advice on removing old dried on case lube?

[baker3gun]

About cleaning lube off finished rounds:

I'm pretty casual about it for bolt action guns.

For 3-gun and other practical sports where we shoot a lot of rounds in a short period of time, that's when i developed my towel method, which is really simple and quick.

Case lube in general: it doesn't take very much at all.
In fact, you can often have a lube pad with 5 brass rolled on it and a box of dry brass next to it, and alternate. Size a wet, size a dry, repeat cycle.

Pistol brass in carbide dies, I do 1 wet, 4 dry, repeat. Try it. The machine runs so much smoother.

If a very light film of RCBS case lube dries on a brass and then the brass gets fired, I can't conceive of how that residue would contribute to a pressure spike. So I would disagree with that contention.

I clean lube off so it doesn't accumulate in chambers of semi-autos (or mg's ).

 

[Dr Prepper]

Another approach would be the dry tumbler as suggested above. But I wouldn't load them. Simply because you could tumble them unloaded with primers in place with no down side.

Yeah this is exactly what I was thinking. Im betting its the safest most effective method.

I do think it was kind of wierd that they were primed with case lube on. I personally would never do that. But Im also a deprime, clean, then lube and size then trim and deburr and then clean again sort of guy.
Im reloading for max accuracy not to save $$. Which I guess you could argue is the same thing in the end. And is how justify the time/$ I want to hit what im aiming at. Missing sucks!

And one last thing, are you sure it's dried case lube? It might be clear spray paint or who knows what. Especially seeing as how it apparently was applied after the cases were primed.

98% sure. It feels kinda waxy same are really caked on some are fairly dry.
I personally use the hornady unique lube and like it so far. I think I aslo still have forster and maybe a few others but havent used them.
I do think lanolin base is probably the way to go. Easier and faster. But id still remove it before loading.

 

[Dr Prepper]

Progressive.

Size, prime, charge, seat, LFCD = finished round with lube on it.

Ahhh, Yeah I only single stage with my co ax. I havent been indoctrinated with all that progressive stuff
I never would have put two & 2 together.
That might be it. They guy i bought them from did say he was loading them for three gun. So that may be it.

 

[DizzyJ]

Yeah this is exactly what I was thinking. Im betting its the safest most effective method.

I do think it was kind of wierd that they were primed with case lube on. I personally would never do that. But Im also a deprime, clean, then lube and size then trim and deburr and then clean again sort of guy.
Im reloading for max accuracy not to save $$. Which I guess you could argue is the same thing in the end. And is how justify the time/$ I want to hit what im aiming at. Missing sucks!


98% sure. It feels kinda waxy same are really caked on some are fairly dry.
I personally use the hornady unique lube and like it so far. I think I aslo still have forster and maybe a few others but havent used them.
I do think lanolin base is probably the way to go. Easier and faster. But id still remove it before loading.

Yeah, you don't want to leave lanolin based lube on the cases for too long before cleaning. They really become a sticky mess.

 

[gmerkt]

98% sure. It feels kinda waxy same are really caked on some are fairly dry.

Too bad you couldn't know what it was from the previous owner. As baker3gun mentioned, his cases get lubed and stay that way through the finishing process. But when I was using a Dillon 550, I've heard of guys setting up two 550's and being able to size as part of a complete process which would leave lube on the case all the way through, I'd think. And maybe that's what you've got here, cases that went halfway through the process on two 550's but didn't get completed. If this is what happened, it's pretty sure that what's on there is what you thought, dried case lube.

You know, there are people who do all kinds of crazy things with reloading. A worst case scenario would've been someone who sprayed them with clear lacquer from a can to make them pretty.

 

[Dr Prepper]

Nah. I dont personally mnow the guy. I met him on here. Hes not some yawho he had nice stuff. I bought ALOT of it. He gave me some killer deals on stuff.
And I REALLY appreciated the deals. So no complaints.
Heck its already trimmed thats the part im sure majority of us hate most.

 

[baker3gun]

Yah. I hate trimming.

Actually, I'm sometimes tired enough of reloading.
I would like to obtain immense wealth and pay Black Hills to fireform brass in my guns and make 100,000 each of many different cartridges, each loaded to my exact spec.
And buy more guns, and buy more ammo for those too.



A comment for newer guys reading this thread: it is advisable to beware tumbler media or any other obstruction lodged in the flash hole of the brass. Such obstruction won't prevent ignition, but it will alter the ignition event, which will cause fliers.

A debur tool will clear the flash hole, but you typically only ever debur a brass one time.
The deprime pin that mounts inside the sizing die will clear the flash hole.
A deprime die on its own will clear the flash hole.

A comment above mentioned the possibility of tumbling sized deprimed brass to remove lube residue.

This would invite the tumbler-media-in-flash-hole problem.

IF the loader proceeded straight to priming and charging this brass, no tool that clears flash holes would be used, leaving the possibility that some flash holes might have tumbler crud in them.

Once you get going, thoughtful preservation of all the little steps that eliminate possible problems, is easier done than said.

Good thread.

 

[Dr Prepper]

Yah. I hate trimming.

Actually, I'm sometimes tired enough of reloading.
I would like to obtain immense wealth and pay Black Hills to fireform brass in my guns and make 100,000 each of many different cartridges, each loaded to my exact spec.
And buy more guns, and buy more ammo for those too.



A comment for newer guys reading this thread: it is advisable to beware tumbler media or any other obstruction lodged in the flash hole of the brass. Such obstruction won't prevent ignition, but it will alter the ignition event, which will cause fliers.

A debur tool will clear the flash hole, but you typically only ever debur a brass one time.
The deprime pin that mounts inside the sizing die will clear the flash hole.
A deprime die on its own will clear the flash hole.

A comment above mentioned the possibility of tumbling sized deprimed brass to remove lube residue.

This would invite the tumbler-media-in-flash-hole problem.

IF the loader proceeded straight to priming and charging this brass, no tool that clears flash holes would be used, leaving the possibility that some flash holes might have tumbler crud in them.

Once you get going, thoughtful preservation of all the little steps that eliminate possible problems, is easier done than said.

Good thread.

Yeah especially pins!!! Lol. One of those suckers could REALLY ruin your days..

If your not the methodical type i wouldnt reccomend it.
If you dont have enough time in your life to do it right, i wouldn't reccomended it.

I had almost all my gear for years probably started collecting ten years ago (and some of my primers are pretty much that old) but waited all the way until recently when i finally got my lab radar just so i didnt have to go solely off of "indicators" which can be fairly subjective.
Reloading should never be rushed.

Some of my 10mm's i was loading were getting pretty damn hot..
Thankfully

And i like your plan except i think id just buy black hills..
Hopefully upgrade to something that requires someone like general dynamics or a log splitter to resize would be nice too!
<--- heres me holding my breath!

 

[Caveman Jim]

Thanks Caveman, Yeah i feel like jasmine rice might be pointier than most other media and clean the case rim area better too. Would probably be fine to even use on the unloaded cases. I kinda doubt it would contaminate the primers??
I might pick up a costco size bag of jamsine here in the next couple days.

Thanks for the suggestion.

No problem, it should work great on primed cases but you'll have to check all the pockets on unprimed brass. Yep, those buggers get into the flash holes...

Also don't forget about the coarse walnut media, I think it's 36 or something close to that.

 

[Dr Prepper]

You know, there are people who do all kinds of crazy things with reloading. A worst case scenario would've been someone who sprayed them with clear lacquer from a can to make them pretty.

Nah. Thats not what I've got here. Anything but cosmetically pretty. But a .50 cal aint pretty as well but it SURE gets the job done!

Well a little update. I finally got to costco and got a big bag of surplus rice and tried that. 20-30 mins or so in the wet tumbler (DRY of course) and nothing. No appreciable difference. The gunk is to soft i gather and just absorbs the impact.
To give you all an idea the ones in blue i hand cleaned with a rag. The ones on the bag of freshly cleaned brass are a few of the worse ones grabbed out of the "unmolested" jar. (Although i think they came pre molested if you ask me)
I have noticed about 1/100 have some hydraulic lubing dents around the shoulders. Tell tale signs, maybe that gives you idea of how much these were lubes.
Gotta admit im new to all this too so i cant claim to have never done this myself. Just part of the game..

Thanks to everyone for their suggestion.

It will be a PITA but i think ill just hand rub them. Maybe ill figure out a way to chuck up a rubber stopper on a drill mandrel and swage the case mouth on it to speed this up.
(Hopefully the wife doesnt find it, then ill have to figure out whos wife got in here!) anything rubber that chucks in a drill and your asking for trouble!

 

[po18guy]

Thats interesting about the rouge. I now theres MANY diff. Kinds. I do a fair amount of polishing. My last job was a medical instrument tech. TONS of polishing. Things you dont want to know!
Hmm. I wonder if thats whats in the brownells bore brite? The red oxide rust colored one obviously not the green flavor.

Are those dead man's cases? Like from an estate sale? If the guy checked out while sizing them, they might have bad juju. OK, seriously, go down the hill to Tru-Square (Thumler's Tumblers) in Auburn. They sell the liquid red rouge. They're a block off of W. Main St. in the 500 or 600 block of 1st St SW, a few blocks west of the Agri-shop.

As to the lube, what if Hornady One-Shot™ takes it off? A two-fer.

 

[gmerkt]

Well a little update. I finally got to costco and got a big bag of surplus rice and tried that. 20-30 mins or so in the wet tumbler (DRY of course) and nothing. No appreciable difference. The gunk is to soft i gather and just absorbs the impact.
To give you all an idea the ones in blue i hand cleaned with a rag. The ones on the bag of freshly cleaned brass are a few of the worse ones grabbed out of the "unmolested" jar. (Although i think they came pre molested if you ask me)
I have noticed about 1/100 have some hydraulic lubing dents around the shoulders. Tell tale signs, maybe that gives you idea of how much these were lubes.
Gotta admit im new to all this too so i cant claim to have never done this myself. Just part of the game..

I can't see these up close to examine in person. But that dark coloring looks like some kind of oxidation of the metal. Meaning, it no longer looks like a coating that you could scrape off with your fingernail. It's more like a discoloration of old copper pipe. If this is the case, that can usually be removed with Iosso cartridge case cleaner or a mild solution of phosphoric acid (from Home Depot or similar). Really bad oxidation will rarely dry tumble off in any reasonable amount of time. Some of the cartridge cases I've found out in the desert or the forest had been there so long that they'd turned brown. They've usually cleaned up in the mild solution of phosphoric acid. They will never get back to sparkling nail new brass finish; in fact some clean up to a pink color. I think the pink color is the result of some of the zinc having been leeched out of the surface. Unless they've become embrittled, they can be used.

Can you tell if the case mouth has been deburred/chamfered? If so, these may have already been reloaded an unknown number of times. You don't want to invest a lot of time in something that is possibly shorter of life that you'd thought.

If these cases don't have any kind of dried residue on them (like you could scrape off in any amount), and oxidation is the only issue, I'd say never mind the discoloration. Ammo doesn't have to be pretty to be functional.

 

[Dr Prepper]

Not him, but his wife checked out (Or he chucked her out) poor dude was going through a divorce and selling off pretty much everything.

Yes its all prepped 100% meaning trimmed and deburred/chamfered.
And primed. Im sure they have been shot once or twice but i dont think they are beat up enough to be fired more than 3 times.
The discoloration isnt what im talking about. And doesnt bother me. The discoloration is the byproduct of the case lube left on them. Im pretty sure it was water based als pretty sure rcbs case lube in the squeeze tube.

I just want the gunk off i dont care what they look like as long as they are surface clean.

Being already primed brass with cci#450's is where the value is at these days.

 

[gmerkt]

I just want the gunk off i dont care what they look like as long as they are surface clean.

Sorry, I'm not able to properly see the "gunk" in the pictures. All I can see is the oxidation.