input on cleaning brass

[er775]

I havent bought a tumbler yet, still on the fence as to buy a media type or one of the ultra sonic types like the one from hornady, so for the time being I am cleaning my brass by hand, I dont usually clean more than a hundred cases at a time and the way I have been doing it is after they have been deprimed I soak them in a tub of hot soapy water then scrub them down with an old soft bristled toothbrush, run an old bore brush down the neck and ream out the primer pocket then spread em out to dry after a good shaking.
Does anybody have any tips or recommendations for something different.


Yes I know its alot easier with a tumbler

[Edward429451]

3/8 wooden dowel. Cut it into chunks about 4 or 5 inches long and use a file to fit it to your different case sizes. Chuck it up in a cordless drill and clean one pc at a time with 0000 steel wool. I cleaned brass like that for years before getting a tumbler.

[243winxb]

1 tablespoon "Realemon" in 1 pint water. Shake 5 minute in a plastic container. Do not use anything containing ammonia or vinegar.

[er775]

hmm,, will have to give those tips a try,,thanks

[Ideal Tool]

Hello, er775. You didn't say, but are you using black powder in those cases?
If smokeless, your going thru alot of trouble for nothing. As far as drying racks..for my black-powder cases, I used 1/16" stainless welding rod, lightly pressed in evenly spaced holes in wood block.

[toolguy2006]

I have both a tumbler and an ultra-sonic cleaner (in fact the U/S is running as I type this). Tumblers are great to just dump in the cases, and forget about them for a few hours. I wouldn't really recommend an ultra sonic unless you are overly anal about the cleanliness of your brass, like me. One good thing about the ultra sonic is that you don't have to worry about cleaning the primer pockets, because they come out of the cleaner completely clean.

Also, if you decide on the ultra sonic, the model from Harbor Freight really is the same as the Lyman model.

[deepcore]

the model from Harbor Freight really is the same as the Lyman model.

Separated at birth:

[hawkeye10]

You are killing me, please get a tumbler. I use lizard litter that you get at your big pet stores. It is ground up walnut shells. Cheap and does a good job. Don

[FrankenMauser]

Lately, I've been experimenting with my own citric acid concoction.

It works well on brass that's untarnished, but I haven't quite nailed down the right formula for oxidized brass (brown, blotchy, tarnished, etc).

For untarnished brass, the cases are only in the bath for about 2 minutes. And they come out quite clean.

[Jammer Six]

http://www.oz.net/~jammer/Brass/index.html

[aushunter]

Ultra sonic all the way!!

[er775]

oh dam! a concrete mixer!!!??

[federali]

There are many threads on this topic. Briefly, I first decap my pistol brass using a universal decapper. I next soak my brass a few hours in a dilute mixture of Lemonshine (available at Walmart) dishwashing liquid, white vinegar and very hot tap water. Wow, it really cuts through the light tarnish and dullness. After rinsing and air drying, they go to the tumbler with lizard litter and a tablespoon of a commercial brass cleaner I got from Mid-South Shooter's Supply. During the summer months, I'll put the wet brass on a cookie sheet, sprayed flat black, and leave it in the sun for very quick drying.

My last cleaning step is to use a primer pocket uniformer in a portable drill. Clean and uniformed primer pockets probably does nothing for accuracy but insures uniform primer seating. High primers, even slightly high ones, can keep a gun out of battery, resulting in light hits and FTFs.

[hounddawg]

all I ever do with pistol brass is hot tap water, some detergent and a bit of vinegar for 5 minutes. These seem plenty clean enough for me, inside and out. I do 200 - 300 at a time. It takes maybe 10 minutes to clean then dry them outside on a towel on a summer day or inside with a fan in garage overnight. I like things simple. Here is a pic of some range brass I picked up and brought home and cleaned. I assume it was once fired then lay in the dirt a few days



My precision rifle stuff just gets a wipedown with paper towel then the neck swiped with some neverdull. I do clean the primer pockets on those after de priming

[thump_rrr]

Oh the humanity!

Do yourself a favor and checkout Stainless tumbling media.
Initial cost is a little higher. It the results will blow you away.

[William T. Watts]

It isn't a big deal, all of the suggestions work, just decide how much or how little you want to spend. My first tumbler was a small MidwayUSA special and lasted almost twenty years, cost per years was about $1.25, I call that a bargin.. William

[Kilroy08]

You can't really go wrong with Harbor Freight. I picked up a 25 lb box of walnut media and a vibratory tumbler fairly cheap.

I usually dump the brass in and let it run for about 2 hours and it's good to go.

[hooligan1]

Yeah you might toil with some of these concoctions but the tumbler is just so freakin easy to deal with. Frankenmauser probably has something worth looking into but you don't need to make this Somewhat easy step turn into a "rat killin".

[hounddawg]

Yeah you might toil with some of these concoctions but the tumbler is just so freakin easy to deal with. Frankenmauser probably has something worth looking into but you don't need to make this Somewhat easy step turn into a "rat killin"

citric acid is in oranges and lemons, pretty harmless stuff. In fact your own body makes it's own citric acid. If ya want to use citric acid then a tablespoon of lemon juice will do the trick.

When I sold my lathe I which I used to turn a 4 inch PVC home made tumbler with walnut shells media. I looked into various options such as the large Hornady Ultra Sonic, the Stainless pin wet tumbler, and the old standby the dry tumbler.

A old timer told me I was wasting my money and he told me how he just boiled his with some detergent and a drop or two of vinegar. I simplified it even more at the suggestion of a poster here and found warm tap water works as good as the 212 degree stuff.

If some one want to money for the fancy stuff it is their own business, but as far as I am concerned I agree with old Mack. Don't waste your money. Only drawback to the wash em till they are clean method is waiting for them to dry

[FrankenMauser]

citric acid is in oranges and lemons, pretty harmless stuff. In fact your own body makes it's own citric acid. If ya want to use citric acid then a tablespoon of lemon juice will do the trick.

Yep. Citric Acid is pretty harmless. The stuff I use is certified food grade (FCC06 I believe - the highest grade). A couple days ago, I was rolling slightly-moistened skittles in uncontaminated citric acid, to make "sour" Skittles.

The reason I am using a powdered form, is that it lets me make more concentrated solutions than lemon juice, it's cheaper than lemon juice, and I don't have to deal with the sugars and other contaminants in the juice. (Of course, it has some good uses in the kitchen, too.)

None of my other ingredients are harmful, either. It basically boils down to a few different detergents, salts, and acetic acid (vinegar).

[hooligan1]

Doesn't vinegar have an adverse effect on brass?

[hounddawg]

nope you are thinking ammonia. All the acid (Vinegar, citric, lemishine etc) does is make em shiny, eats off the tarnish. If you don't mind dull cases don't use it, just the detergent will get them plenty clean. If you look into the other wet cleaning methods all use a acid base cleaner of some type to get the "shine". The dry stuff uses a comp of abrasion and chemical etching (non - ammomnia car polish) to get the shine. Either way it goes you are eating a .0001 or .000001 of tarnished metal off to get to the purty stuff.

Beware of ammonia or any ammonia based polish though, it actually causes the brass to weaken

that was discovered by British forces in India. During the monsoon season, military activity was temporarily reduced, and ammunition was stored in stables until the dry weather returned. Some of the brass cases cracked afterwards. In 1921 the cracking was explained by Moor, Beckinsale and Mallinson. Seems the ammonia from horse urine caused the brass to crack.

[Ethan.G]

got a treadmill??

im saving up for a sonic cleaner

[sc928porsche]

I have tumblers. Old RCBS drum tumbler. RCBS vibration tumbler. A cement mixer that I started using 30 years ago when doing large amounts. There were times when I would go out the the free range with my family and friends and I would come home with 2 and sometimes 3 5gal. buckets full of brass.

[hounddawg]

rofl at the tread mill idea, buy hey it would work. If someone wanted to do a bit of hill billy engineering I bet they could get a used motor off ebay for less than 25 bucks