sonic cleaners

M

mnamo

Guest
I've been considering purchasing a sonic cleaner and was wondering if I could get some input from anyone whom might have some experience with them. I've seen where Hornady has two models out, one at around $100 and a "magnum" model at around $250. After a little looking on the net I've found where Lyman has a cleaner that they sell also. It appears to be a model that is sold by various other names for various other purposes.
I would expect the Hornady models to be set-up mainly for the purpose of cleaning brass while some of the other brands not so much. The cycle time set-up for the Hornady machines would be optimised for brass cleaning I would suppose while the others not so much.
My main purpose for the machine would be brass cleaning but I have other uses in mind also. I'd like an American made machine if possible ( good luck, right? ) but a PRC machine last. I don't know how user friendly any or these machines might or might not be, so any ideas or concerns are welcome. Thanks.

Mark
 
I bought the $100 Hornady last year when they were first introduced. The magnum model came later. The first few batches I cleaned were with 6ppc brass that had been fired many times and run through a vibratory cleaner a few times. They came out cleaner than from the vibrator but still had carbon in the case necks. I have found that if you start with new brass and clean them after every firing the carbon in the necks is removed. Also the cleaner doesn't get all of the carbon out of the primer pockets. I now uniform the pockets before cleaning which works fine. The cleaner is very user friendly. You simply press a button to select up to four 120 second cycles for a maximum of eight minutes at a time. I get the best results with four eight minute cycles. I have been using Hornady's One Shot Sonic Clean Solution at $19.95 per qt. One quart will yield 10 gallons of cleaning solution when diluted in distilled water. The final cost/gal. is a little over $2.00 which includes the cost of the distilled water. The amount of solution used per cleaning can vary as you use only enough to completely submerge the cases. I believe the maximum amount of solution the unit can hold is one qt. I have used the cleaner with the same solution to clean a gold ring which came out squeaky clean and shiny.
 
If you look on ebay you will see the same exact model Hornady sells from a different company. Selling/making them before hornady. Hornady looks the same jsut a diff color.
They are usually about 30-50.
I got one and it works great.
There are some links here and on 6br about cleaning and diff solutions.
 
I'll vouch for the stainless pins. They work great. Only problem I've had was they hang up in some .257 cal. casenecks . Easy enough to clear out though. I haven't tried them on my black powder cases yet, but they should be great for that also.

They won't work in a standard vibratory cleaner though, as they are to heavy for the little motors to move much. Probably burn up the motor after a short while. I tried it in my vibe unit just for grins, and I could tell the motor was not happy.
 
Butch,
The stainless steel pins look like a great way to clean brass, it's something to look into further. But, one of the reasons I was looking into the sonic type cleaners is because I was also thinking about trying to use it to clean air brush equipment too and what ever else we could think of. It looks like I might have give both ideas some thought now. Thanks for the input.

Mark
 
This is the one I have been using: http://cgi.ebay.com/160-WATT-2-5-LI...170?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item483f3082f2

I paid $100 for mine. It does a good job for rifle cases. It doesn't work on stuff heavily caked. Just lightly dirty cases. But most of the cases from our guns come out of the gun pretty clean anyway, so the ultrasonic cleaner works well on them.

I always use 50/50 water vinegar, which works good. I repeat cleaning 4 times on 8 minute cycles. The cleaner I linked does 8 minute cycles max. It also has a built in water heater. After the 32 minutes of cleaning, I pour Birchwood Casey brass cleaner concentrate in, a couple teaspoons to the same solution, and run one or two 8 minute cycles. Cases come out nice and shiny after that. I throw them in the oven at 160F degrees to dry them.
 
I saw that one but its a newer version dont know if its larger or not.
But the one I bought is identical the the Hornady one except it was white and gray instead of red and black. And it was between 30-50.
 
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