass and shorten the life significantly. I will not let it sit in brass for long. Remember it is an acid, acids love to dissolve metals!
Stainless steel pins, hot water, dawn dish soap and lemmi-shine for brass. Always deprime first! Cheap food dehydrator from Amazon for drying. Ultrasonic cleaner with hot water and Simple Green HD (safe for all metals) for cleaning handguns, reloading dies and AR Bolt Carriers. Rinse with hot water, then air compressor to dry.
I have used a media (walnut) tumbler for years but have been interested in wet tumbling for awhile. This is a good video but clearly the preferred tumbler was obvious before the test began. I would like to see a cost comparison between the tumblers and cost for each of the cleaners as well as maybe completing the test on each of the cleaners using NO ADDITIVES and another test using the recommend or preferred additives/cleaners to make a good comparison. Besides that, thanks for the video. My search for an apples to apples comparison continues.
I have a three step process. 1. Put all range brass in a bucket with dawn soap and stair with a stick and rinse. Then the brass go into the ultra sonic cleaner with dawn and lemishine. This removes all the dirt so not to scratch my dies. Then I de-prime and resize the brass. Normally I can stop here if reloading pistol but if I'm reloading rifle I put them in to the tumbler with walnut/blast media to remove the resizing lube. Tried the pins and found they were too much of a hassle and the Frankford Rotary Tumbler leaked.
I do dawn and lemi shine in my ultrasonic cleaner. Three 4 minute cycles and my brass looks new. Only downsides are smaller capacity at a time and the drying
Nice video for comparsion of the different options for cleaning our once fired brass! I have a Lyman 1200 Vibratory tumbler which I have had many 40+ years and still going strong. I then decided to try the RCBS Ultrasonic (original), latest and greatest at the time. Then I have the Frankford Arsenal Stainless Steel Pins. All these will work to a certain degree for cleaning and to shine them. The longest being the Vibratory to get that almost like new shiny look. The stainless steel pins work extremely well for even the primer pocket to get clean, however you will need a dryer unit and I have a food dehydrator, since the company's at the time didn't have such. Stainless pins work well for most of my pistols and rifle, however recently I purchased some 'Southern Shine Media' from TB Bullets for concern of bottleneck rifle brass. This media is Stainless Steel Chips, you thought pins are small, these are much smaller to get into those recess's like primmer flash hole and not get stuck in bottleneck rifle brass. Purchase a magnet like Frankfort Aresenal sells, works for those pins and the chips which just hard to pick up with a finger. I used the chips on some 223/556 brass and it cleaned them well. Get the screening basket from Lyman (2 parts to setup), or the Frankford Arsenal screens that go into the lid of that system. Be careful opening, the pins and chips stick everywhere that has water, however I did find the chips didn't stick to the lid as much as the pins (observation). Dump the dirty water, then rinse, I then put them in my brass separator, with water in the bottom high enough to reach the lower part of the separator basket. The water will break the surface tension of the pins or chips and will fall to the bottom after several rotation of the separator. Chips all fell into the bottom and very few dropped into the bottom of my dehydrator when brass/pins/chips was dry. Maybe a few more rotations and all the chips whould have been separated. Well this is how I am cleaning my brass for pistol and rifle. Don't forget the Limmey Shine or a Rinse Agent to avoid spots when drying. Stainless takes more steps but they sure look nice at the end. Best to all, sorry so long.
Day in day out I like the “old school” tumbler. Simple and effective. One hour is not enough time in a tumbler. I have a Hornady sonic cleaner. It doesn’t process enough at one time for me but it is great for cleaning AR parts. Wet tumbling gets brass the “shiniest “ but way too much work separating pins and drying etc... Soooooo I prefer to tumble for what it’s worth.
There's a trick to using a magnet inside an inside-out ziplock bag... and finding the right sieve that's got BARELY small enough holes to catch all your brass.
SS Pin tumbler, soft water, a few drops of dawn (varies with how dirty the brass is), and about .5-.75 oz RCBS Ultrasonic cleaner solution. 1 hour for lightly dirty brass - 11/2-2hrs for really dirty brass. Comes out looking like new.
I have a different model of Thummler and use ceramic media and some cleaner I don't remember but a little goes a long way. Your brass looks like my black powder brass. The lead in the dry media dust is the main reason I went with a wet tumbler. Plus, the media will literally last longer than you will.
I use both the stainless steel pins and the corn cob media. I use the stainless steel pins to clean my brass. Then once it's dry, I use the corn cob media to polish. My brass comes out looking like new. A little bit more work, but I think it's worth it.
Great video thank you sir very informative I was thinking about getting a dry media tumbler but now that I seen your video might try to see about the SS tumbler
Nothing wrong with dry tumbling. This comparison isn't exactly fair to the dry tumbler either because it doesn't include the time it takes to rinse and dry the cases from the wet tumbler or ultrasonic cleaner. Wet and dry tumbling both work great but are different in a few key areas. Just make sure you do plenty of research on both processes before you buy to make sure you end up with the one that works best for you.
Very good video. I bought a Hornady sonic cleaner several years ago when Ammo was scarce for reloading pistol ammo. For the most part the Hornady worked pretty good. I think I got better results on my pistol brass and you got on the Grendel brass, Possibly due to the fact that you used a suppressor. One thing I never liked about the Hornady cleaner is the heat mode. It seemed to leave the brass tarnished.
Two things, 1: I run a tumbler for three hours and the brass is spotless when done NO CHEMICALS to worry about. 2: I run a Omega 300 suppressor with an anchor brake on the end of it and my brass on a variety of calibers NEVER looks that dirty or even close to it.
Ultrasonic cleaning can be a little finicky. In a perfect running one with good cleaner it could probably get the cases completely clean in an hour but they will never look as good as they do from a tumbler because ultrasonic cleaners don't do anything to polish the brass.
Thanks for this. I currently use a cheap ultrasonic cleaner for 9mm and they are pretty clean and shiny inside and out but I do like the bling finish with the steel pins. However, the extra work and time required to "de-pin" is a bit of a negative.
I still stick mine on a steel shank installed in a drill press, slaps some brasso on the casings while its spinning and use a cotton t shirt to wipe clean. you can actually see your face in the brass. well, its slow but people wants to know if i bought new brass and i tell them my casings have been fired 3 or 4 times.
I switched over to wet tumbling this bast week and don't think I'll ever go back to dry tumbling but can still see a use for it. 90 min in the wet tumbler and 90 min in an old food dehydrator and done.
I have had all 3 systems over the years and my wet tumbler is FAR more effective, quieter, cleaner than everything. I do the recycling for a large shooting club and some of the brass gets overwintered and come out with rust stains, salt bloom and black oxidizing. 2 hours is all it takes and the wet tumbler cleans the inside to factory clean. I hunt so I have a dehydrator so that dries it perfectly. No going back for me. What I would normally have had to scrap I can clean to factory clean. No brainer.
Wet tumble for sure. It just does a way better job. I dry mine in the AZ heat in about an hour. The only thing ultrasonic is any good at is deep cleaning small guns and gun parts. Purple (industrial) simple green, Winchester gun and part conditioner and hot water. Cleans M&P pockect guns like new!
I have been reloading for over 40 years. Started out with a Rock Chucker, then went to a Dillon 550 20 years ago. Have been using a Hornady M-2 for 30 years. Too bad they no longer offer that model. I buy 50lb bags of walnut media from McMaster Carr. I don't need highly polished brass like you get with corn cob. BTW I dump a little Nu Finish car wax in the tumbler to ease in sizing. It is not worth cleaning 5.56 IMO. You can buy them already cleaned and primed. All I load now is 9mm, .40 S&W and .45ACP. I have the M-2 on a timer. I just set it for 4 hours and let it run overnight.
I have used both ultrasonics and steel tumbler media to clean brass. I think the ultrasonic you used might be a tad bit underpowered. Also, I have found Brass Juice really makes a huge difference with both methods, and with straight walled cartridges, I can't see any difference between the two. With bottle neck cartridges, the ultrasonic energy seems to get dampened by the constriction, so I have found steel tumbling medium to be slightly better in those cases. However, ultrasonic cleaning will still get satisfactory results, and you don't have the pain of separating out the brass from the media. I have wonered if cleaning brass is actually necessary for accuracy. It really does take alot of time. I note the benchrest shooters at our range during their competitions, reload on the spot and don't clean the brass, other than just wiping off the ourside of the cases. It doesn't seem to effect theiraccuracy at all. Maybe at longer distances it might be somewhat critical. Don't know if anyone has tested this out to see if there is any difference.
For a vibratory cleaner, I found out that if you get the PH levels for the cleaner at 3 of below, they clean great. You can get a PH tester on Amazon for $15.00 or less. MSgt David R. Smyth, USAF, Ret.
Not even going to comment on ultrasonic.. While I admit steel pin washing does perform better, having to worry about rinsing, drying, and making sure you get all the pins out, I'll just stick with my dry media. I have that same Dillon tumbler, and it is a powerhouse compared to my 25 year old Midway tumbler that it replaced... I just let it run overnight in the garage, it does a damn fine job, and can hold a TON of cases.
@X-RING try Zep gold touch hand cleaner when you wet tumble. I use about 1/4 to 3/8 cup in my Frankford “the larger tub they sell”. I don’t use Lemishine with it. One of the reasons I like it is it doesn’t make suds.
drawback of doing wet, then gotta dry before loading, then using dry media off primers are out gotta get the media out of holes, them pins sure look like they do great job, think I'll stick with Frankford vibratory for right now.
I have a concern with the wet/pins for precision rifle that the case gets too clean and causes neck tension issues, so your way might be the ticket. How are the primer pockets with no pins?
Sheet mon, your shelves look better stocked than the local Wally World ;-) . The fired 6.5 Grendel looks like my 6 ARC brass for filthiness. Although the SS tumbler does the best job in this test there are a couple other factors to consider. Cost: a dry tumbler or ultrasonic are considerably cheaper, i.e. less than $100. The ultrasonic can be useful for other purposes, e.g. cleaning small engine parts. Drying? I thought that's what the wife's veggie dehydrator was for.
Do you use an additive to help the cleaning process in the Dillon tumbler with the corn cob? Seems that constantly ordering the polish solution is expensive and getting worse every month especially with shipping costs constantly on the rise
So the stainless tumbler got soap and lemon shine, ultrasonic cleaner got the Hornady cleaner and the vibratory got nothing! How is that a fair comparison? Had you put a little Dillon rapid polish in with the dry media it would have made the brass look just like the stainless tumbler and you wouldn’t have to dry it. Seems a little bias towards the stainless pin tumbler.
As someone who has used all 3 methods over the years, stainless pin tumbler blows the other 2 out of the water. 8 hours in the vibratory tumbler won't produce brass as nice as 90 minutes in the tumbler.
lemishine is a liquid citric acid concentrate. thats why it works so well. try the pin Tumblr with nothing but water, or just some Dawn in it without the lemishine and see how it does
I've heard a lot of people complaining about getting the necks too clean with ultra sonic and wet tumbling. Have you gone down that rabbit hole? I'm still using walnut in a dry tumbler but the dust is killing me with the liquid lanolin.
Ultrasonic doesn't remove much. Vibratory cleans only the outside. Wet tumbling peens case mouths, which ruins most of them. For dirty cases, vibratory. So pistol ammo and anything you're gonna put through a semi auto. For bolt gun stuff, ultrasonic if you want to pay for one. If not, vibratory. I figure wet tumbling is only good for manually operated guns in old calibers that require trimming for each loading, like a 303 Enfield. The case mouths will be peened, so you'll have to trim the end of the case off and chamfer and deburr. Don't wet tumble modern cartridges, as you'll ruin the neck by having to shorten it each time. Wet tumbling will really shine brass up well, though.
Ultrasonic cleaner with 2 tablespoons of Dawn and 2 tablespoons of lemi-shine. 15 minutes. Rinse Dry in oven 210° go for 10 to 20 minutes depending on batch size. I get great results. My ultrasonic cleaner is about the size of yours displayed in the video.
Have a vibratory, wondering about how well the ultrasonic does on suppressors. Have a mystic X that's filthy I need to find a way to clean. Nothing I spray it with does a thing. Even brake clean
Ultrasonics can help clean suppressors, especially if you use some of the special concoctions on silencer talk. Be careful putting Aluminum in an Ultrasonic. The best way I know is to find someone with a blasting cabinet and use some psi aluminum oxide. Will make it like new again.
