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Old September 9, 2011, 10:23 PM   #1
Newton24b
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case prep and liquid cleaners

looked at the new cabellas catalog, liked the description for the liquid cleaning kit for cleaning used brass. according to it just throw brass in and add solution and water and go watch some baseball and when thats over the cases will be perfectly clean and polished, even the primer pockets.


the issue i have is, does a person have to deprime the used cartridges BEFORE the liquid stuff can be used, or will the miracle liquid clean inside a primer pocket that has a primer in it?



case lubricant. all the reloading kits and presses come with lots of free case lube. everything ive read is that the carbide steel reloading dies do not need lubricant, so have things changed or what?
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Old September 9, 2011, 10:47 PM   #2
Ideal Tool
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Hello, Newton24B. While the ultrasound cleaners do a great job cleaning..what they don't tell you..is after they come out..they are wet! you will need to watch another game..or two before cases are dry enough to load.
The carbide dies are only for straight cases..usually pistol/revolver..also for .30 carbine...but no bottleneck ctgs. All steel dies require case lubing.
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Old September 9, 2011, 10:48 PM   #3
Sevens
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I wouldn't goof around with liquid cleaners. Won't get your brass as clean as a vibratory cleaner AND you'll also have to dry them. The exception is a sonic cleaner, but those are big bucks.

Secondly... no, the liquid cleaner couldn't possibly clean your primer pockets with the primers still in. Neither, however, does a vibratory cleaner, even if you first de-prime them. The good news here is that cleaning primer pockets is fools work... I quit doing them in the mid-90s and I'm glad that I don't do it any more. My ammo SHOOTS. I don't clean any primer pockets.

Next... carbide steel reloading dies don't need case lube, but this only works with straight wall cases, usually handgun brass. And even then, a little lube makes a H-U-G-E difference and in many cases, I still use a bit of it just to make things run easier.

Of course, you can get carbide steel dies in bottle neck rifle rounds. They are only available in handgun rounds. Also, FWIW, the "carbide" part is only in the sizing die... the other dies are all normal steel and are the same as all others.

One caliber worth mentioning here... .30 Carbine dies ARE available in carbide -- but even with the carbide size die, you STILL need lube. Anyone that refutes this is welcome to give it a shot!
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Old September 10, 2011, 02:01 AM   #4
edward5759
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We my business loaded 223 and 7.62 by 100,000s
I bought lake city brass and re-sized it in a carbide rifle die using a little Lanolin as a lube.

I would then place them in a bath of liquid cleaner for about 10 minutes.

Now the stuff that Cabellas sells, has sulfuric acid in it. even at it dilute form, it is very harsh.

Phosphoric acid "Naval Jelly" is slightly stronger than citric acid, it is put in soda pop, and sold at Home Depot as Etch Prep for cleaning Stuco walls.
Etch Prep cleans just as well, and is to use, safer and costs less.

I was looking for a way to clean brass like you, but I was cleaning 25,000 at a time. Rinse all the brass off with a soapy water, then I would use low cost Hair shampoo to bring everything back to a neutral P.H. of 7.0.
I would place the brass in a cement mixer with corn cob and tumble for 15 minutes.

The brass is dry and very clean. Now I do have a Masters in Chemical Engineering so I know it works. It is very close to the mil spec that is used for new brass At the Lake City Arsenal.

Being that they were reloads I would then trim and anneal the brass, then it would be loaded and sold to a contracted manufacture, that I can not name.

Liquid cleaners is all we had back in the 60s and 70s. It worked very well. the Carbide dies can be bought at Dillon Precision.

They do still require a very slight lube on them, but ask anyone who has used them it is a lot easier to size brass.
Back when my loading business was running we would go through a standard steel sizing die in about 35 hours if run time. I got hold of a 7.62 die that was carbide standard tool manufactured at Hughes Aircraft
for Rock Island.
The life of the carbide die went from hours to several years before loss of tolerance.

To make a an end to this story. chemical cleaning is the fastest way to go and still one of the best I think.

Edward5759
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Old September 10, 2011, 02:42 AM   #5
NWPilgrim
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I just changed my method of cleaning brass. I used to clean by soaking brass in a vinegar solution, then rinse and dry. Makes the brass very shiny.

I did this because I could never get the brass that shiny by just corncob or crushed walnut media unless I ran it overnight.

Then I read in several threads here of guys using mineral spirits and walnut shells. So yesterday I tried that. Added about 1/4 cup of mineral spirits (probably overdid it but turned out OK) to the crushed walnut shell media. My vibratory cleaner is getting old and losing some of its power, so I let it run for a couple of hours. This was using some once fired brass I bought online, and some brass from my last CMP match.

Wow, mineral spirits really works! It looks perfect, very shiny and no stains or marks on the cases. Plus, it leaves a thin, thin coating of mineral spirits on the cases so they don't immediately start hazing over from handling them. The MS will eventually evaporate but stays on long enough to protect them from handling for sorting.

Very simple and faster than anything I've tried for the like new look.
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