Ultrasonic Case Cleaning–Tech Tips
There has been much interest in Ultrasonic case cleaning. Here are two tips to achieve the best results:
De-gas the Solvent Before Adding Brass
One of our readers, Eddy M. in Glasgow, Scotland writes: “I have read a couple of articles recently about ultrasonic cleaning of cases and not one has mentioned de-gassing the cleaning liquid before starting to clean items. As an engineer who travelled around for ten years servicing ultrasonic tanks I would like to point out that the cleaning liquid when first put into the tank has invisible disolved air bubbles in it which will absorb ultrasonic energy until the liquid de-gasses. (10 minutes in a powerful industrial tank–longer in a small hobby tank). You must let the tank run on its own for 20 minutes on the first use of the liquid to allow this to happen. Only after the new liquid or re-introduced liquid has been de-gassed will the tank give good results.”
Apply Dry-Lube Inside Case Necks
Jason Baney has found that Ultrasonic cleaning leaves the inside of the case-necks so “squeaky clean” that there is excess friction when seating bullets. On a fired case that has been cleaned conventionally (no ultra-sound), a thin layer of carbon remains to lubricate the bullet entry and exit. To restore that lubricity in cases cleaned with ultrasound, Jason applies a dry lube to the inside of his case necks. Jason prefers the $10.95 moly dry lube kit from Neconos.com. With this kit, small carbon steel balls transfer moly to the neck when you place your brass nose-down in the container.
In my July 2006 blog item I also recommended a 10 minute degassing step. I currently have 5 different models of ultrasonic cleaners (from “consumer” to “industrial”) and find 10 minutes to be adequate for all of them to de-gas a proper solution in the main tank. When using a secondary tank or beaker as Jason Barney prefers, another 10 minutes is required to de-gas the solution in the secondary vessel.
Jason, Could you expand on what you mean by “excess friction when seating bullets”. Also do you believe that your inside neck lubrication method produces more uniform bullet release force than a clen bullet in a clean neck?
Fred – The super clean necks seem to gall causing heavier and varied seating pressure. The dry moly has done amazing things to my Base-to-ogive(OAL) consistency. OAL is now within a 2thou window(usu 1thou), where without the NECO lube on US cleaned cases it could easily exceed 10thou OAL variations.
Consistent seating pressure would imply consistent release… I just pulled and reseated some old ammo yesterday…couldn’t tell it was old…