Tumbling brass, inside clean?

[Steel185]

I'm using my tumbler for the first time, with some media i bought at a gun show. It looks like corncob, and makes the brass very bright looks like gold satin, but the inside of the case isn't all that clean. It looks much cleaner than when i put them in, but not like the outside.

How will i know its clean enough for use? I took a nylon AP brush and brushed at the inside of a few to see if it was dust from the media, but it didn't make that much difference.

thanks

[okiefarmer]

The bottom of your car don't look as clean and shiny as the top either does it? The inside is where the 'splosion takes place. I would expect it to be a bit more weathered looking. In shooting, cleanliness is pretty close to Godliness and will help prevent wear on your guns too, but shininess is a personal thing. If you have dumped the cleaning media out, and made sure there are no little pieces in the primer flash hole, you are good to go for reloading.

[mrawesome22]

Tumbling will not clean the inside. The media just packs in there and stays in one place. It's nothing to worry about though. It doesn't hurt anything at all.

[HiVelocity03]

I agree with most of the comments here.

BUT, if you have to have the inside clean, try this-

Put 50 cases in a bucket, add one good squirt of Dawn dish detergent, and one full cup of concentrated lemon juice; add about 1/2 gallon of boiling water. Stir briskly for about 5 minutes!

Drain using your wife's plastic spaghetti strainer (just kidding! go to the dollar store and buy your own for $2.00; works great) and drain your brass. Rinse under hot water, dump onto an old towel (or place in your wife's oven at 200 degrees for 30 minutes), or simply sit in direct sunlight (your choice).

I know its a PITA, but you want clean INSIDE, didn't you?

HV in SC

[Brian Pfleuger]

If you clean the brass soon after shooting then it will be much cleaner on the inside.

Most people think that it doesn't matter, but there has been some pretty convincing suggestions that hardened carbon deposits that are present inside the case and blasted out at the next firing are responsible for considerable throat and barrel erosion.

An ultrasonic cleaner will clean the inside. So will using ceramic (very expensive) media. Or, like I said, cleaning very soon after firing also helps because the deposits haven't hardened yet. I have read of people dropping their cases in water immediately after firing to prevent hardening of the deposits.

Personally, I have been considering the idea of using test tube stoppers to hold a small amount of media inside the case so that the inside will be thoroughly cleaned. Obviously, that would be a fairly low volume solution only.

[Shane Tuttle]

Are you referring to rifle cases, peetzakilla? I haven't experienced abnormal wear in the throats of any of my firearms, but could see the possibility of it happening in rifles.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Yes, rifles. UncleNick posted a link wherein the person was describing their experiences with erosion and the inside of cases not being cleaned. I don't remember where it was.

It would seem logical that it would happen to a lesser degree with handguns also though.

[okiefarmer]

OK, everyone always uses the term "tumble" in reference to their brass cleaners. I could see that a real "tumbler" would perhaps not clean the inside, but a vibratory cleaner should do a decent job on the interior of about any case, rifle or pistol. At least get the big chunks off that allegedly cause throat damage.

[Shane Tuttle]

Vibratory tumblers do OK at best to clean, but there's still crud to some degree on the inside compared to washing the brass as HiVelocity suggested.

[oneoldsap]

After tumbling it's as clean as it needs to be on the inside . The next time I hear of someone having a Failure To Fire because the case was dirty on the inside will be the first . I've been doing this for 40+ years . JMHO on a non issue !

[Dannyl]

After tumbling it's as clean as it needs to be on the inside . The next time I hear of someone having a Failure To Fire because the case was dirty on the inside will be the first

Hi, I fully agree here, and wish to add :
I clean my cases by tumbling them only. (Corncob media)
my 0.357 Mag allows me to hit targets up to 200M (metal Silouhette, 6" 586)
and my 30-06 groups 0.6 MOA ( for the rifle I obviously trim the cases as needed and insist on more uniformity than with handguns)

Some of my Federal cases have been reloaded about 20+ times.

In other words, tumbling your brass is good enough for most of us.

Brgds,

Danny

[briandg]

Myself, if I've fired exceptionally dirty rounds, I put my brass in a canvas bank bag that velcros shut, and run it with a load of laundry. Work clothes only, btw. Then tumble.

[Clark]

Steel185
Junior Member

Join Date: May 10, 2010
Posts: 1

Tumbling brass, inside clean?
I'm using my tumbler for the first time, with some media i bought at a gun show. It looks like corncob, and makes the brass very bright looks like gold satin, but the inside of the case isn't all that clean. It looks much cleaner than when i put them in, but not like the outside.

How will i know its clean enough for use? I took a nylon AP brush and brushed at the inside of a few to see if it was dust from the media, but it didn't make that much difference.

thanks

My guess is that "Tumber" mean "Vibratory cleaner".
Even Midway makes that mistake:
http://www.midwayusa.com/browse/Brow...*695***8940***

Vibrating with corn, with corn and cleaner, with Walnut, with Walnut and cleaner does not get the insides of the necks clean on bottle necked cartridges. Not even if vibrated for 3 days.

Ultra sound with vinegar, Lemishine, and soda can get the insides of a few cases clean, if they are pointed right at the transducer in the bottom of the tank. It takes so much fussing for so few cartridges, it would be easier to just buy new shiny brass.

Tumbling in the rock polisher, like a Thumbler Model B high speed, with stainless media and Dawn detergent will get the inside of the necks clean.
I can tell that is how new brass got clean, because then both need to have the necks chamfered.

What does it all mean?
There is a lot to be said for shooting dirty brass.

[WESHOOT2]

The outside should be clean so it doesn't scratch or abrade the dies, or inhibit fully chambering, or impede extraction.

The INSIDE MUST BE EMPTY, but it doesn't need to be real clean.

[Steel185]

thanks for all the replies, this place is great! I should have been more specific, i to have a vibrator tumbler. I think based on what everyone said here, they are clean enough to reload. I'll be sure and do it more often so there is less time for the carbon to get hard.

On my el cheapo vibrator tumbler, i have the chicago electric (it came in a trade with other stuff) it was decently quiet (65db on my sound meter) but i made a bracket out of a 1/4 inch thick washer and some flat steel. I will try to describe it. From the top it looks like a plus sign (equal sided cross) but the trick is to weld it so when laying flat the washer is about 3/4 off the ground. (i know picture=1000 words) I will try to get a picture posted tonight. This puts pressure on the lid in both the center and on the edges. Still held down by the thumb screw. After this the sound level went down to 55bd. a normal conversation three feet away is 60-70db. So if its in the other room you can't even hear it. not bad for scrap metal and about 15 minutes of cutting and welding.

[Steel185]

Pictures to illistrate. I tried to show it is not completely flat, but not very tall either, that is a 45 ACP brass next to it.


this is the underside, you can see how simple it is, and how great my welding is. In my defense it was tough becuase the washer i used was pretty hard and the scrap steel wasn't.


Here it is all mounted up. I used the rubber washer that came with the unit directly on the plastic lid, then 1 or 2 other washers to get the heigth just right to add pressure to the center and around the outer portion of the lid. You can see where i didn't tighten the wingnut down enough once and the bracket rattled around.


I'll have to replace the wingnut and maybe the stud, they were worn out by the previous owner, but its MUCH quieter than before.

Thanks for the help, just though i could help someone with this.

[MrBorland]

The outside should be clean so it doesn't scratch or abrade the dies, or inhibit fully chambering, or impede extraction.

The INSIDE MUST BE EMPTY, but it doesn't need to be real clean.

Yes to both points...

...however...lately I've been shooting at an outdoor range, and either working on my reloads or shooting matches. As such, the empties get ejected from my wheelgun right onto the gravel surface.

I'd really like to clean this abrasive stuff off before it goes into the tumbler (where I'm thinking it'll accumulate and eventually end up in my gun), so I figured I'd rinse the brass with a hose first. And since the brass'll get wet anyway, I started to give the dirty brass an overnight soak in white vinegar before hosing off (and after de-priming with a universal de-priming die). As a bonus, the inside of the brass is sparkly clean.

I don't think the inside needs to be that clean, but as long as it is, I'm telling myself that's all the less crud that ends up in my gun.

[mrawesome22]

As such, the empties get ejected from my wheelgun right onto the gravel surface.

Why not just dump them into your hand?

[MrBorland]

Why not just dump them into your hand?

Because when working on my reloads or shooting in matches, the empties get dumped as fast as possible while my free hand is manipulating the speedloader.

[mrawesome22]

I see.

[Woodyed]

I've been reloading for over 50 years and have never cleaned the inside of the cases, and have never seen or experienced any ill affects from not doing so. I've reloaded thousands of rounds in a dozen calibers and all I've done is tumbled the cases using corn cobb/walnut hull media and made sure that the inside of the cases were empty and that there was no media in the primer pocket. Inside cleaning of cases is a waste full and un-necessary effort in my opinion.

[SL1]

I also loaded revolver and rifle cartridges for many years without doing any more than wiping off the outside of the cases with a CLP product on a cloth and occassionally tumbling them. The insides were always black with deposits.

THEN, I took-up loading for auto-loading pistols. Besides the fact that my own brass got thrown onto the ground, all the scrounged brass from others was down there for a while, too, and had often been stepped on. So, I was suddenly faced with a LOT of grit, both inside and outside the case. Some of it was embedded in the brass and would not just wipe off. I tried all sorts of cleaning techniques to address the grit, because I did not want it in either my dies or my guns

What I ended-up doing was changing my brass prep routine for all of my reloading, because my final solution is pretty easy to perform. First, I decap with a universal decapping die in a cheap Lee C-type press that is used for nothing else. Then, I tumble in a rotary tumbler with stainlesnsteel pins in a water/Ivory Liquid solution. ALL THE GRIT STOPS THERE. The primer pockets and the inside of the cases are clean, without any more effort. Then, normal resizing, expanding, seating and crimping operations are done on a press that NEVER sees grit from primers or case interiors, much less the stuff from the range floor or mat. It has made my reloading area MUCH cleaner.

The inital cleaning makes it easy to do a good inspection of case condition before the brass goes into the actual reloading process. And, if it turns up brass that is really dull and I want it bright, I can always use a vinegar soak or tumble in corn cob media with some NU-Finish car polish before I start loading it.

SL1

[wingman]

For nearly 40 years I've always just tumbled cleaned however sometime back I purchased Laupa 223 brass and see a noticeable difference in accuracy and I began using a solution to clean inside of cases, water/soap/vinegar, works but slow, I also purchased Iosso Brass Case Cleaner kit have not tried yet, in time I believe I will purchase a sonic cleaner. At this point can't say if it helps in any way but darn they sure look new cleaned and the Laupa is worth its weight in gold.

[11B-101ABN]

I have had several different things cause ammo not to go bang, but never because the inside of the inside of the brass was dirty. I am sure the original poster was serious and it drew 20 some replies, so it appears a lot of people gave it thought, but I gotta go with "okiefarmer", "oneoldsap", and "woodyed" in believing when the outside is clean, the inside is good enough. But those guys had much more colorful ways to express their opinions than I can come up with.

[FEG]

Couple of quick points:

1) Straight cider vinegar works better than any concoction of water, soap, lemon juice, and/or white vinegar that I have ever tried. The lemon juice is for adding acidity, and the cider vinegar has enough acidity on its own. If you use cider vinegar, you need to get it off the cases within twenty minutes or so. Wet cleaning before "tumbling" helps to clean the inside of the case, no question.

2) Using the bulk corn cob sold as pet litter with Flitz media additive gives me the best results. The pieces are large enough that they don't tend to pack in the cases, unless you overdo the Flitz. Kay-Kob "dust-free" brand works best.

3) Having a lot of deposits on the inside of the case generally doesn't matter that much (look at all of the extra airspace in .38 Special). OTOH, it seems like it might be important with the smallest volume handgun chamberings, like .25 and .32 ACP.