vinger and brass??

[daleo8803]

i was doing some reading last night and i read some interesting things. most people use a tumbler to clean their brass. i cant afford on at the monment so i have to clean my brass by hand. one thing i read was to soak the used brass in 30% mean green 70% water then soak in vinger then rinse well and it would clean the brass. i didnt have mean green so i just took two .40 s&w casings i found( dont shoot a .40) and placed them into a cup with a 80% vinger 20% water solution and after about 2 hours ithe brass looked very good. my question is would they be safe to use? does the vinger weaken the casing? thanks

dale

[Dingoboyx]

Coke is good to soak them in too (the drink variety, not the snortin' variety)

Whatever you soak them in, make sure you wash 'em in hot soapy water afterwards & dry them really well before loading them. I would do a few to start with (so you dont wreck a whole lot of brass if it dont work)

[JJE]

I've been using hot undiluted cider vinegar (20 min soak) for a couple of years now. Originally, I added some dish soap and some other ingredient that I can't remember (sugar? salt?) based on Internet recipes. After a while I got lazy and started using the straight cider. I rinse it well with cold water, and it works well enough for me (I don't care if the brass looks "new" as long as it loads and shoots). I do wipe the outside of every case after the rinse cycle to make sure all the solid bits are gone.

The 20-minute routine I do doesn't seem to affect the strength of the cases at all. I don't know what 2 hours will do. Did you use hot or cold vinegar? On the other hand, I don't think the cases are going to get much cleaner after 2 hours compared to 20 or 30 minutes. If I were you I would just heat the vinegar in the microwave for 2 minutes (don't let it boil - the fumes get a little overwhelming) and cut the soak time down.

[wncchester]

A 50:50 water/white vinegar soak, a few hours to over night, has been a staple case cleaning method for over 75 years. It still works fine. Some include a pinch of salt but I haven't found salt to make any visible difference so I dropped that years ago. I vib. tumble now but still use the soak to remove deep tarnish from range pick-ups.

The acid in vinegar will sorta decompose the brass tarnish, turning it a light pink. Flush, dry and tumble it normally to restore tarnished cases like new.

[happy1]

I've used strait Cider vinegar for prepping my brass for years now, soak'em for 30 min then wash in hot soapy water rinse and let dry. really cleans the carbon out of the primer pockets and inside the case'

[Shoney]

Clean brass does not have to be shinny. You just need to remove the dirt, grime and oil from the surface. A simple wipedown with paint thinner (also called Mineral spirits or Stoddard Solvent) will do.

The use of any acid or base must be done carefully. The longer the brass is in contact with the acid or base, the more likely that it will leach metal from the brass, causing an unsafe condition. Twenty minutes in the weak acid will probably not cause harm, but it must be washed off completely.

I had cleaned my brass by hand for over 30 years before I got a tumbler. When I opened the tumbler after the first batch was done, The heavens parted, bright light was all around, angelic voices were singing, and life was good.

[daleo8803]

lol thanks guys!! i just left the casings in there for that long to see what would happen. thanks for all the great info!!!

dale

[Buck88]

I got an ultra-sonic cleaner awhile back from my dad, and found an internet recipe that involved dish soap, water, and vinegar solution. I used this a few times but was disappointed that the brass tarnished to a color comparable to that of a piece of chrome that was heated, you know the blue color. Since then, i just use water and soap. It doesn't shine 'em, but it cleans them up real well, including the primer pockets.

[Unclenick]

Vinegar and usually just a drop of dishwashing liquid to act as a wetting agent for the residues will work. If you have grease and oil present, you might want more like half a teaspoon of the detergent. Put the mix and brass in a gallon milk jug and shake.

The pink color Wncchester reported is copper that's had the zinc eaten out from around it. Zinc goes faster than copper in acetic acid. The color staining that appears when the stuff dries and sits in air is due to activating the surface by the etching. So the brass is being etched and thinned, but the issue of safety only comes up if you overdo it, and that takes awhile in vinegar.

A reread of the old NRA book, Handloader, reveals they discussed the issue of chemical cleaning with Frankford Arsenal (still a government facility then) and it lists two tablespoons of salt per quart of vinegar to be the original cleaning formula. It was apparently used for as an improvised brass polish for a long time. I'm not clear what the salt is supposed to do? It also comments on the tarnish that occurs afterward. It recommends a 5 minute rinse in running water after 15 to 20 minutes of soaking in that mix.

The NRA book also reports that ammonia can seriously weaken brass and should be avoided. I'm not clear why it should weaken it faster or more than acid, but that's the claim, anyway, and it probably came through Frankford Arsenal as their other information did.

The Arsenal used a heated solution of 4% sulfuric acid with an unspecified small quantity of potassium dichromate added to give a brighter finish. 5 minutes of soak followed by a rinse in water with a bit of pure soap in it, like Ivory Snow, was used to help neutralize the acid (soap is basic). They comment that the soap does not need to be rinsed off because it helps lubricate during sizing. I suspect it also helps limit tarnishing.

The Arsenal also recommended an alternative to all the above. A five to ten minute soak in a 5% by weight (more in hard water) solution of citric acid. This is what the lemon juice additive in some home recipes is for. They report it does not harm the brass, does not tarnish like vinegar afterward, and you can use the mild soap solution rinse with it, too. It is also fairly cheap. About $4 a pound in small quantities and around $2.50 in larger quantities if you have friends who want to share in the purchase. 2 lbs. makes 40 lbs or almost five gallons of cleaning solution. I'm not sure what 5 gallons of white vinegar would cost you, but probably more than that? The article concluded this was possibly the best of the home made formulas as it worked, gave better final appearance, was cheap, and didn't have any observable adverse long-term consequences for the brass.

[F. Guffey]

I use straight 4%+ vinegar for tarnished brass, I soak for 15 minutes maximum and only once for the life of the case, 38 Special cases left in vinegar for 2 hours will start turning pink, Vinegar cost $2.50 a gallon and can be used on a salad before it is used for cleaning brass, zinc does the body good, but I do not recommend the zinc be taken in a solution of vinegar.

I use vinegar to same tumbling time, I have acquire cases that would require 4 days of tumbling to remove patia (tarnish), this is not a bad trade off 15 minutes or 4 days.

F. Guffey

[F. Guffey]

to save tumbling time

sorry about that,

F. GUffey

[Mark whiz]

+1 to the cider vinegar. I soak it for 20 to 30 minutes - stirring occassionally and then rinse well and dry. To keep them from tarnishing, make SURE all the brass is completely submerged the entire time - never had any tarnishing going on that way.

Even with a tumbler - I do this from time to time just to clean residue out of the inside of the case - as tumbling doesn't do a whole lot of that.