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What Is The Best Way To Clean Brass?

Best Method For Cleaning Brass

  • Ultrasonic Cleaner

    Votes: 4 44.4%
  • Vibrating Tumbler

    Votes: 1 11.1%
  • Rotary Tumbler

    Votes: 3 33.3%
  • Polls are stupid...😜

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • Total voters
    9

10mmLife

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Staff member
Founding Member
I'm new to reloading and I just bought a Lyman pro Magnum 2500 with auto flo to get started with cleaning my brass.

Should I have chosen a different (better) system to clean the brass?

What are some tips I could use from your experience to make things easier?

I purchased some walnut media to get started and I already have about 1000 .300blk cases I will clean first along with roughly the same amount of
10mm that I've been collecting.
 
I've always used a vibration tumbler. It's worked very well so I've had no reason to replace it.
I've used both walnut and corncob. I've found walnut to be the one I used for very dirty brass, it can be a little aggressive.
Corncob cleans very well not nearly as aggressive and shines the brass much better than walnut. Walnut would be the satin finish to corncobs gloss. I'm real partial to Dillons brass cleaner.
 
I've always used a vibration tumbler. It's worked very well so I've had no reason to replace it.
I've used both walnut and corncob. I've found walnut to be the one I used for very dirty brass, it can be a little aggressive.
Corncob cleans very well not nearly as aggressive and shines the brass much better than walnut. Walnut would be the satin finish to corncobs gloss. I'm real partial to Dillons brass cleaner.
How much cleaner to media ratio do you use?
 
I have all the different types. Ultrasonic is the one I like least. I can't do a large batch, and it really doesn't get the hard grime. I now use that cleaner for cleaning parts.

Vibrating media. I've been using this method the longest, it does a good job, but the length of time needed can be half a day. Plus it's rather noisy.

Tumbler using stainless pins. This is my preferred method. It gets the job done really well and only takes about 60-90 minutes. The only drawback is separating the pins from the brass. Using the separator for the media (corn cob) works well for everything but .22lr cases which I use to swage into .223 jackets. For that, I need to put a course screen in the separator and it takes a while. I prefer the pins over the balls. but be careful what pins you get. I use 0.047 x 0.255 inch. Make sure you verify that size. Don't buy the 0.041 or 0.042 inch pins because those pins will jam in the case because they can get into the flash hole in the primer pocket.

tumbler.jpg
 
Use a magnet to seperate the pins.

 
I have all the different types. Ultrasonic is the one I like least. I can't do a large batch, and it really doesn't get the hard grime. I now use that cleaner for cleaning parts.

Vibrating media. I've been using this method the longest, it does a good job, but the length of time needed can be half a day. Plus it's rather noisy.

Tumbler using stainless pins. This is my preferred method. It gets the job done really well and only takes about 60-90 minutes. The only drawback is separating the pins from the brass. Using the separator for the media (corn cob) works well for everything but .22lr cases which I use to swage into .223 jackets. For that, I need to put a course screen in the separator and it takes a while. I prefer the pins over the balls. but be careful what pins you get. I use 0.047 x 0.255 inch. Make sure you verify that size. Don't buy the 0.041 or 0.042 inch pins because those pins will jam in the case because they can get into the flash hole in the primer pocket.

View attachment 12119
Thanks!

Sounds like some solid advice!
 
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