Brass cleaning/polishing question

[JMSnodgrass]

I am relatively new to reloading and have done about 3k rounds of 9mm and 200 rounds of 45 cases. I wet tumble with SS Pins, Dawn dish soap, and a bit of Lemi-Shine. After tumbling for a couple of hours using a Harbor Freight 6# dual tank rock polisher my brass comes out clean and bright. I immediately spread out the cases on a paper towel on a cookie sheet to dry. My problem is after a couple of days the cases have lost their shine. What can I do differently to help the cases keep their shine/brightness?

 

[bwframe]

No offense my friend, but you are being too particular. You are the only one who thinks that your brass isn't shiny enough.

That said, I use a Franklin brass dryer and media separator that tumbles the most of the water out before drying.

You might try backing off of the lemishine and or rinsing more to get the acid thoroughly off.

No matter what you do, unless you vacuum pack, brass will get dingy. Humidity contributes to that.


.

 

[mark40sw]

Having shiny brass is very important. If you can't shoot well, you should at least look good with sparkling brass. I take it very seriously

As mentioned, too much lemishine can dull brass by leaching zinc out of brass. I use about a 9mm to 45acp brass full for a Franklin tumbler full.

After tumbling with dish detergent and lemishine, I will rinse. Then fill & tumble with tablespoon of armour-all wash&wax. Then, not rinsing, pour out brass & let dry. A thin layer of silicone will form and keep brass looking good.

I don't tumble with pins anymore. Brass just as clean without pins with the insides somewhat clean.

I had a heck of a time with pistol brass sticking on the dillon funnels. Between not having the insides polished and armor-all silicone film. Sticking not much of a problem.

 

[Bill2905]

Wet tumbling with pins and Lemi Shine requires some trial and error to figure out what works best with your particular setup. Sounds like you are using too much Lemi Shine. When I first trialed it, my brass turned out with a brownish tint like tea. Cutting back the Lemi Shine solved this.

When I wet tumble 223 cases, I use the Harbor Freight tumbler with dual 3 pound containers and use only up to a full Lee 0.3 cc powder dipper per tumbler. For your setup, I would try about one half of a 9mm case full per container and see how that works. If your brass is changing color within a few days, I suspect that you are not rinsing it enough.

I dry tumble all of my handgun brass with corncob and Frankford Arsenal liquid polish.

 

[2tonic]

Wow, do I feel old timely now.
I've always tumbled my pistol brass in corn cob or walnut media in my Midway tumbler with a little brass polish. Then it goes into a second tumbler with dry fresh media, then into my separator to remove any remaining media.
Comes out shiny, dry, and ready to reload.
Stored in large plastic coffee cans with a dessicant pack, it stays shiny for.....well, I don't really know how long. I have brass that has waited for 10/11 months to be reloaded and it was still as shiny as when it was stored.

 

[JMSnodgrass]

No offense my friend, but you are being too particular. You are the only one who thinks that your brass isn't shiny enough.

No offense taken, thanks for everyone's response. I suspect from the replies that I am using too much Lemi-Shine and not rinsing the brass thoroughly. I have some more brass on the way and I'll do some more experimenting.

Thanks again to everyone that responded for helping a "newbie" reloader.

Having shiny brass is very important. If you can't shoot well, you should at least look good with sparkling brass. I take it very seriously

Hilarious mark40sw! I have found that I shoot the same with shiny or dull brass, so that's not the problem. Seriously, I have just started shooting and reloading. I plan on shooting a lot over the summer and hopefully will get to the "shoot well" stage.

-Jeff

 

[kennedy759]

I also dry shine with corn cob and walnut media, with nu finish polish, stays shiny

 

[Indy574]

I started out with “If a little is good, then more is better” on the LemiShine. I use a 1/4 teaspoon now and it seems to work great. Rinse well and your good to go.

 

[bgcatty]

I've been using a vibration tumbler with a mix of walnut and corn cob with a scant teaspoon of Dillon Brass Polish depending on the amount of brass I put in the tumbler. The brass always comes out spotless and very shiny; there must be something in Dillon Brass Polish because the brass stays shiny until I shoot it again.

 

[Dentoro]

I use a green scotchbrite pad sometimes.

 

[Trapper Jim]

Clean brass equal clean living. Having shiny brass is like attention to detail. It’s like the proper way to park your car, back in, straighten wheels, turn off accessories, wipers down. Now you’re learning!

 

[indyblue]

A 9mm shell case full of lemi-shine, with a 1/2 tsp Dawn tumbled in a Frankford drum with ss pins for .5hr (primers in) plus 1.5 hrs (deprimed) and I get perfectly shiny cases inside & out, including the primer pockets. I shake wet cases in a colander then into a 125 degree oven to dry for 30 min.
These 5.56 cases were done several months ago.

 

[bgcatty]

Nice brass! I love clean brass for reloading.

 

[Orezona]

A 9mm shell case full of lemi-shine, with a 1/2 tsp Dawn tumbled in a Frankford drum with ss pins for .5hr (primers in) plus 1.5 hrs (deprimed) and I get perfectly shiny cases inside & out, including the primer pockets. I shake wet cases in a colander then into a 125 degree oven to dry for 30 min.
These 5.56 cases were done several months ago.
View attachment 197853

Curios why you don't de-prime and wet tumble once instead of the two step process? Are you sizing and de-priming in one step vs using a universal de-primer die?

 

[indyblue]

Yes, I have only size/de-prime dies. I don’t tumble them very long, sometimes only 20-30 minutes. Just enough to get external crude off, not shiny.

Then another tumble after de-priming to get them shiny inside & out.

 

[BigRed]

I'm still stuck on function over show.

Nothing but dry media...no interest in introducing moisture.

 

[Orezona]

I'm still stuck on function over show.

Nothing but dry media...no interest in introducing moisture.

What do you use to clean the crud out of the necks and primer pockets? I've done both dry and wet. When I wet tumble I dry the cases in a food dehydrator. When I dry tumble I use a bore brush and a pocket cleaning bit on a drill.

 

[Squid556]

Love clean brass!!

The range pickup stuff all gets thrown in a Frankford Arsenal vibratory bowl with old not-so-clean corn cob media. I do this to make resizing easy / clean and to stop corrosion. Then it goes in a freezer bag on the shelf till I need it.

Once I'm ready to load, resize the semi clean pieces and then I give em a few hours in this great stuff

Lyman Turbo Brass Cleaning Media Treated Tufnut (Walnut) Medium Easy

Lyman Turbo Case Cleaning Media is a great choice for cleaning tarnished cases. A few hours in a tumbler and cases are clean, polished and ready to...

www.midwayusa.com

They come out ultra smooth lookin like jewelry. Everything stays dry and clean. After the ammo is loaded, I wipe it all down as I put them in the box to stop corrosion. The goal is to make my ammo look indinstiguishable or even better than factory ammo.

Also, ive noticed keeping my tumbled brass in freezer bags helps keep the shimmer a long time. When I just leave it in the open air in my shop it tarnished quick

 

[autogun]

"I also dry shine with corn cob and walnut media, with nu finish polish, stays shiny"

Me too and only once. It will be dirty when it comes out of the chamber anyway.

 

[Leo]

When we shot conventional bullseye, the old hot shots would just stand there holding their .45 with one hand and pretty much just make one ragged hole. I was never able to do that, even though I did post some reasonable scores.

Between the waxy lead bullets and the filthy old Hercules Bullseye powder, brass was black. No one seemed to care. NONE of the best shooters ever cleaned brass. In fact, they laughed at me when I started cleaning my brass. I used steel wool spinning the brass in a drill, and then I used a drum type rock tumbler. Vibratory tumblers were not seen yet, but when they were, I bought one.

I always wondered if I spent the time with dry fire practice that I spent cleaning brass, would I have been one of the guys that shot the highest scores on a regular basis. I still use a corn cob tumbler.

BTW. I was out of tumbler polish and tried turtle wax liquid polishing compound. Works great.