SmallCaliberCentral

I ran mine through a couple of hours in the vibratory cleaner, with the usual media. Getting the media out was a chore; I had to do a lot of shaking, poking with a pipe cleaner, and to be safe looked in each case with a bore light. Is there a finer grade of tumbling media, or another cleaning process I should try?

Even though I've heard a lot of good reports on the ultrasonic cleaning process, I haven't tried it. I use standard walnut media. I use a toothpick to get the media out of my flash holes. Then I use a primer pocket uniformer to clean the primer pockets.

Sitting at my reloading bench is good therapy for me. I have always liked to tinker with things. To me, it's relaxing.

I tumble my brass before I resize it because I don't like to pick flasholes. And, if I neck size, I don't have to worry about cleaning any lube off later. After I sift the brass and media over a bucket, I bang two at a time together until I get everything out of the case and so on. It's a little bit of a pain because the .204 hole is not very big, but that's how I do it any ways.

My method is exactly like yotesmoker's to a tee (walnut media). No sense tumbling without the fired primers seated and clog up the pocket and flash hole with media, as it will be uniformed/cleaned anyway. Tumbling prior to sizing also cleans the cases prior to entry into your expensive precision dies. I usually neck size only with Imperial Dry Sizing Neck Lube (graphite/moly powder), so it's then just an easy wipe with a shop towel to get off.

By the way, for F/L resizing, Imperial Sizing Wax is the hot ticket. Just smear just a tiny bit on with your fingers, size, then just wipe off with a rag or paper towel, no thick mess or overspray residue, no gunk, very easy to remove and even works great for wildcat case forming. The best stuff I've ever used, and preferred by BR shooters.

probably not a good idea but what about some of the chemical cleaners?

I've heard of a product called IOSSO. Anyone try it?
Here's a review:
http://www.realguns.com/archives/072.htm

homefront wrote:I ran mine through a couple of hours in the vibratory cleaner, with the usual media. Getting the media out was a chore; I had to do a lot of shaking, poking with a pipe cleaner, and to be safe looked in each case with a bore light. Is there a finer grade of tumbling media, or another cleaning process I should try?

I use a tumbler and ultrasonic unit. I always clean before any sizing is done.

If I want near to new clean inside and out I'll use the ultrasonic cleaner --> ( http://rugerhunting.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2658 ). I use a universal de-primer to remove the primers so the primer pocket gets cleaned as well.

If I need a quick dry cleaning I'll tumble them.

A trick I use to get the media out of the cases. Run the vibrator with the top off and touch the case (mouth down) to the inside edge of the vibrator. It will quickly vibrate the media out of the case, then I use a small jewelers screwdriver to clean the flash hole (if needed). I'm using corn media.

WW

Unless they are extremely dirty (which I'll tumble first), I full length mine and run them in some of the Lyman Red media in my vibrator tumbler.. After spinning in my separator several times, I may have a few that still have a piece of media in the flash hole and I remove this with a small knitting needle.

I can have a hundred cases cleaned in a max of 2 hours and ready for trimming if necessary and priming.

Is there something I'm missing? Why spend all that time cleaning brass? The sizing wax protects the die. Is it for looks? We don't do it in benchrest competition. Why do it in varmint guns?

Because we're (I'm) anal! For me, after going thru all the trouble of prepping and uniforming cases, working up loads, it is nice to have ammunition that looks and shoots better than anything you buy in a box. It also helps you look for any abnormalities and cracks as you're going through the steps. It may help with feeding better. It gives me satisfaction with my finished product most importantly to me.

If you read the information in the link that WrzWaldo listed for you about ultrasonic case cleaning, then you know how I get my casings sparkling clean. I DO NOT clean them that way before reloading every time though. I, too, have a vibratory cleaner and use corn cob media at times and also walnut hull media. I usually use a universal decapping die to remove the primer and then, if they need cleaning I use the vibrating tub. The reason I decap the casings before neck sizing is two-fold: 1) I DO NOT WANT any powder/primer residue inside my Wilson neck sizing dies, and 2) running the casings in the vibrating cleaner does clean out some of the residue in the primer pocket, but not all.

I run my vibrated casing through the separator that came with my outfit and seldom have any cleaning media stuck in the flash hole, but I still run the flash hole deburring tool into each casing and do a light touchup just the same. I take the casings out of the separator, pour them on a clean towel and roll them around to try to remove any media dust on them. I also use compressed air to try to remove and any media dust from the inside of the casings. After those steps, I'm ready to size the necks or do a full-length resizing if it is time for that step.

I never knew what all this media dust talk was about till tonight.
I just used Frankford Arsenal Walnut media for the first time. Looks like I was power sanding a red oak tree in the basement

On the bright side its so fine it runs right through .059 Lapua 6BR flash holes.
I'm gonna have to sift all the dust out of it though

rayfromtx wrote:Is there something I'm missing? Why spend all that time cleaning brass? The sizing wax protects the die. Is it for looks? We don't do it in benchrest competition. Why do it in varmint guns?

It may just be a personal thing but I worry that uncleaned brass will scratch my chamber or contribute to feeding or extraction problems.

I'm concerned that the powder residue will effect the inside of my die, despite the wax, or even create a build-up because of the wax.
I have to wonder - is there enough residue, especially after multiple firings, to change the interior volume of the case, however slightly?

homefront: At operating pressures in excess of 50,000 psi, there is not enough residue of any kind left in the case to cause even the slightest amount of reduced case volume. Don't sweat the microscopic stuff, there are much more important things to fret about when handloading, and this is not one of them.

With all the good and varied advice given you in this post, case cleaning should now be the least of your worries. But in all fairness to your question, I've got some .223 Remington cases reformed from 222 Rem Mag cases back around 1980. They have been shot many, many times over all these years with reasonable loads, and they are still going strong, having been tumbled and cleaned in my vibratory tumbler with walnut media (Lyman) at least every third firing, and there is still no sign of case deterioration or increased pressure from lessened internal volume. But your question does show you're thinking!