No More Dirty Brass — How to Use Ultrasonic Cleaning Machines
Do you have some old, tired brass that needs a thorough cleaning — inside and out? Consider using an ultrasonic cleaning machine. When used with the proper solution, a good ultrasonic cleaning machine can quickly remove remove dust, carbon, oil, and powder residue from your cartridge brass. The ultrasonic process will clean the inside of the cases, and even the primer pockets. Tumbling works well too, but for really dirty brass, ultrasonic cleaning may be a wise choice.
READ UltimateReloader.com Article on Ultrasonic Case Cleaning.
Our friend Gavin Gear recently put an RCBS Ultrasonic cleaning machine through its paces using RCBS Ultrasonic Case Cleaning Solution (RCBS #87058). To provide a real challenge, Gavin used some very dull and greasy milsurp brass: “I bought a huge lot of military once-fired 7.52x51mm brass (fired in a machine gun) that I’ve been slowly prepping for my DPMS LR-308B AR-10 style rifle. Some of this brass was fully prepped (sized/de-primed, trimmed, case mouths chamfered, primer pockets reamed) but it was gunked up with lube and looking dingy.”
UltimateReloader.com Case Cleaning Video (7.5 minutes):
Gavin describes the cleaning exercise step-by-step on UltimateReloader.com. Read Gavin’s Cartridge Cleaning Article to learn how he mixed the solution, activated the heater, and cycled the machine for 30 minutes. As you can see in the video above, the results were impressive. If you have never cleaned brass with ultrasound before, you should definitely watch Gavin’s 7.5-minute video — it provides many useful tips and shows the cleaning operation in progress from start to finish.
Ultra Dry Necks After Ultrasonic Cleaning — Some Suggestions
The Ultrasonic cleaning process gets cartridge brass so “squeaky clean” that increased force may be required to seat your bullets, or they may “grab” as they go in the necks. To reduce bullet-seating effort, you may benefit from adding a little dry case lube inside the case-neck before loading (use a nylon brush). Another trick is adding a teaspoon of Ballistol lube to the cleaning solution. That provides a trace lubricant inside the necks, but does not interfere with powder ignition in any way.
 |
The RCBS ultrasonic cleaning machine features a large 3-liter capacity, 60 watt transducer, and 100 watt ceramic heater. The RCBS ultrasonic machine can be found under $140.00, and this unit qualifies for RCBS Rebates ($10 off $50 purchase or $50 off $300.00 purchase). RCBS also sells 32 oz. bottles of cleaning concentrate that will make up to 10 gallons of Ultrasonic Solution.
Similar Posts:
- How to Clean Brass with an Ultrasonic Cleaning Machine
- How to Clean Brass Effectively with Ultrasonic Cleaning Machines
- How to Clean Cartridge Brass with Ultrasonic Cleaning Machines
- Clean Brass Effectively with Ultrasonic Cleaning Machines
- Get Brass Ultra-Clean with Ultrasonic Machines
Share the post "No More Dirty Brass — How to Use Ultrasonic Cleaning Machines"
Tags: 7.62x51, Cleaning Solution, RCBS, Ultimate Reloader, Ultra-Sonic, Ultrasound
Thanks for printing this article. It was very helpful in making my decision as to which model to buy.
Rich
dont buy cheap chinese stuff on which is printed reloading band on. it’s 3 time expensive.
this goes for electronic scales, calipers, us cleaners…
everything is low price chinese stuff, branded by americas name, selling 3× price…
Reloading stuff
I’m surprised that ultrasonic cleaning works so well that cartridge brass requires more force to seat your bullets. My main concern is that the cartridge would be useless afterwards. It’s good to know that it actually works too well sometimes but that is better than not working at all.