Mistreated Brass Appearance

[Marco Califo]

This is two photos of the same brass in a container, taken seconds apart, at slightly different angles. If you look closely you will see a 223 empty with a stray 9mm stuck on it in both photos. One with the flash, and the other side taken without the flash.
http://s557.photobucket.com/user/mar...=copy&sp=false

The brass just came out of a vibratory tumble with used Lyman Tuff Nut (rogued) and corn cob media, run for 4 hours. It is not as bright and shiny as I expected. Curiously, with the flash on, the brass looks great. The other side is the exact same brass, no flash, and looks rather dull, mottled, stained. My question here is how do I fix this brass so that it looks shiny without the flash (i.e., remove the mottled stains).

There is backstory to how this brass got this way. It was cleaned in a FA SS pin tumble per directions. It looked great when it came out. I used a strainer over a bucket and removed the pins. The brass was left on a patio behind my house, for several months including periods of rain. It tarnished, so I thought I would fix the tarnish by tumbling in some handy used Lyman Tuff Nut (rouged) and corn cob media. This media worked great last time and was stored indoors.

[5whiskey]

Soak in vinegar.

[5whiskey]

Or just shoot it...

[Marco Califo]

I just tried dipping one in Lemi-shine and RO water, and it does seem to address the issue. Which is good, because I was planning to dip or soak them in same because Unclenick said it would provide a stable, but not polished, finish.

[Chainsaw.]

Add liquid car polish. Run until results are desirable.

[Mobuck]

Tumbling cases to remove crud and residue is all that's required for reloading. Making them shine like a chrome bumper is a worthless endeavor and gains nothing in the process.

[Marco Califo]

Mobuck:

remove crud and residue is all that's required for reloading

That is your personal opinion. I used "Appearance" in the title intentionally, and specifically, because my question was NOT "is shiny brass a functional concern?". Your personal opinion about "is shiny brass necessary" does not answer my question.

[condor bravo]

Polish with fine steel wool.

[hounddawg]

Nevr Dull or Flitz and some elbow grease. I got spots like that once when I did not rinse my cases thoroughly after cleaning. I polished one up with nevr dull just to make sure it was just cosmetic, no pitting was observable with a magnifying glass

[mikld]

I agree with Mobuck, besides, case cleaning/polishing is prolly the most talked about but least important part of reloading! And yes, that's my opinion based on 50+ years as a machinist/mechanic working with metal fabrication and finishing, 30+ years of reloading and 12 years of looking in on reloading forums and reloading fads..

Run the tumbler longer with plain corn cob blast media (14-20) with a drop or two of auto polish and you'll get prettier brass...

Rouge doesn't always give a shiny, virgin looking finish, and the media size and composition determine the finish left on brass...

[T. O'Heir]

"...not as bright and shiny..." Brass doesn't need to be shiney. It needs to be clean. There's no need to use mixed media or rouge either.
"...It tarnished..." It oxidized. Happens to anything left out in the rain.

[RC20]

First I am on your side. I like SHINNY brass! And I don't care what anyone else things about my desire for the shiniest brass I can get. It makes me feel good. Somone looks at my load and its, now there is a guy who takes prides in his work. And it give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

To avoid it get a food dry/dehydrator from Walmart (or the like) low cost and that stops the weathering issue (probably needed a rinse to)

You can re-run it and or just polish longer.

I have an Ultra Vibe 10 and it is superior to the rest of them for effective.

[Mobuck]

" because my question was NOT "is shiny brass a functional concern?". Your personal opinion about "is shiny brass necessary" does not answer my question."

You asked an illogical question so a logical answer is unacceptable?

[Marco Califo]

M. You can shine my Brass.

[308Loader]

how much brass are you tumbling at a time? looks like you have several different calibers in the mix, some look like they are stacking. try running smaller batches of sorted cases.

[hounddawg]

just a geeky aside but tarnish helps preserve metal. Only the top few molecules tarnish and protect the underlying metal

[RC20]

Being an Ardent member of the Shiny Brass Club:

You could also try giving it 12 to 24 of polishing time and see if that helps.

[FrankenMauser]

I'm assuming that I know what you're talking about, because I've seen it before. But I didn't see the actual photos. PhotoBucket, with their usual greedy stupidity, made me close six in-page pop-ups and watch a 15-second, full screen, unskippable video, at which time yet another ad failed to load ... which made the photo(s) hang and not load.


My thought: Just run it through the FA SS tumbler again, but don't let the brass sit in the rain for several months.

[RC20]

I could be wrong but I think he got the bad boy no biscuit part of leaving it out in the weather, rain or not.

[hounddawg]

should have seen my first attempt at building a case dyer. I should have known better but I used galvanized '"rat wire". The brass looked like a checkerboard from corroding the zinc in the wire. I almost freaked until I remembered galvanization is just zinc and brass has the higher nobility.

[MarkGlazer]

Simple solution, remove the corn cob from your current mix. I use the "Zilla" brand crushed walnut found at my local pet store. (funny thing, same product as what they sell at the LGS just cheaper, it's all about the marketing). 2 1/2 hours or greater in the vibrating cleaner is all you need. No chemicals required either.

If you do a search on the subject you may come across a thread from a guy who left his vibrating cleaner on for over 24 hours, mistakenly. Talk about shinny brass. That is where I got the idea to let my brass go from an hour to 2 1/2. If that doesn't do it for you, let it go the 4 hour cycle you are already used to.

[hdwhit]

Marco Califo wrote:
It is not as bright and shiny as I expected.

How bright and how shiny did you expect dry tumbling to make the brass?

If you are looking for brass shiny enough you can see your reflection in it, then you need to abandon dry tumbling and go to wet tumbling with metallic pins.

If, on the other hand, all you are looking for is brass that is clean and has a surface sufficiently clear that any imperfections are cause for further inspection and potential rejections, then dry media is fine.

What I do is:
* I decap my brass.
* I soak (not tumble) cases in a weak acid (Lemishine is an example) and detergent solution for about 15 minutes.
* I let the cases dry under a fan overnight.
* I then tumble in corn cob media (with no additives like car polish) overnight while I sleep.
In the morning, the cases are shiny enough and any significant discoloration that remains is cause for secondary inspection of the case. I perform such secondary inspections using both a micrometer and a medical otoscope.

[std7mag]

First off, I would recommend sorting out your brass.
Doesn't get jack clean by having a 9mm casing wedged on top of a 223, or into a 40 S&W.
2nd, fresh media...Makes a huge difference. I use about a tablespoon of liquid lens restorer from the auto parts store in my walnut.

[briandg]

here is what I am seeing in the photo. Your brass is tarnished and won't lose the stain, right? Try newer, sharper walnut.

I am seeing some coppery stains with the flash, dull and dark without. This indicates to me that the zinc has been been freed from the alloy by corrosion and that the stain is actually in pits.

Take some real brass cleaner compound, and try to polish a couple cases. If you can't take brasso or some similar product and polish the cases easily, you won't be able to clean it in a tumbler. Tarnish is just a thin layer of oxidized metal on top of the brass, corrosion, however, attacks the case itself. You can't polish off corrosion. The best you can do for this batch if you want nice looking brass is probably pins. I don't believe that you can actually fix those corroded spots in any other way.

[Marco Califo]

How bright and how shiny did you expect dry tumbling to make the brass?

Using Lyman Tuff Nut, which is heavily treated with Jewler's Rouge (and therefore mixed with corn cob, which then turns red also), in the past has yielded VERY shiny results. That is what I was expecting.
Now that I have soaked in lemishine and again in FA brass cleaner solution, I am seeing improvement, but also other markings that I believe are metal degradation. Most of this brass was desert pickup LC of a 3 year range that looked rather used when I picked it up, loaded again, and was due to not return from next use anyway. As I have plenty of better LC brass I think I will toss this lot of brass and the media, too.
Thanks for the useful replies!