I have been thinking about buying an ultrasonic cleaner for both pistols and brass.

When cleaning brass with liquid in an ultrasonic cleaner, how do you dry it? (the brass, not the ultrasonic cleaner).

Skip it... never got great results.

If you're going to wet clean - stainless pins or chips tumbling is the way to go. Inside and out are factory new. Primer pockets are perfectly clean.

Simple process - water, dawn dishsoap, and a little lemishine. Tumble for 1-3hrs. Rinse and let dry.

Andrew

After ultrasonic cleaning you just set the brass out to dry. After getting one I found I used it more to clean my AR BCG and small parts than my brass. I always had more brass to clean and dry than the capacity of the cleaner allowed.

I went that way years back,dry in oven on low heat works also in a stainless colander on bbq grill top worked as well in the sun.
Then that pretty brass bit me in the ass when I tried to load it.
Took way too much force to seat boolets!Qaulded the crap out of the skirts.Well the remedy was back into the tumbler to solve that super clean brass.

I think y'all are talking me out of it, at least for cleaning brass.

How about for cleaning pistols? Good? Bad?

Had a s/w 5906 recovered and returned,was the grungiest thing I ever had to deal with.
Took the stocks of and slapped it in to the sonic cleaner.
That thing came out super clean,air blew it dry,oiled it and could not be any happier.

For brass, V-Tail, invest in the Rebel 17. GREAT SS wet tumbling platform!

You might have seen my post about cleaning weapons/parts in my ultrasonic cleaner. I’ve sent emails to the manufacturers asking their advice. I will post it here if/when I receive a reply.

Well I like mine. I run it for 8 minutes with hot water, a couple drops of dawn and a sprinkle of Lemishine and it works just fine, fast and cheap. I guess I don’t run it long enough to have to deal with the galling as I’ve never had feeding problems. Maybe this is heresy but I really care if it shines like it’s fresh off the production floor so long as it goes bang.

Hey Mr. V-Tail...I wanted to post this last night, but was on my iPad...PITA to post a video from that. Gavin of Ultimate Reloader did a review of the RCBS Ultrasonic Cleaner and showed his process of cleaning some rifle brass with it...



As you can see, the capacity is pretty small if your intent is to clean in large batches, which I prefer to do. I can see this cleaner being useful if all you do is reload maybe up to 100 rounds per year for your rifle hunting ammo.

If you decide to go the wet tumbling route, here's a link to the Rebel 17 I mentioned above...

https://stainlesstumblingmedia...mblers-rebel-17.html

I bought two of these and run them in tandem for about 4 hours to clean a boat-load of brass. Pretty much comes out looking factory new with pristine primer pockets, but I know that's not a priority with a lot of folks that reload. As for drying, I have two methods:
1. During the summer, just spread the wet brass out on a towel and put it outside in the hot Texas sun.
2. If indoors or in colder weather, I'll turn the oven on to the lowest setting, spread the brass on a cookie sheet, and place it in the oven for about an hour or so or until dry (add salt and pepper to taste... ); plenty of Youtube vids of that process.

As a side note, I ALWAYS deprime my brass before wet tumbling so the primer pockets get nice and clean. This helps with not having water trapped at the bottom of the case in the flash hole or pocket from tumbling.

ETA:
I just got a response from H&K and Smith & Wesson. They both emphatically do NOT recommend the use of an Ultrasonic Cleaner to clean their weapons or parts...could damage them. Too bad I lost all mine in the Gulf from that boating incident...

I have used both the small hornady ultrasonic cleaner and the harbor freight lyman knockoff (or visa versa) The hf one works great, hthe eats up nice. I even would preheat the water to 120, the unit will take it up to 140. I used distilled water and hornady's sonic solution. My problem is it works to well. Yea ultra clean cases are pretty, but the necks get squeaky clean and it mad my es and sd's double if not more. I may use them after a 1/2 dozen firings or so, but not after every firing. Some carbon in the neck has been helpful. I mostly just tumble in corn cob now.

I got into the wet tumbling with stainless steel pins a while back and have been pleased with the results, especially the clean primer pockets. No experience with the ultrasonic cleaners but a recommendation to whichever way you go to dry the brass is to use a food dehydrator. Found one in the basement that my mother bought decades ago when she was on her health-food kick (ugh)and having been using it to dry brass for the past few years. Works great!