Wet or dry tumble

[223AI]

I have a Rebel 17 SSM tumbler and wouldn't bother with any other cleaning method these days - the most important part of case cleaning (and clearly a massive contributor to accuracy, as any damn fool knows) is the 'shininess quotient' and SSM tumbling increases shininess by a minimum shininess quotient of 408% over dry media and 972% over ultrasonic cleaning.

Mmmmm, shiny!

Those hornet cases you gave me were certainly shiny shiny!!

Will be after that trigger next month probably.

[Elliott]

Sod it, having looked into this a bit further I think I'm going to plumb for a normal dry tumbler and use it in conjunction with my US cleaner. Prob go for the Frankford Arsenal Quick-n-Ez Case Tumbler or the Lyman Case Tumbler Pro 1200

[bewsh]

i did have a SS tumbler but sold it after a short stint

it is noisy as hell
bit more of a faff seperating and cleaning off/out substrate and media
had several pieces of media that got stuck in a case and three little balls that got wedged into a primer pocket

went back to US cleaner with citric acid

not so shiny but very clean

[Elliott]

i did have a SS tumbler but sold it after a short stint

it is noisy as hell
bit more of a faff seperating and cleaning off/out substrate and media
had several pieces of media that got stuck in a case and three little balls that got wedged into a primer pocket
pocket
went back to US cleaner with citric acid

not so shiny but very clean

Out of interest where do you get the citric acid from?

[bullbarrel]

Internet, on that little auction site. 1 KG lasts several years.

And its fun to dip your finger in and lick

Or boots sell 75gm for lots of money and think you are a junky as its used to clean needles.

[Elliott]

Internet, on that little auction site. 1 KG lasts several years.

And its fun to dip your finger in and lick

Or boots sell 75gm for lots of money and think you are a junky as its used to clean needles.

Turns out Wilko's sell that and Bicarb relatively cheaply:
http://www.wilko.com/multi-purpose-c...g/invt/0332009

[sarge4318]

It stands to reason that it would, the ultra sonic cleaners rely on what is basically vibrations to dislodge dirt, any metal that vibrates is flexing slightly and will work harden, the steel used in the ultra sonic tanks will have a resonance frequency that's not any way near the frequency of the ultra sonic vibrations, the brass however could be a different matter

Not too sure about work hardening but in our NDT department at my old place of work I saw U/S cleaners cause pitting on plate (glass and aluminium) and a jeweller friend said it can shatter emeralds.
The glass plate had a patterns of pitting almost like a grid on it and the aluminium had a similar pattern but at a much wider spacing (not sure if this was because a different U/S machine was used or the different material - I think it may be the former and the spacing is a product of the frequency). I was told it was cavitational damage (or something like that, it was a while ago).

Not sure if this will affect the brass cases, or at the frequencies we are likely to use but I use a SS tumbler just in case.