Brass cleaning/polishing question

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  • canebreaker

    Marksman
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    0   0   0
    Jan 2, 2020
    261
    43
    Horn Lake
    I was happy using walnut media in my tumbler to clean cases before decapping and sizing. Back into the tumbler with corncob media and Nu Finish polish. This was for my weekend range brass.
    I got a chance at cleaning up a local police range for the cases. 223, 556, 9mm, 40 S&W, 45 ACP, 380 auto, 38spl, 357, brass, steel and aluminum cases had sat on the range for months. 3 buckets of steel, 3 buckets of Berdan brass and 1 bucket of aluminum cases went to the scrap dealer. Tumbling the brass in walnut left them tarnished from the weather.
    I built a wet tumbler from a treadmill, cut it down for 1 cylinder at a time. 6"X20" PVC for the wet tumbler. I mounted three 1" aluminum angle strips inside to stir the cases. Boxer primers were decapped and wet tumbled with 1 45 ACP case of Dawn, 1 9mm case of Lemi Shine and 10 lbs of pins for 2 hours. They were bright, shiny again. After rinsing 5 times onto cookie sheets and into the oven at 125 for 30 minutes. They came out orange. Back into the dry tumbler with walnut media for an hour didn't help.
    I read up on cool drying. Built an 8"X20" PVC cylinder with screened windows, place it on the mill with a squirrel cage blower behind it for 2 hours. Cases came out shiny. Into the tumbler with corncob media with Nu Finish for an hour.
    I reload 38spl, 357 and 223. My weekend brass gets tumbled in walnut media then reloaded. They stay shiny. Some have been reloaded 30 to 50 times.
    I had a problem with 223 cases. I'll make a new thread about that.
     
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    DadSmith

    Grandmaster
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    1   0   0
    Oct 21, 2018
    22,200
    113
    Ripley County
    If you dry tumble and your cases have been outside for awhile and are heavily tarnished add 1/4 cup of white vinegar to your media. It will take the tarnish right off and clean the tub and the media up too.

    I learned that trick from a suggestion my mother gave me about how back in the 1950's she used it to clean brass copper silverware etc up when they got tarnished.

    Or you can add a smaller amount to your media to help clean the cases up to a nice shine.
     
    Rating - 100%
    128   0   0
    Jan 28, 2009
    3,656
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    My walnut and corn cob media does just fine. Most cases look better than factory loaded stuff. All that washing and drying and fretting over that brass getting shiny doesn't help it shoot any better. JMO
     
    Rating - 100%
    7   0   0
    Dec 14, 2011
    117
    28
    Anderson
    I usually put my brass in sonic cleaner for around 30 minutes with whatever soap that Lyman sells (not bad stuff). Then I rinse the soap off and put the brass on an old cookie sheet and let it sit overnight until dry. After it dries, I tumble it in corn cob media overnight and it comes out like new. That's just my way but it seems to work really well for me and I think the brass looks better than new. Oh yeah, I do all of this after I size and decap the brass.
     

    DadSmith

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    1   0   0
    Oct 21, 2018
    22,200
    113
    Ripley County
    I usually put my brass in sonic cleaner for around 30 minutes with whatever soap that Lyman sells (not bad stuff). Then I rinse the soap off and put the brass on an old cookie sheet and let it sit overnight until dry. After it dries, I tumble it in corn cob media overnight and it comes out like new. That's just my way but it seems to work really well for me and I think the brass looks better than new. Oh yeah, I do all of this after I size and decap the brass.
    I have a problem sizing dirty brass in my dies I just don't like the idea of my dies getting dirty.
    I resize after they are cleaned. I hardly ever clean primer pockets on handgun or rifle calibers, and only really clean them when making hunting or match ammunition. Other than that nope.
    I've never had a problem with seating a primer or ammunition going bang in 30+ years of reloading.
     

    lmyer

    Sharpshooter
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    May 28, 2012
    395
    18
    South Bend
    I went from Walnut media in vibrator to SS pins, a quick shot of dish soap, and a dribble of vinegar in the Harbor Freight Rock tumbler. Initially this was only intended to reduce my exposure to lead and other nasties in the dust when working in my basement. Then I figured out that it made the inside of my pistol ammo shiny again, and I wondered how the buildup of carbon and scratching of the brass on the inside of neck was changing the friction on the bullet. Then I also figured out that if I deprimed (only) before pin washing, the primer pockets would come out shiny too without any effort!

    Once the brass has been deprimed and washed, I dump the tumbler containers into a large kitchen funnel that passes the resulting black nasty water (but not my pins) into a 5 gal bucket. Then I rinse brass in the funnel with an equal quantity of water again into the bucket, dumping out the brass (and a few pins of course) into a small second bucket containing another equal quantity of water and swirl to rinse again. Then all back through the funnel into the 5 gal bucket. Separate brass to dry on a towel for a day and dump the pins back in the Harbor freight container for next time. This keeps ALL dirty grit out of my sizing dies. I collect the 5 gal bucket until it is full, and then I dispose of it appropriately (or evaporate it down, depending on time of the year), as I have my own septic system.

    I bought new Starline brass for two of my calibers and now use Redding Dry Neck Lube/Application Media during sizing of the case (yes I use carbide die to size), but expanding the case for the bullet is not a carbide die. I also replaced the sizer in my expanding die, as it was getting quite scratched up and did not pull out smoothly. Using the graphite and replaced sizer in the die has really reduced the scratching of my pistol cases, inside and out - and brass flaking is VERY minimal. The sizing process has become smooth and much less pull on the press handle is required. Before the sizing would sometimes make a little noise and seem to stick coming out.

    For best results, I feel that all reloading functions should feel smooth and the pressure required to size/expand (including bullet seating) should feel the same, round to round. So slam banging through the process fast may seem cool, but you may be affecting or missing something.

    Maybe this is all overkill for pistol ammo, but it's the way I do it. BTW, I don't have problems with case discoloration when using my dribble of vinegar. Maybe because vinegar is 4% and this other stuff being used is stronger!

    One of these days I will see if the pins can get old 30 cal rifle cases clean inside again, after being reloaded multiple times. Not quite sure about that!
     
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    JMSnodgrass

    Plinker
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Mar 31, 2022
    22
    13
    Mar
    Thanks for all of the replies. Apparently I was overdoing it with the LemiShine and not rinsing my brass good enough. I have since switched to a 9mm case of LemiShine in each of the Harbor Freight Rock Tumbler drums and just a dash of Dawn dish soap. I make sure I thoroughly rinse after tumbling and now my brass is coming out looking new and stays looking new. I just started working with 223/5.56 brass (the AR 15 is on it's way!!) and have learned very quickly that rifle brass is a totally different ballgame than pistol brass. More on that in a different post.

    -Jeff
     
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