Sonic Cleaners...

[Infidel762]

Looking at ordering a sonic cleaner and trying to determine which one I want. I liked the new Hornady 2L, but Midway won't have it until June or so according to their site. Found a comparable Lyman Turbo Sonic Cleaner Ultrasonic Case Cleaner 110 Volt. Anyone have one or know anything about it?

[312shooter]

I have never had a bad Lyman or Hornady product. I can tell you Hornady customer service is superior. Last call I made to Lyman it was as if the phone was forwarded to someones private residence and they acted as if I woke them from a deep sleep- no more Lyman for me! Hornady guys answer in two rings and simply send new parts no questions, no charge.

[bobpayne44]

Originally Posted by Infidel762

Looking at ordering a sonic cleaner and trying to determine which one I want. I liked the new Hornady 2L, but Midway won't have it until June or so according to their site. Found a comparable Lyman Turbo Sonic Cleaner Ultrasonic Case Cleaner 110 Volt. Anyone have one or know anything about it?

cant say enough positive about my Hornady Magnum Sonic Cleaner, Im still on my first bottle of hornady cleaner and have probably cleaned 5000 9mm
5000 40's 10,000 .223 and several others.

[RockinRiley]

I bought the harbor freight model, it has heat and many do not. It is very nice and larger than most. I did alot of research and could not find many bad posts about it. I just finished 350 9mm. I only did about 100 at a time!
http://www.harborfreight.com/25-lite...ner-95563.html
Combine it with a 20% coupon and you are good to go!

[LDBennett]

RockinRiley:

In reference to the Harbor Freight model, is the cavity big enough for a hand gun?

Have you tried a handgun in it?



LDBennett

[bobpayne44]

Originally Posted by RockinRiley

I bought the harbor freight model, it has heat and many do not. It is very nice and larger than most. I did alot of research and could not find many bad posts about it. I just finished 350 9mm. I only did about 100 at a time!
http://www.harborfreight.com/25-lite...ner-95563.html
Combine it with a 20% coupon and you are good to go!

yea the hornady has heat too but dont need it as after about the second or third round of cleanings the water is about 130 by itself.

i like the fact i can set the hornady at 99 minutes if i wanted to although very seldom does it ever go past 8 minutes and everything is sparkly.

[RockinRiley]

Originally Posted by LDBennett

RockinRiley:

In reference to the Harbor Freight model, is the cavity big enough for a hand gun?

Have you tried a handgun in it?



LDBennett

No, I am sorry, I really do not like to clean weapons that way, guess I am ol school army, but I will take a picture of my m&p full size when I get home if you wish. I think many will fit, unless you have a dirty harry!

[snuffy]

My harbor freight US works just fine for case cleaning, AND gun parts cleaning.





I'm currently using the Hornady one-shot case cleaning concentrate for case cleaning. No fussing around about finding lemi-shine and how much detergent to put in.

For gun parts, I use aqua clean from shooters choice;

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/311...-gallon-liquid

Placing a 1911 slide into the solution, results in all the crud and crap gone out of every crevice without complete dis-assembly. Of course the FP and it's channel as well as the extractor fit so tight that the cleaner solution won't get-er-done. Loose gun parts come out squeaky clean, NOTE if they're steel, they WILL rust real easy. The solution strips every bit of oil from every part. Re-lubing stuff is mandatory.


The measurements for the HF US cleaner are;3” D x 9-3/4” L x 5-1/2” W. 2.5 liter capacity.

[JohnTheCalifornian]

Are they noisy at all? Anything like a vibratory tumbler?

[Infidel762]

Originally Posted by bobpayne44

yea the hornady has heat too but dont need it as after about the second or third round of cleanings the water is about 130 by itself.

i like the fact i can set the hornady at 99 minutes if i wanted to although very seldom does it ever go past 8 minutes and everything is sparkly.

How sparkly? =)

[Infidel762]

Normally I run from harbor freight because I hate buying cheaply made products from China...but this looks IDENTICAL to the Lyman version....


bobpayne44 - Any negatives to the magnum cleaner? What makes it worth the ~250 price tag?

[LDBennett]

Infidel762:

Today EVERYTHING is made in China regardless that they may have American brand names on the box.

I too buy few tools from Harbor Freight but I do have a Chinese lathe that is adequate and has made many parts over the last 15 years. I have a Chinese (Harbor Freight) drill press that works great as well as a couple of bench sanders. Any power tool you buy today is almost guaranteed to be made in China, but sold by an old American company with their name on it. I just had two older air impact wrenches rebuilt for about what I could buy new ones for. The same exact model made today comes from China whereas the ones I had were made in America a couple of decades ago. The repair guy pointed out that the American made ones were superior in his experience (of course he would say that since he is a REPAIR person but I tend to agree with him).

If I wanted a sonic cleaner I would consider the Harbor Freight one but I would also consult my son who sells (among other things) expensive professional sonic cleaners. He has told me in the past that for cleaning things like guns the sonic frequency used by the sonic cleaner is super important. He has replaced the "wrong" ones for customers on many occasions. (He is trained in the hazardous waste business with a regular route where he services equipment and provides supplies to commercial businesses).

LDBennett

[woolleyworm]

Originally Posted by Infidel762

Normally I run from harbor freight because I hate buying cheaply made products from China...but this looks IDENTICAL to the Lyman version....


bobpayne44 - Any negatives to the magnum cleaner? What makes it worth the ~250 price tag?

i've seen them both side by side and they are off the same moulds and all the same parts, I'm 99.99% certain the come out of the same factory. With Lyman's name on it, you probably have a little more CS to back up any problems. I'm not familiar enough with HarborFrieghts policies if something breaks to know.

You can also find the Hornady Sonic cleaner in an off brand also.

[Infidel762]

I know it is harder and harder to avoid China... I know some things are quite good. I was actually just looking at the Hornady Magnum Cleaner and reading reviews on everything... It doesn't have much negatives besides price. Anyone use this one or heard anything about it?

[Bkbear]

Go to ebay and you can get a much better deal on the Hornady Mag Sonic cleaner. Some have free shipping and a quart of solution.

[bobpayne44]

Originally Posted by Infidel762

Normally I run from harbor freight because I hate buying cheaply made products from China...but this looks IDENTICAL to the Lyman version....


bobpayne44 - Any negatives to the magnum cleaner? What makes it worth the ~250 price tag?

just for grins the other night i loaded about 500 45 ACP cases in my lyman magnum tumbler 2500 while it was running i started cleaning the rest of the 45 acp's in the sonic cleaner about 1500 @ around 175-200 or so at a time at 4 to 8 minutes a load well i got them all done and went to tumbler and that load of 500 was not half done yet, i ended up letting it run about 10 hours total to ge tthe same result as 4 to 8 minutes in the sonic cleaner.

yea you have to wait for them to dry before loading but i usually have several 1000 rounds ready to reload and i get most of my brass brought to me so when im sitting around the house bored cause it to cold or rainy to be out on the Goldwing i clean brass, figure if i do that during the winter i will have plenty to load durin the summer since summer is for riding and shooting not cleaning brass

what i do also is fill a 5 gallon bucket about half full of hot water and as they come out of the sonic cleaner i just throw them in the 5 gallon bucket when im all done with what ever size im cleaning i rincse them all and throw them out on a towel in my loading room and let a fan blow on them for a couple hours then put them 2500 at a time into the clear Tupperware style 2 gallon plastic buckets you get at lowes till im ready to load them

[bobpayne44]

Originally Posted by Infidel762

Normally I run from harbor freight because I hate buying cheaply made products from China...but this looks IDENTICAL to the Lyman version....


bobpayne44 - Any negatives to the magnum cleaner? What makes it worth the ~250 price tag?

also the magnum has 2 strong transducers where all the other ones only have 1 transducer so its twice as strong

i mix 1 ounce of the hornady cleaner with 40 ounces of water and have cleaned i bet 3000-4000 .223 and 45 acp cases without changing the water.

[Infidel762]

Hmmm after doing more research on it I might have to get one of these things.

[LDBennett]

bobpayne44:

While I am not against the sonic cleaners, several things stand out:

First, few of us have that quantity of brass that needs cleaning all at once.

For a vibratory cleaner the time to clean enough is very dependent on the media chosen. Walnut shells are aggressive and clean rapidly whereas corn cob media can take forever to clean as it is really just a polishing media. A couple of hours in my vibratory cleaner with walnut shell media is more than adequate even for some of the dirtiest cases.

While the elapsed time may be more in the vibratory cleaner (??), I turn it on and go do something else. With the sonic cleaner you are stuck there for about the same time or even less but your investment in time is more because you are there loading and unloading the sonic cleaner many times with a bunch of 5 minute breaks while it runs.

Thank you, but for now I'll stick to my vibratory cleaner and walnut shell media. But I'll admit the sonic cleaner may get some of the internals of the cases clean whereas the vibratory cleaner only cleans the worst of the internal part of the case, if at all.

Where I see the sonic cleaner can help is in gun cleaning, pistols naturally, as a sonic cleaner to clean rifles could cost an arm and a leg. But it has to be the right one to do the job right. I'd defer the question of which one to my expert son and it probably would be expensive. He claims there is a big difference between sonic cleaners.

LDBennett

[daboone]

Originally Posted by LDBennett

RockinRiley:In reference to the Harbor Freight model, is the cavity big enough for a hand gun? Have you tried a handgun in it?
LDBennett

The larger HF unit does an impressive job on my BHP, Makarov and XDM frames, slides and bolts. Even after a thorough cleaning of these parts the HF unit causes the cleaning liquid to discolor. It leaches out crud I would have other wised missed. I wish the tank was larger.