Case shine: ultrasonic vs stainless media tumbling

[Doomslayer]

I am thinking of buying stainless media and thumbler's tumbler to clean my cases. I am currently using a lyman ultrasonic cleaner and even though it works great I still have water stains on the cases and they are not as shiny as I would like them. This is despite rinsing them in distilled water and air drying. Currently I either throw the cases in the old corncob tumbler for an hour or two to shine them up, or I chuck the brass in a drill and polish them with a piece of cloth. Needless to say this takes far too long!

My question is this: if you clean your cases in rotary tumbler with stainless media, lemoshine and detergent using distilled water - how do you dry them without getting water marks. Or do they dry nice and shiny on their own just by air drying?

 

[QuietShootr]

I put them on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven at 140 for a couple of hours. Shiny clean.

 

[B3dlam]

As I understand it the reason you dont get water stains with the stm is the lemonshine. I love my ultrasonic and although it works for brass I mostly like having it for cleaning firearm components.

 

[lead ƒarmer]

I use stainless with lemishine. When the tumblers done, I grab and handful and rub them around in a towel and then lay them out to dry. Repeat with the rest. If I'm in a hurry I turn a fan on them and they're dry in a few hours. No water spots for me.

 

[TacticalMirage]

I don't have one it is on me list. A buddy of mine has one and man, they always come out looking better then new. He just lets them air dry.

 

[jbailey]

I was driving my ultrasonic last night, cleaning 200 pcs. One thing I did that I don't normally do was turn the heater on. Boy that got the water really really hot, nearly boiling. That had the impact of signicantly speeding up the cleaning process, like cutting it in half, plus the cases came out cleaner.

I just let my cases air dry. I then find that the shine somewhat comes back when I lube and resize the cases. I don't really care how shiny the cases are however and they aren't as shiny as new brass or other folks' tumbled brass. But they are nice and clean inside, especially the primer pockets (which may or may not matter).

 

[Shooter McGavin]

I have both. Now I use the ultrasonic cleaner for cleaning parts. The STM is the way to go, for me.

 

[judgedelta]

I use the stainless media with the Thumblers, Lemishine and d/w detergent (whatever my wife uses, Joy probably). After cleaning and rinsing, I rinse again with common (70%) rubbing alcohol and roll in a towel. Then if it is warm outside, I put on a perforated pizza pan on the deck; or if cold out, I put on the stationary shelf in the dryer for about 15 minutes, still using the pizza pan. Bright and shiny and without a spot. The alcohol is good for several uses as it picks up the water and becomes diluted. The 90% alcohol would be stronger and last longer, but is more flammable, more expensive and harder to find. It will take a little trial and error to determine how long to run Thumbler to clean primer pockets. This is important only if you plan to load immediately after cleaning, as the crud in the pocket will hold water and might affect the primer. I run 2 pounds of brass, 5 pounds of media and a gallon of water, which adds up to around 15 pounds, the rated capacity of the machine. If you overload the little nylon bearings will squeal at you and the cleaning won't be as good. Good luck and be careful....

 

[VTSEAL]

Exactly what Judgedelta said. If I'm in a hurry, I'll toss them through the alcohol immediately after straining them through COLD water. If I am not in a hurry, they I towel dry them. No water spots with either method.

I take the step of shaking the shells out or tapping them on a towel to get water out of the primer pockets and shell bottoms. I tried blowing them out with dubious benefits. Something tells me a low pressure air compressor nozzle would do wonders but I haven't tried it.

 

[pbcaster45]

I rinsed my brass and tumble it in a bath towel. Then I place the the cases neck down in a bakers cooling rack (purchased from Wal Mart) on a baking pan covered with paper towels. Then its into a preheated 200 degree oven and turn off the heat. Works great!

If the brass is too short for the cooling rack I'll use a stainless spaghetti strainer.

 

[Doomslayer]

Thanks a lot for the tips and replies guys! Seems an order from stainless tumbling media.com is in the works for me!