Brass tarnishing day after cleaning...

[Member 5605]

I tumbled some .223 with stainless pins that I got and came out with fantastic results:




It started it's life like this:



Now two days later it's all tarnished and looking like I originally did a half-arsed job.

Need to protect brass after cleaning so it actually looks like I gave a damn the first time.

Suggestions? It's tarnishing quickly to the point where it's like brass I would buy from somebody who had it sitting in their garage for a year in a bag.


Here was my original process:
1: tumble in walnut to "clean" and remove crap I didn't want in dies.
2: Lube, size, decap
3: tumble in stainless media pins to completely clean lube and polish to a shine.. (looked fantastic as you can see in the photo)

• I will add that I had Dawn dish soap and some Lemishine in with the tumbling

4: trim, ----- look at tarnishing cases... repeat #1 & 3 until I'm tired of it?

Maybe I need to glove myself when handling this brass? I'm clueless right now.


Thanks in advance for the seasoned knowledge and willingness to help out.

Read More

 

[deadeye]

How much of each additive are you using and how well are you rinsing the brass afterwards?

 

[Member 5605]

Couple squirts of dawn, and maybe 1 tsp of lemishine. (3lb tumbler)

rinsed with tap water, well. I was dumping in a bowl, shaking while running water to clean gunk till water ran clear out of bowl.

 

[deadeye]

Couple squirts of dawn, and maybe 1 tsp of lemishine. (3lb tumbler)

rinsed with tap water, well. I was dumping in a bowl, shaking while running water to clean gunk till water ran clear out of bowl.

Most guys are using 2 tbp soap and 1/4 tps lemishine for a gallon of water, your current PH level may be too low causing an acidic mixture. You may want to do a final polish using the cob media with polish added to put a tarnish barrier on it.

 

[AMProducts]

Corncob media and dillon rapid polish...

There is really one big issue with the steel pin media and the dawn/lemishine in that it has nothing left on the brass to protect it from the elements (namely a wax). Dillon Rapid Polish contains a wax which will protect the surface. Some people have had good luck with nu-finish. I have yet to try nu-finish, but I have a huge bottle sitting on my desk.

 

[deadshot2]

Corncob media and dillon rapid polish...

There is really one big issue with the steel pin media and the dawn/lemishine in that it has nothing left on the brass to protect it from the elements (namely a wax). Dillon Rapid Polish contains a wax which will protect the surface. Some people have had good luck with nu-finish. I have yet to try nu-finish, but I have a huge bottle sitting on my desk.

I've used Nu-Finish since I first read about it 10 years ago. Only use it now for the few batches of brass I run in the corncob, most work being done with the SS Pin media.

To stop the tarnish after the wet SS Pin media process just add some automotive Wash/Wax concentrate. The same wax that is left behind to make the water bead on your car will coat the brass case and prevent tarnish. Won't harm the performance of your powder or primers either.

Just about any soluble "wax" can be used but the car wash/wax products are really the most suitable as they leave an indetectable film.

 

[Member 5605]

Thanks guys,

Looks like I will need the final polish/protectant layer as that makes the most sense logically.

I'll have to keep that walnut shell around just to apply the polish.

 

[deadshot2]

Thanks guys,

Looks like I will need the final polish/protectant layer as that makes the most sense logically.

I'll have to keep that walnut shell around just to apply the polish.

Or use "Kit Car Wash/Wax" instead of Dawn. It's cheap and will prevent tarnish after cleaning with SS Pins.

 

[Member 5605]

So with the same logic Deadshot2, I would assume that "any" automotive soap that contains wax would work the same.

About to head out about town, so I'll see if I can locate some of the Kit brand.

 

[rainyday]

for wet tumbeling, use dishsoap only to preclean then dry in corn. then after resizing and trimming, use only rcbs sidewinder liquid in your wet tumbeler. it has lanolin in it that will make it look like new and keep it that way

 

[deadshot2]

So with the same logic Deadshot2, I would assume that "any" automotive soap that contains wax would work the same.

About to head out about town, so I'll see if I can locate some of the Kit brand.

I just mentioned "Kit" brand because it comes in a gallon jug and is cheap. Turtle Wax and others make the Wash/Wax liquids and will work well. The "wax" is either a soluble form of Carnuba Wax or another polymer that forms a barrier on the surface.

 

[Member 5605]

Deadshot2,

Cleaned some of the .40 brass yesterday using a car soap with a wax. This stuff tumbled for about 4 hours +/-


I believe it was a TurtleWax brand with the Carnuba in it. Either way this is how it turned out. Hopefully it will remain. I dried it last night at about 12:30am and so far it's looking a lot better than the other brass did 10 hours later.






Hopefully the information contained in here will help anyone else, kind of the reason I'm posting the trails etc.

I can say that the automotive soap with the wax/polymer stuff that's supposed to keep water spots off of your car has REALLY helped to keep the water from making spots. There are a couple on the front few pieces of brass, but again nothing like what I had before.

 

[P7M13]

Rinse with distilled water. Crap in your tap water could be causing the oxidation.
My ultrasonic solutions are quite acidic. I give them one rinse in distilled water and then dry out, and don't have a problem with oxidation. I'm sure wax would help.

 

[Member 5605]

Rinse with distilled water. Crap in your tap water could be causing the oxidation.
My ultrasonic solutions are quite acidic. I give them one rinse in distilled water and then dry out, and don't have a problem with oxidation. I'm sure wax would help.

Thanks, good idea. I know it's trivial to some about the appearance of clean brass.. but if we don't want clean brass... why did we spend the money to get all of the equipment:

I will try on my next batch using the water from the reverse osmosis we have in the house it seems to strip everything from the water.

 

[deadshot2]

Rinse with distilled water. Crap in your tap water could be causing the oxidation.
My ultrasonic solutions are quite acidic. I give them one rinse in distilled water and then dry out, and don't have a problem with oxidation. I'm sure wax would help.

Water will leave spots if you don't dry it quick enough but the "tarnish" is caused by chemicals in the air. The worst offender with brass is sulphur. That's everywhere in small amounts, released to the air by burning fuels.

Another source is "human flatulence", the stinky agent being sulfur dioxide. Want shiny brass, cut down on those gassy foods

 

[Tomas204]

Keep you acidic dirty paws off the brass and it won't happen, really some people have paws like that L0L

Great info on the shiny brass

 

[Member 5605]

Found one solution that works:

I wash with the stainless pins. I add ONLY ArmorAll car soap (with Carnubua wax). Wash for a little longer than needed. 4 hours? To the point where when I pull a piece of brass out the water beads up and runs down

• Me, Myself & Irene
  
  (2000)
• 00:07:48 Well, that's probably why the water beads off their hair, huh ?
  • Time - Phrase
  • 00:07:43 - My great grandmother's half Italian. - Half Italian ?
  • 00:07:46 Oh, yeah.
  • 00:07:48 Well, that's probably why the water beads off their hair, huh ?
  • 00:07:52 [ Sighs ] Yeah, so ?
  • 00:07:55 - I mean, a lot of people have different kind of hair. - Oh, yeah.
    

Set them in my Hornady case upside down and use a little blow dryer to warm the brass a little to get all remaining water off. Seems to work very well so far with all that I've treated that way. Even the stuff I forgot about and left in for 36 hours.

 

[7SFCW4]

Tumble one hour in walnut media, with two heaping tablespoons of FLITZ polishing compound in the $5 can. Baxters auto parts, sadly, about $50.00/can

Brass takes about a year to tarnish.

 

[BoogeyMan]

Hello I'm the new guy. However I have used the steel pin tumbling for a long time and here is how you get rid of spots. Tumble with cold water car wash / wax put some lemishine in the tumbler. When finished rinse with cold water. Place brass on towel then place a towel on top of the brass. Roll the brass under the tool and leave it to dry for a day or two. The result will be perfect brass no spots.

 

[Otter]

Wow, lots of effort to make pretty brass. Extensive studies have been conducted and shiny brass does not shoot better than tarnished brass. Ultra clean necks (inside) will actually cause seating issues, inconsistent neck tension and accuracy issues.

I will admit I too have a clean brass fetish, but I am getting better.