Cleaning Brass

[Appleseed]

Trying to clean brass with a tumbler... 1st round corncob, second walnut. Cannot get it bright and shiny from end to end. Had been using 0000 steel wool by hand.

Two hours in tumbler, still stained but clean. Is there a better medium for the tumbler?

[Smokey262]

The cob makes it shinier than the shells. You are doing the finishing step before the roughing step

[Appleseed]

Posted wrong, sorry. Used walnut first with little results, smoothed but not polished, then the corn cob. The lower portion of the cases are cleaned and bright, the top 2/3 are dull and stained but clean. Is there a better medium?

Have used tumblers for machine parts with plastic pellets, may be too much for brass?

[Blue Avenger]

LOL, yep walnut first, then cob with or with out polish added. Unless it is really bad, I just use cob treated with some form of polish.

[Appleseed]

Which polish, going to reloading supply store this week. Assume it is a dry powder? This still beats 0000 wool! These case are really stained, about 4-6 reloads before annealing.

[dcloco]

Nu Finish car wax will be your new friend when you add it to the corncob.

Does NOT harm the brass.

[Blue Avenger]

liquid... what ever cabalas throws in there promo kits. have 3 different bottles and the only difference i see is in the color of the stuff in the bottle.

[Bad Water Bill]

Nu Finish doesn't cost any more and is available anywhere car products are sold so no waiting for the brown truck or shipping charges. Works for me. :)

[JCalhoun]

appleseed;

How long are you running the brass in the tumbler?

[Eric in NC]

With what you are doing your brass is getting clean just not "shiny". All good except "looks pretty". Everyone knows shiny brass shoots better though.

To get it shiny you need some kind of liquid polish (any will do).

[Appleseed]

appleseed;

How long are you running the brass in the tumbler?

2 hours for each medium about 50 pieces. Brass doesn't have to be shiny, but there is lots of crud top 2/3 of case, kind of smooth to touch, but not like 0000 wool. I'm wondering if the spray case lube may be the problem? (All that shines is not gold).

[stevec]

I let mine run over night.

Steve

[HRstretch]

I let mine run over night.

Steve

+1 really dull or dirty brass can take a day or more. Put in in one night take it out the next.

[Apache]

You might wanta try this:

http://www.6mmbr.com/ultrasonic.html

Works great for me....

[tammons]

Ultrasonic for me in 50/50 h20 and vinegar.
Neutralize with baking soda solution, rinse 4-5 times.
Comes out very very clean.
Sometimes I do a quick wash in acetone after resizing, chamfering etc
to get rid of the lube.

I will run them in a tumbler sometimes too for about an hour just to polish.

[dolomite_supafly]

I use a very fine walnut media that I bought at a pet store. It wasn't the Kaytee brand that most people buy but something much finer. I will add a few teaspoons worth of NuFinish. I let them tumble for about 4-6 hours and they come out looking like new. For brass that is a little more dulled I add a drop about the same size as a drop of toothpaste of Flitz to the mixture.

Walnut media should be all you need as long as it is pretty fine. Also another advantage to the fine walnut is you don't have to pick it out of the primer holes. My walnut media is fine enough to drop through the primer holes. I have tried corncob but it was such a PITA, dirty and dusty, that I quit using it.

Dolomite

[pbcaster45]

I guess I'll let you know what I use; been using the same stuff forever (+25 years?). I use about 1 - 2 table spoons of Mother's Mag & Aluminum Polish (from Wal-Mart) in a Frankford Arsenal Tumber filled with untreated corncob media. It was recommended by Bill Wilson in his book "The Combat 45 Auto" and it works great! Hand mixed the Mother's in a 1 quart freezer bag of corncob and add it to your tumbler while it's running. Don't add any brass until the media is dry or you'll have a mess. I haven't seen any treated media that works as well as Mother's and plain corncob - plus it's cheap!

[Forester]

Whatever polish or wax I most recently used on the truck, gets put in the reloading room and I shoot a little on top of the media with the tumbler running. I use corncob and run it for 10 or 12 hours to get nice shiny brass every time.

I figured the other day that my older Frankford Arsenal tumbler has about 5000 hours on it with nary a problem so running it so long does not seem to be harming it one bit.

[laportecharlie]

I have heard that tumbling your brass for an extended period of time will work harden it. Couldn't prove it by me as I never tumble mine for more than an hour or so.
Charlie

[Forester]

I have heard that tumbling your brass for an extended period of time will work harden it. Couldn't prove it by me as I never tumble mine for more than an hour or so.
Charlie

I'm fairly sure that work hardening requires actual "work" as in moving metal around. I don't think scrubbing all the "other than brass" off the outside of a case is moving any metal around.

I suppose that the polishing action is moving a very small amount of metal around, but the effect would have to be so small even the BR guys could not quantify it.

[Eric in NC]

I'm fairly sure that work hardening requires actual "work" as in moving metal around. I don't think scrubbing all the "other than brass" off the outside of a case is moving any metal around.

Nope - tumbling brass actually "works" the brass and moves metal around. You are not thinking about the other pieces of brass that hit a given piece of brass 100's of times a minute. A zillion small hits equals a few big hits.

It does alter neck dimensions and harden brass - if you don't believe if, FL size some good brass and sit 50 pieces in your tumbler for 8-12 hours then seat bullets and compare that with a piece that wasn't tumbled.

Really ran into this when I was a newb and thought shiny was better - I had some milsurp 30-06 that had annealing "stains" on neck and shoulder. Tumbled them long enough to get that off - reduced neck diameter and made the brass HARD.

[Forester]

I'm fairly sure that work hardening requires actual "work" as in moving metal around. I don't think scrubbing all the "other than brass" off the outside of a case is moving any metal around.

Nope - tumbling brass actually "works" the brass and moves metal around. You are not thinking about the other pieces of brass that hit a given piece of brass 100's of times a minute. A zillion small hits equals a few big hits.

It does alter neck dimensions and harden brass - if you don't believe if, FL size some good brass and sit 50 pieces in your tumbler for 8-12 hours then seat bullets and compare that with a piece that wasn't tumbled.

Really ran into this when I was a newb and thought shiny was better - I had some milsurp 30-06 that had annealing "stains" on neck and shoulder. Tumbled them long enough to get that off - reduced neck diameter and made the brass HARD.

Very interesting, I have a great shooting .308Win with a McGowen barrel and some new Lapua Brass I will have to do some testing with.

[GaCop]

I clean my benchrest brass with "Never Dull". Works fast and really puts a nice polish on even the worst oxidized brass.

[Appleseed]

Great info as usual, thanks.

[gaetoune]

I tried something last month and it worked great. I had a 1000 maybe more reounds of 9mm brass picked from the range. I don't own a tumbler so had to try something to clean it and here's what was suggested:

-Warm water
-Couple drop of diah soap
-1/2 cup of lemon juice (concentrate)

I dumped all the cases in a tub add the water, dish soap and lemon juice, shake a bit let stand 5 min, reshake again and so on for about an hour. To my surprise the cases came out surprisingly clean, even some looking almost new. This from brass picked outside at the range.

To finish you have to dry the cases, this is where it becomes a pain in the butt!!!! The guy who gave me the trick throws the brass in his old lady dryer, myself I would do this and probably end up whith no dryer and no old Lady...LOL :'(.... So I am lucky at work we have an industrial air dryer for parts inspection I put them all in there. I am thinking putting you brass in the oven at low setting and turning them around once in a while would work.

Cheers
Gaetoune