Brass washing instead of tumbling

BCRider

BCRider

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I was cleaning a bunch of brass today and once again enjoying how well the method works so I thought I'd post on my success with using an alternative method for cleaning the brass.

I started off with the vibrator and corn cob media along with some funky polishing additive as recomended on so many sites and in books about reloading. If found that it worked OK on the outside but didn't remove diddly from the insides of the cases. On top of this I had to handle each case separetley to dump out the media and half the time poke a grain out of the primer hole of decapped rifle brass. All in all it was a big PITA with less than great results on the insides. So I went looking at alternatives.

I read about using an ultrasonic cleaner and a mix of dish soap liquid and vinegar in water to clean the brass. The results in the various websites extolling the virtues of this method looked good so I bought a cleaner from Ebay. I've cleaned rifle brass and probably 4000 rounds of .38Spl, .357Mag and 9mm with this cleaner now and I'm here to say that I sure as heck will NOT be going back to the tumbler. The results from the ultrasonic are fantastic. Both the insides and outsides come out far more clean than with the tumbler. In many cases the insides are as bright and shiney as the outside.

My method;
  1. Fill the cleaner to spec level with a mix of a "squirt" of dish liquid then 3 parts warm water and one part vinegar.
  2. Dump the brass in and stir it a little to ensure they are filled with the liquid.
  3. Clean for 10 minutes with the cleaner set to hold the temp at around 40C.
  4. Dump the basket of brass into a colander and tumble it with your hand to drain the cases back into the cleaner.
  5. Rinse the collander of brass in a tub of fresh water. Tumble it a few time in the water and drain with more tumbling to tip all the water out. I'm doing my brass cleaning at the laundry area so the laundry tube is used to hold the rinse water.
  6. Dip and tumble in a bucket of water with a healthy dollop of baking soda dissoved into it to encourage the neutralization of any remaining traces of the vinegar.
  7. Rinse again with repeated tumblings both in and out of the water to remove any trace of the baking soda bath.
  8. Stick the brass into a toaster oven set to minimum for about 20 minutes to dry.

All of this sounds like a lot of steps but keep in mind that you're working with anywhere from 20 cases for rifle to maybe 100 of 9mm at a time and NOT having to handle each one separately. And best of all the insides are as clean or nearly as clean as the outside.

I have someone that I owe a favour that is happy with tumbling. I think I'll donate my tumbler to him. Poor deluded fool... :D
 
I no longer dry tumble but, for pistol brass:

1) Resize / de-prime brass on my Single Stage press.
2) Wet tumble 4 hrs with mixture of 1mm ceramic beads + Cabelas cleaner/additive.
3) "Shake & Bake" (2 min by hand) brass in plastic tub containing Corncob media, this dries pistol brass 100%.
4) Pick brass out of Corncob & Corncob out of brass, (OK a 20 min PITA but get dry brass with no heat).

Result = shiny inside and out INCLUDING primer pockets and sized. When loading, I don't need to stress the powder charge linkage on my L&L AP with a "powder through expander" and still have space for a "Factory Crimp" die and RCBS "Lockout" die. No case lube near the L&L AP = no guck to deal with near powder/primers/AP machine,,not necessary but nice.

This operation is an extravagance in terms of equipment used but WTF, if you've got the gear, may as well use it.
 
I give all my brass a quick wash in hot water and dish soap to get rid of dirt and some of the carbon. I still tumble an happy with the results, am considering an ultra sonic cleaner, but I also see a cae of: to err is to be human and ultrasonic cleaner can really do a number on whatever is in it if left to long.
 
I have been using the RCBS Sidewinder for years and enjoying the benefits of quick brass cleaning with the RCBS liquid cleaner, usually 15 minutes or less, and we are done. For ultra shine I switch to the dry media and polish if I feel like having more shine, in fact the brass will not be any cleaner just shinyer.
bigbull
 
i dont wash or tumble my rifle brass, just a quick blast of carb cleaner on a rag and give each piece a twist in it, and then use a primer pocket tool to clean the pockets.
that sounds like a nifty way to go though if appearances mean alot to you.
 
About a year ago i started using the Ceramic media from Cabelas but have found an even better method for cleaning both pistol and rifle brass. It actually came from another website (sniper something or other, cant remember sorry).

I use a Thumb tumbler purchased from Cabalas (small rubber one, actually i have two of them). I purchased stainless steel pins from Kramer Industries (in the states). You need about 5 pounds of the pins for this size of tumbler. i add about 150 -200 decapped pistol cases (depending on the caliber or about 100 .223 rifle cases) and then had hot water to just cover the cases and then about of table spoon (more or less) of TSP (trisodium phosphate, purchased from Canadian tire paint dept). Seal and tumble 6 - 9 hours to over night... The next day using a screen separate the pins from clean brilliantly shiny shell casings using warm water. Wash again with warm water and then using a Sham WOW (or any absorbant cloth, i just happen to have a supply of ShamWows around...LOL) to absorb most of the water and then place over my forced air furnace vent in the reloading room to dry...

This method give the cleanest, shiniest new looking cases. The other thing is that they are polished.. which means they feed very well. The stainless steel pins clean the inside of the primer pockets too and the inside of rifle casings for both pistol and rifle cases making the gleam.

The down side is that the pins are expensive... I recently bought some at a price of $26 a pound... minimum order of 50 lbs...(plus shipping and duty and customs brokerage fees... ouch) But they last forever...

You have to pre treat your pins by tumbling them overnight to shine them up before using... If not you get a burnished finish which polishes up on the next cycle of cleaning.

The pins that i use are the 3/64 in diameter x 1/2 long with pointed ends.
I found the TSP works best to cut the grease and does not affect the brass although i am sure there are milder detergents out there if you are concerned about the relatively high PH of the stuff...

I can post pics of the results if anyone is interested... Its alot of work but gives great results... but be prepared to be known as the guy with the shiniest brass in the club if you try it..

RDG
 
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I heard of just putting the brass in a container with straight CLR and swirling it around, then draining and rinsing. Apparently its cleans the inside real good.
Would the chemical hurt the brass?
 
If you wash brass in vinegar, it's very important to rinse all the vinegar out. Copper acetate is very hygroscopic (sucks water out of the air). Your cartridges can become contaminated with water over time if they aren't rinsed thoroughly.

The washings may also be toxic. All heavy metal acetates are very water soluble and a quick way to end up with heavy metal poisoning. The residue from primers and bullets on the cases can add up over a thousand rounds or so and the acetates can be absorbed through your skin.

This isn't an issue if the washings are disposed of properly.
 
I just put them my fired brass in a sock with some laundry detergent. Run it through the wash and dryer and I'm good. Pretty damn clean and it doesn't take any effort at all. My reloading set up is right next to the laundry machine and I reload while doing the laundry. Lol.
 
The issue I see with cleaning brass in the washing machine is the risk of lead contamination.
 
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