Best method to clean brass

[HighlandLofts]

Ask ten different people about wet tumbling and you will get ten different responses.

I personally drain the dirty water, rinse and then refill the drum with hot tap water again and add a cap of ArmorAll Wash n Wax and tumble another fifteen minutes.

I then drain that water and dump the cases in a small bucket with warm water and grab a small handful of cases in my left hand and then take two cases in my right hand and swish them in the warm water case mouth down and then put them on my drying racks to dry.
With the primers removed I'll hit them with my airbase. It takes the excess water off of the cases and any remaining pins come off
.the water friction will hold a ss pin in in the case.
When they are completely dry if any pins remain in the case they will fall right out.

Ij7st tumbled some 308 and 223 cases together. This is the crude that the wet tumbler removed from the cases.
A dry tumbler can not and never will remove all of this crude from the cases.

I just put the cases in the tumbler again with the clean hot water and the cap full of the ArmorAll Wash n Wax. Like I said I let it go for around fifteen minutes. When I dump this water I'll post a picture of the waste water and a picture of the shiny brass.

I'll add this range brass to my personal stash of brass.

 

[Goodknight]

Search results for query: Brass cleaning

www.northwestfirearms.com

Help me understand… there can be no specific questions or inquiries ? We are Bound to searching archives and hoping answer is there some where? Am I mistaken that ss media is a fairly new development in reloading.

 

[ferret427]

Where does one get Lemmeshine? I've looked locally here in Vancouver.

Grocery store in the cleaning products (like dish soap) section or Home Depo

 

[HighlandLofts]

Just got my brass hung on.my racks to dry. Here is a picture of more crude off the cases in the rinse tumble and a picture of the brass on the racks.
Two hundred 308 cases and twenty-five 233 cases tumbled together.

 

[oremike]

Help me understand… there can be no specific questions or inquiries ? We are Bound to searching archives and hoping answer is there some where? Am I mistaken that ss media is a fairly new development in reloading.

You can ask all you want and quite a lot of answers can be found in the archives both are tools for you to use. The pins and chips (some people even use the anvils out of spent primers) have been around and used for a long time in wet tumbling brass.

 

[Member 5605]

Help me understand… there can be no specific questions or inquiries ? We are Bound to searching archives and hoping answer is there some where? Am I mistaken that ss media is a fairly new development in reloading.

Never said that. Archives are good, discussions are there and you'll find an answer a LOT faster than waiting for somebody's to write up what's written there again.

SS media isn't new. Older generations that used corn cob and walnut shells dominated the responses. SS chips suck. I have 4lbs I used once. They make a mess.

And FYI: I use both. Precision brass doesn't get wet tumbled.

 

[Tilos]

Like many have said before, the Frankford Arsenal Wet Tumbler with SS media pins does the best job (including the inside and primer pockets). I've tried Ultrasonic cleaner but that just doesn't do a very good job on the primer pockets compared to the wet tumbling with SS pins.

My procedure is:

1. Dry tumble for about 30 minutes to remove most powder/debris before decapping/sizing (don't want that crud in my dies)
2. Decap/size brass.
3. Into the wet tumbler with hot tap water, about a 9mm case full of Lemmishine (don't measure, just sprinkle a bit in), a capful of brass cleaning solution for ultrasonic cleaner and a tiny squirt of Dawn (just enough to make suds) for about 60-90 minutes.
4. Rinse well with hot water after draining tumbler.
5. Dump it all in the Frankford Arsenal media separator half filled with water (this will remove pretty much all the SS media pins as you spin it).
6. Shake off excess water and then place on silicone cooking pad on sheet pan and put into the oven at 200F for about 30 minutes, shake brass and then another 20 minutes (time could probably be less). If you air dry, the brass will be fine but they will just have spots on them.

Brass will come out dry and any media pins that might be left over will fall out/away from brass. I've never had any issues with SS pins sticking in the primer flash holes. Like someone mentioned on an earlier post, you can't combine brass that the opening will fit over another in the mix (same with dry tumbling) or they will couple themselves or block opening to prevent good internal cleaning. Be aware that the SS media pins are magnetic (at least I think from most suppliers) and you can get a special magnetic tool to gather them up but I found it not very useful. The SS pins do have a mind of their own and like to find their way all over the counter, sink & floor if you're not careful with them. The above procedure will result in very shiny brass initially but it will slightly diminish over time.

You could skip #1 if you use a universal decapping die in step #2 as the brass will not leave "crud" in your other dies.
I use a drill press, it's way faster and when you de-cap a crimped primer you will feel it and remove it with a chamfer tool.

Another thing I do is put the dried cases in my vibe tumbler with NO MEDIA.
The cases are shaken violently, and any stuck pins will be dislodged.
An added bonus doing this, is that most pistol cases end up facing up and can be visually scanned for stuck pins.
jmo,
.

 

[bpyycpyy]

You could skip #1 if you use a universal decapping die in step #2 as the brass will not leave "crud" in your other dies.

True if only reloading brass that doesn't require lube during resizing. Step #1 is also used to remove any lube applied during the resizing process, so using a universal decapping die doesn't solve the issue with needing to apply lube during the resizing process.
I've been on the fence regarding the purchase of the Frankford Arsenal universal hand decapping tool for my pistol cartridges.

 

[Tilos]

True if only reloading brass that doesn't require lube during resizing. Step #1 is also used to remove any lube applied during the resizing process, so using a universal decapping die doesn't solve the issue with needing to apply lube during the resizing process.
I've been on the fence regarding the purchase of the Frankford Arsenal universal hand decapping tool for my pistol cartridges.

OK then
I'm not understanding why you are resizing BEFORE wet tumbling, but hey, if that works for you, carry-on.

For me it's"
1. de-prime
2, wet tumble with pins
2A. final rinse of brass with water and a heavy dose Armorall wash and wax as lube and skip #3. batch lube.
3. Batch lube DRIED brass via a container with some lubed patches in it. (Lanolin)
That lubes the outsides only, so no spray lube inside the cases or primer pockets.
4. Load on a progressive.
5. I don't clean off the minute amount of lube on the finished ammo as I have found it feeds/ejects better.
just what I do,
.

 

[bpyycpyy]

I'm not understanding why you are resizing BEFORE wet tumbling

Interesting…I'm guessing most people using the wet tumbling method are decapping & sizing before the wet tumble process. I might be wrong but it what makes sense to me procedurally. Like many things there are several ways to get the same end results. Likely the process we choose is because someone taught us that method, we learned via book/online source or self-discovery. I doubt that most of us are willing to change what "works" for us! I will admit that I might change my procedure for pistol cartridges by resizing after the wet tumble but then again I'm kinda set in my ways…

 

[oremike]

I use the Lee Universal de-caper to deprime first then wet tumble clean and shiny. This gives me a first inspection place where I can cull out the damaged and un-useable cases. After the tumbling it is so much nicer to work with the clean brass and sort out the like cases from each other by reading head stamps. One thing I watch for is Hornady revolver brass, if it was loaded from the factory with the plastic tipped FTX bullets the brass will be shorter than brass loaded with conventional bullets.

 

[Certaindeaf]

It's actually impossible to clean brass.

 

[P7M13]

I buy citric acid in bulk from Wal-mart. I order it on-line and have it shipped to my house.

Robot or human?

...or find citric acid online...same thing

you can get Citric Acid in the canning section at most stores that sell canning stuff. Currently available at Winco for ~$12/lb, which is cheaper than Amazon.
Mike's link to Walmart, at more than 5#, is cheaper than Winco's price/lb.
YMMV

It's actually impossible to clean brass.

You dirty man, you.

 

[bpyycpyy]

One thing I watch for is Hornady revolver brass, if it was loaded from the factory with the plastic tipped FTX bullets the brass will be shorter than brass loaded with conventional bullets.

@oremike
Thanks for the mention about the FTX brass. I just went through some 45-70 reloading on Hornady brass that was in a mix bag that I purchased and thought someone had improperly trimmed them due to their shorter length. Now I know the real reason I had to adjust my dies and couldn't get a crimp on them.