Help me choose my first brass cleaner

[naz]

[JackEllis]

What do you think?
Thanks!

Save yourself time, money and hassle. Wash the spent cases in hot water with a bit of Lemishine or other acidic cleaner and a few drops of dish soap. Rinse well and dry. Most cases look pretty good on the outside after this treatment and the only ones that don't have been sitting out in the weather. If you want the insides a bit cleaner, use hotter water than you can get from the tap and let them sit longer, then agitate (I stir with a stick) before draining and rinsing.

Best I can tell, the only reason to polish brass is so it looks pretty. If you want to spend the time, effort and money, you'll get advice from people who use every method available (ultrasonic, wet and dry).

[TheReluctantCraftstronaut]

I don't have experience with sonic cleaners, but I have a Lyman wet tumbler and like it.

[Donny1]

Dry tumblers are cheap it's easy to throw them in for a couple hours and walk away. I do this after cleaning the crud by a similar method stated above, 3 parts hot water, 1 part vinegar dish soap and salt.

They come out like new.

[sofbak]

For small, inexpensive, (relatively) quiet, and fast-the harbor freight rock tumbler is a good "wet process" brass cleaner. And if you don't care about clean primer pockets or case interiors, you can skip the ss pins and just use soap/lemishine.

Still have to dry the cases, but you'll do that with an ultra-sonic vat too.

[kcheung2]

^ I have that same rock tumbler & it’s also good for dry tumbling with walnut.

[sofbak]

^^^Stands to reason. AFAIK, rocks are dry polished too.

[HKmongoose]

Following

[tyler_sti]

I love my RCBS wet tumbler, even comes with 5lbs of SS pins(expensive by themselves) 30min in the tumbler with a little rcbs cleaner and my brass looks new. Highly recommend. Also you are mistaken if you think an ultrasonic cleaner is quiet.

[tabascoz28]

Sold my sonic cleaner almost immediately after 1 use. Deprime, solution, clean, maybe clean again, dry....

Dry vibration with a light timer for 3 hours do something else and come back later.

[naz]

And if you don't care about clean primer pockets or case interiors.

Sorry for the noob question but I thought I “should” care about those things?

If it’s ok for me to not care and just wash the cases without equipment, that’s amazing

Also, for the method Jack suggested, I should pop out the used primers first before washing, right?

THANK YOU everyone for the advice

[Divernhunter]

I have used a Midway vib tumbler with treated corn cob media and a cut up used dryer sheet each load for many years with great results.
Do not really need to clean primers pockets but if you feel a need then there are tolls for that as well as trimming and chamfering

[Cowboy T]

I just dry-tumble them with a 50/50 mixture of crushed walnut and treated crushed corn cob. Pour the cases in, turn it on, and walk away for about 3 hours. Cases come out looking beautiful.

One time, when it was pretty cold out, I inadvertently left the tumbler going all night. Oops. Didn't seem to hurt the tumbler any, or the brass.

[sofbak]

^^^3 hours????

With the cheapo harbor freight rock tumbler, I can get 200 .45 colt cases shiny new in less than one hour. And the "shake drying" method takes about 5 minutes.

My FA dry tumbler is available fs if anyone wants to try dry tumbling.

[Cowboy T]

I'm using a vibratory tumbler vs. a rock tumbler. Vibratory tumblers take a bit longer, as the action is gentler, but you can stuff 300 to 400 cases into them.