Ultrasonics...

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1) Does anyone know where a person could cash-and-carry an ultrasonic lube solution? I am unable to find ultrasonic lubricant at Fleet Farm, Cabelas, Gander, Wolf's Den, or Gun Stop.

2) What are your favorite ultrasonic recipes for cleaning guns, brass, reloading equipment?

I bought a Harbor Freight Ultrasonic cleaner for under $70 out-the-door after 20% off coupon, looks to probably come out of the same China Ultrasonic Cleaner factory as the Lyman Turbo Sonic 2500. I wanted it for a few reasons: I want to clean more than brass, I want to wet-clean my brass to minimize/eliminate dust (especially lead dust) at home.

I figure I'll probably use a commercial gun cleaning solution (Hornady, Lyman, L&R) because it's so reasonably priced and will be infrequently used. I'll probably generally use various home-brews for cleaning brass and other general items. I ran a quick demo run with under 2 dozen cases and on the first try was able to get clean (but not shiny) cases using nothing more than hot tap water and a little liquid dish-soap.

Edited for clarification.

[Ghost]

I buy mine at fleet farm, why can't it come from there?

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I didn't see any ultrasonic gun lubricant when I was at the Oakdale store last night, they have ultrasonic gun cleaner and brass cleaner solutions. They also don't have the ultrasonic gun lubricant on their website.

Edited my OP, I have nothing against any of those stores (except Gander for being insanely priced, but if it's even in the same ballpark as online prices after shipping I'll gladly pay the price).

[BigDog58]

I have an ultrasonic cleaner and have used the Hornady L&L Gun Parts Cleaner with good results. But, I have never seen any type of Ultrasonic "Lube"? Are you certain you aren't confusing the gun cleaner for a Lube solution?

Try putting a little Lemi-Shine or Citric Acid in with your tap water and Dawn Dish soap. The cases will not come out as shiny as those tumbled in stainless steel pins (with same liquid solution), but they should come out a bit more shiny than without the acid.

Just don't go too heavy on the Lemi-Shine, or your brass will come out with a pink tinge. That can be easily corrected, by running your hottest tap water, with just a tiny pinch of Lemi-Shine, and your brass will lose the "pink" and turn back to a brass color. Don't ask how I know this to work

[crbutler]

Last time I brought ultrasonic lube it was from brownells.

Really, I had to use regular lube with it anyhow for the guns. Never bothered trying to clean brass with it.

You really need an air compressor to use the US cleaner on full guns.

[crbutler]

As far as I could tell, the only purpose for US lube is to make sure all the water is displaced.

[aprilian]

I am using the RCBS brass cleaner, it works better than the Hornady. I use the Lucas gun cleaner solution, which needs no instant oiling. It smells like floor wax (yuk) but that smell dissipates quickly.

[Ghost]

I didn't see any ultrasonic gun lubricant when I was at the Oakdale store last night, they have ultrasonic gun cleaner and brass cleaner solutions. They also don't have the ultrasonic gun lubricant on their website.

Edited my OP, I have nothing against any of those stores (except Gander for being insanely priced, but if it's even in the same ballpark as online prices after shipping I'll gladly pay the price).

I guess I was thinking cleaner, used both Hornady and Lyman. I use the cleaner and then when my guns come out of mine they get a good treatment of slip 2000 products.

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Looks like Lyman Lube from Midway is the least expensive option since it's currently on sale, I also have a coworker that wants a gallon so at least we can split the shipping which adds 25% or more to single gallon price.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/152245 ... lon-liquid

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I cleaned 431 pieces of outdoor range pick-up 9x19 brass this weekend. It was a "500 count bag" but by the time I threw out all the 380, 38-Super, 9x18, and stepped-on brass I had 431 left. I "worked up" cleaning solution in two stages: In the first stage I wanted to knock the sand and dirt off while finding the point of diminishing returns on soap (Gain liquid dish soap, original scent because that's the flavor my wife likes). I tested different concentrations of soap; 0.00%, 0.04%, 0.1%, and 0.2%, I felt that 0.2% didn't look any better than 0.1% so 0.1% is what I settled on. Then I dried, sized and de-primed the brass to work up the citric acid concentration. I expected to work up the acid concentration from 1% to maybe 5%, but stop when I realized diminishing returns or ended up with pink brass. It turns out 1% was enough so I need to start even lower next time.

I went metric for the math but my recipe for 0.1% soap and 1% acid was 1500ml tap water, 1.5ml soap, 15.6 grams citric acid.

In US units of measure it's approximately 1-1/2 quart (6 cups) water, 1/4 teaspoon soap, and 0.5 oz (240 grains) citric acid.

I also converted a citric acid volume to weight measurement: 1/2 leveled teaspoon weighs: 39.8 grains, 0.09 ounce, or 2.6 grams.

[aprilian]

This weekend I did a test to make my solution last longer. I ran the initial cleaning with water only. Then I used the RCBS citric acid solution for a final clean. I rinsed in tap water after and dried. everything looks good with the exception of about 2% of the primer pockets didn't come fully clean. Since it is my practice brass, I can live with that.

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My solution cleaned 431 pcs of brass without letting up, the solution was NASTY looking and you could hardly see the brass in there in the last couple batches. All of that brass had been cleaned with various concentrations of soap prior to being cleaned with soap + citric acid just to knock the rocks off of it. Soap & water does a perfectly acceptable job at cleaning... acid makes it pretty (and cleans a little better + faster).

I read somewhere on the interwebs about using the plastic insert from American Eagle ammo boxes to hold brass in the ultrasonic; I dug through an ammo can and found some Federal boxes with plastic inserts that had a huge open percent to let the ultrasonic pulses through and used those for testing with the citric acid solution. Using those plastics was a sweet deal and I need to get some more.

The brass-fairy visited me and left 750+ pieces of S&B and Remington once-fired 9mm brass on my chair at work this morning. (The brass fairy got a new Sig & wanted to run it until it malfunctioned.)

I need to get a universal decapping die next time I see one.

[UnaStamus]

I've used ultrasonic lubricant and solvent from Crest Ultrasonics in a professional capacity as an agency and SWAT armorer. The lubricant was total garbage. I looked into various ultrasonic-oriented lubricants, and learned that they're basically just a thinner formula. The only benefit to ultrasonic lubricant for gun parts is to rehydrate/recondition the metal with lubricant and displace any moisture. In looking into lubricants to replace the Crest stuff we had, I really didn't find a lot that wowed me. Slip2000 Ultra-Thin was the best I found, but I also learned that you can just use regular lubricant without issue. The thin ultrasonic stuff just dripped off and wiped up easier.