The first two handloaders in this series disagreed about cleaning more than anything else. One cleaned once, near the end, mostly to strip lube. One cleaned twice and bracketed his whole prep routine with it.
This last one is an engineer here, and when we asked him for his reloading process he sent back a cleaning process. Not an oversight. That is where the attention goes, and the result is the most specified routine of the three: temperatures, dilution ratios and run times at every stage.
- Vibratory tumble in walnut, only when the brass calls for it
- Full-length size and decap, using case lube
- Ultrasonic clean, 30 to 45 minutes
- Rotary clean in fresh solution, 15 to 20 minutes
- Back in the rotary with hand towels, 2 to 5 minutes
- Dehydrator, 30 to 45 minutes
Before Anything Gets Wet
Walnut, but only if the brass has earned it
A vibratory tumble in walnut shell media is the first step, and it is the only conditional step in the whole routine. It comes out for range brass, for cases carrying heavy carbon, and for anything that came out of a gas gun.
Everything else skips it. That is the part worth pausing on, because most handloaders tumble every case that crosses the bench whether it needs it or not. Here the walnut is a triage step. Its job is to knock the worst of the fouling off so the wet stages that follow are not wasting their working life on grime that dry media could have handled.
Walnut rather than corn cob for the same reason: it is the more aggressive of the two, which is exactly what filthy brass wants and what lightly used brass does not need.
Full-length size and decap
Sizing and decapping happen next, using Case Slick spray lube or standard case lube. The decapping pin stays in, so spent primers come out as part of the same stroke.
Two things about the position of this step. It puts lube on every case, which is the reason the cleaning that follows has to happen at all. And it opens every primer pocket before a single case touches water.
The handloader in Part 2 of this series deprimes as a dedicated first operation on a single stage press, before any cleaning at all. This one gets there as a side effect of sizing.
Different sequence, identical logic: a primer pocket with a spent primer still in it cannot be cleaned by anything. Open it first and the pocket comes clean for free during a stage you were running anyway.
The Two Wet Stages
This is where the process separates itself. Two wet cleanings back to back, each with its own solution, temperature and run time, and each doing a job the other one is not doing.
Ultrasonic, hot, for 30 to 45 minutes
Cases go into an ultrasonic cleaner at 140°F with brass cleaning solution mixed 40:1, and run for 30 to 45 minutes.
Ultrasonic cleaning works by cavitation, which means the solution reaches anywhere it can flow. Inside the case, into the neck, into the primer pocket that step two just opened. No media, no pins, nothing mechanical that has to physically fit through the case mouth.
Rotary, in a fresh batch of solution, 15 to 20 minutes
Then straight into a rotary case cleaner with a fresh batch of the same solution at the same 40:1 ratio, hot water again at roughly 120 to 140°F, run for 15 to 20 minutes. His own description of what comes out is that the brass is better than new.
The word doing the work in that sentence is fresh. The ultrasonic stage already pulled off the carbon and residue, so the rotary is working on brass that is mostly clean going in. Its solution stays clean as a result, which means it drains off at the end still usable and gets saved for next time.
| Stage | Solution | Temperature | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ultrasonic | 40:1 | 140°F | 30–45 min |
| Rotary | 40:1, fresh | 120–140°F | 15–20 min |
| Towel cycle | None | — | 2–5 min |
| Dehydrator | — | — | 30–45 min |
Both wet stages are specified hot, and that is a deliberate choice rather than a convenience. Cleaning chemistry works faster and more completely in hot water than in cold, which is the same reason a dishwasher heats its own supply.
It is also the easiest thing in this entire article to copy. If you already own a wet cleaner and you have been filling it from the cold tap, that is a free improvement available to you tonight.
Getting the Water Out
Wet cleaning has one real cost, and it is not the cleaning. It is the wait afterward. Two of the six steps in this process exist purely to shorten that wait.
Back into the rotary with a few hand towels
After the solution is drained off, the cases go back into the rotary with a few hand towels and run for another two to five minutes. The towels tumble with the brass and wick the standing water off before it ever reaches a heat source.
This is the best trick in the article and it costs nothing. Everyone who wet cleans has towels. Very few people think to put them in the drum.
Dehydrator, 30 to 45 minutes
The last of the moisture comes off in a food dehydrator for 30 to 45 minutes. Low steady heat and moving air, which gets water out of the inside of a case in a way that leaving brass on a towel overnight does not reliably manage.
Because the towel cycle already took the bulk of the water off, the dehydrator is finishing rather than starting. That is what keeps it to 30 to 45 minutes instead of several hours.
What Is Worth Stealing Here
Every stage is set up by the one before it. Walnut takes the worst off so the ultrasonic is not wasted on grime. The ultrasonic does the hard chemical work so the rotary's solution stays clean enough to save. The towels take the standing water so the dehydrator only has to finish. Pull any one step out and the next one gets worse at its job.
Make the first step conditional. Range brass and gas gun brass get the walnut tumble. Everything else does not. Cleaning is not free, and matching the effort to how dirty the brass actually is beats running every case through every stage out of habit.
Write down your numbers. Temperature, dilution and run time are specified at every stage here. Most handloaders could not tell you any of the three for their own process, which makes it very hard to know whether a change helped. Numbers are what turn a routine into something you can improve.
Towels in the drum. Free, takes five minutes, and cuts a meaningful chunk off the longest wait in wet cleaning.
Where the three of them landed
Across this series, three handloaders cleaned their brass once, twice and up to four times. They disagreed about whether to clean before sizing or only after, about wet versus dry, about pins versus media versus cavitation, and about whether polished brass is worth anything at all.
What all three agreed on, without discussing it, is that cases get cleaned after sizing, because all three use lube and lube has to come off. Beyond that single point of contact, they built three genuinely different benches, and all three of them turn out good ammunition. That is worth remembering the next time somebody tells you there is one right way to do this.
See It Done on the Bench
Setup, technique and side-by-side comparisons are easier to watch than to read. The RCBS channel covers the cleaners, media and solutions in this article, plus new gear as it lands.
Gear in this process
- Vibratory Case Polisher — the conditional first stage
- Case Cleaning Media, Formula 1 Walnut — the aggressive dry media
- Case Slick Spray Lube — sizing
- Case Lube-2 — sizing
- Rifle Dies — full-length sizing and decapping
- Ultrasonic Case Cleaner 2 — first wet stage
- Rotary Case Cleaner — second wet stage and the towel cycle
- Ultrasonic/Rotary Case Cleaning Solution — mixed 40:1 for both stages
- Rotary Case/Media Separator — separating brass from walnut media
This article describes one handloader's cleaning process, not load data. Whatever process you borrow from, start from published data for your cartridge, component combination and firearm, and work up carefully.
More How-To Guides
From case prep to crimping, the RCBS Reloading Hub has you covered at every step of the process.
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