Ultra Sonic Cleaners vs Case Tumblers

[bsouthernau]

once you have painstakingly sorted a less than ideal batch the last thing you will want to do is bulk clean them and get them out of order.

I keep mine sorted by tumbling them in those mesh bags you buy oranges in.

[DenisA]

Both SS media tumbling and U/S cleaning have there pros and cons.

For years I was U/S cleaning everything, went to SS tumbling for a couple of years and now I'm back to U/S cleaning.

For anyone looking at buying a SS media tumbler, understand that repeated tumbling peens (mushrooms) the case mouth which creates a lip on the O.D and I.D of the mouth. The lip on the I.D will catch a scribe and will shave copper from the bullet when seating and possibly firing, the lip on the O.D will catch your nail.
Its manageable but requires a lot more chamfering and deburring.

Below is a picture of a peened case next to a chamfer and deburred case and then another picture of a single peened case. You can see the irregularity or ripple on the surface of the case mouth which is a mushroomed edge. This case has probably been cleaned 4 times in a SS media tumbler without Chamf & deburr. No doubt that the amount of time the cases are left in the tumbler would change the rate of peening.

[UL1700]

I had exactly the same experience as Dennis, tumbling is slow, damaging and has the risk of trapped pins. I have found ultrasonics to yield the same or better results and I can have a batch of cases ready to load in half an hour.

[superx10]

Hi Peter
Thank you for your detailed reply.