Color Case Brass

[RVTECH]

After years of research and experimentation I finally mastered the art of Color Case Brass!

Well, not really ! I was pre cleaning the brass .357 with some aluminum 9mm in my tumbler with dawn, apple cider vinegar and spent primers as media (yea they work great as expendable media) and the brass came out this way.

I suspect the aluminum had something to do with it as brass only with the same solution comes out bright and shiny!

It will no doubt be gone at the next 'real' tumbling session with pins.

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[DizzyJ]

Oh my!

 

[Jory45acp]

Those certainly will get your attention next to normal brass cases!!!

 

[Caveman Jim]

I got some really psychedelic cases one time because I left the tray of wet 45acp cases in too long, like 6 hours at 250*...

 

[awshoot]

Do it again. That's kinda awesome.

 

[sobo]

So righteous, duuuuuude... Going back to shiny brass would just be harshin' my mellow...

 

[Caveman Jim]

It happened again yesterday drying some pristine clean, once fired 300BLK. Thankful it was only 4 out of 100+...

 

[Caveman Jim]

It happened again yesterday drying some pristine clean, once fired 300BLK. Thankful it was only 4 out of 100+...

View attachment 702525

I should reiterate that these were really wet but just as beautiful as they were when they are brought out of the package. In my haste to get them dry out I did not look close enough and I have the temperature set on 300 for 30 minutes versus normally I set it at 200° for 30 minutes with no psychedelic effects. LOL

The others suffer no ill effect.The others suffer no ill effect.

 

[DLS]

I've had that coloration pop up from time to time as well. I never have figured out what caused it as I treat my cases the same way each time. I just load 'em up and shoot them, they seem to do just fine. The coloration seems to disappear the next time through the wash.

 

[RVTECH]

I never have figured out what caused it as I treat my cases the same way each time.

Yea mine came about from tumbling aluminum with the brass - but I don't know if it had anything to do with the apple cider vinegar.
Brass only tumbled with a splash of the vinegar & dawn come out brilliant.

 

[DLS]

In my Franklin tumbler I place 11 pounds of brass, the supplied 5 pounds of pins, a measured squirt of Dawn and an 1/8 tsp of citric acid for the initial cleaning. After rinsing using the accessory screen end caps I run the batch for a second session with a measured squirt of auto wash and wash detergent and another 1/8 tsp of citric acid. This is pretty much how I do it every time after many rounds of experimentation with varying amounts of detergent and acid.

I use hand soap pump dispensers to measure my detergent (saves on detergent and it's very fast) and an old dollar store measuring spoon for the citric acid. I bought a bulk pack of acid off of Amazon for not that much more than a small container of Lemi-Shine and now have a multi-year supply. ***

I have had steel and aluminum cases sneak into batches before and don't think this happened the same time as the funky colored brass appearing, but I'm not really sure. I think I'll run a batch with a bunch of aluminum just to see and get back to the tread.


*** Since I have so much of the stuff, we have started adding the acid to our dishwasher and laundry, it seems to help in cleaning here too.

 

[Trez]

From my understanding, if you use too much citric acid, (Limi Shine) or vinegar in your case and or leave it in too long, the acid dissolves the zinc from the surface of the brass leaving more copper on the surface. It's not enough to harm anything but will give the brass a copper coloring as you see more of the copper in the brass alloy.

 

[RVTECH]

From my understanding, if you use too much citric acid, (Limi Shine) or vinegar in your case and or leave it in too long, the acid dissolves the zinc from the surface of the brass leaving more copper on the surface. It's not enough to harm anything but will give the brass a copper coloring as you see more of the copper in the brass alloy.

Makes sense but it only creates the color on the brass when aluminum cases are in with the brass.

Brass only in vinegar (or lemon juice which I use when the dollar store has it!) comes out a shiny brass color only.

 

[DLS]

True, and if you left it long enough (weeks? months?) and had enough acid to continue the reaction you could leach enough zinc to weaken the case. But at the levels and times most hand loaders use acid it's not really any problem ... as @Trez states.

I played around a lot with detergent and acid amounts and settled on what I listed earlier. I use enough acid to give a "golden glow" (heck how do you describe this?) but not so much that it becomes highly shining yellow like the brightwork on a navel vessel or a Marine's belt buckle.

That's just my preference as to color. I have a friend who likes it much brighter.