For those using ultra-sonic cleaners to clean their brass, what's your cleaning solution recipe? 

 

I've had OK results with Simple Green and suck with it for a while due to having so much of it lying around.

I'm now using a hot water, vinegar, salt and Dawn dish detergent mix with fairly decent results.

I think I'm going to try Castrol super clean, hot water and vinegar next. 

 

Just curious to what others had good luck using. 

Well I wet tumble my brass and used dawn at first but then noticed tarnishing on the brass after it was dried. I switched to any type of car wash/wax and that has cleaned well and the wax prevents tarnishing after cleaning. Not too sure how well that will work in a sonic cleaner tho.

Currently using RCBS Ultrasonic Cleaner and it works pretty okay. Still have most of a quart left so I'll be using that for a bit!

Car wash you say?

 

I too have been noticing tarnish over time after using dishsoap and lemishine.  I thought it might be the case lube attracting gunk.

I have to try the car wash.

Can you give an example of the car wash soap?

Since I find shiny to be a waste of time, I use HOT water or HOT water and Dawn (Dawn keeps the dirt suspended, no Dawn lets the dirt settle to the bottom).

Citric acid seems to be for shine.

Unless you have some coating on the brass, it will "tarnish" with oxygen/water exposure.

Nu-Finish is the common additive for tumbling--it contains an abrasive and leaves a polymer film.

Any car wash that states that it has a wax in the solution, usually I find the one that's on sale. The brass tarnishes because the wet tumble removes the protective coating that comes from the factory. Raw brass exposed to the air will tarnish, the wax in the wash will replace this coating. My brass for the most part retains its shine compared to tumbles I have done with just dawn. 

 

Usually I tumble a couple hundred handgun cases at a time for an hour and a half to 2 hours.

 

And I've put thousands of rounds through my firearms, it is in no way any different that factory loads and does not hurt the chambers.

I bought a jug of meguiars car wash with wax and my brass has never looked so good. No post drying tarnish at all.