no tumbler yet how to home clean brass

boombag13

boombag13

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hi all
i'm sure this has been covered somewhere already but with 440+ pages i dont have the patience to read all of them lol like the title says dont have a tumbler yet & have lots of brass to clean, anyone have any suggestions or experience using things found around the house they could pass on to a rookie? any info is much appreciated
 
Hot water and vinegar in a bucket, pour it in and shake.....leave for 15 min, come back and shake some more, leave fore another 15 min, come back and rinse thoroughly, dry and off you go.

They will be clean, but wont give you that sparkling shiny new brass look that a Stainless Steel tumbler will.
 
If your brass has grit and dirt in it after being picked up off the ground, then you can wash it with hot water and add some vinegar if you like then flush. Complete drying is required. If you just want shiney brass don`t worry about it and reload as usual.
 
I used to do 9mm brass this way prior to getting a tumbler: take about 100 pieces, lay them on a terry bath towel on a carpet, roll up the towel with the brass in it, and roll it back and forth as though you are rolling dough for about 20 minutes while watching tv. They come out pretty decent and it costs nothing. Make sure you use an old towel that you don't want to use in the bathroom anymore.
 
Red_Liner740 said:
Hot water and vinegar in a bucket, pour it in and shake.....leave for 15 min, come back and shake some more, leave fore another 15 min, come back and rinse thoroughly, dry and off you go.

They will be clean, but wont give you that sparkling shiny new brass look that a Stainless Steel tumbler will.
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What R_L said.
You can add a squirt of dishwasher fluid as well, or use citric acid powder instead of vinegar.
rinse and dry.
Not shiney, but clean
 
I used to do my brass in the washing machine. I'd put it in one of those mesh bags.

One time I opened the lid and the washer was full. Some .50BMG brass had torn the bag open and jammed the agitator. My heart stopped cuz I thought I was going to have to explain what happened to my wife. I dislodged the case and restarted it and the washer drained.

I don't use the washing machine anymore.
 
You can just wipe them off or wash them like the others said, and they will load and shoot fine. I tumble most of my brass and it works great and the stainless tumblers look even better, but the first 100+ years of handloading/reloading was done just fine without standard tumbling or stainless media. Now that tumblers are here they're a great addition to the tools we have, but you don't have to have one to load great ammo.
 
I put about 1000 45acp brass in sink, add 1 tablespoon citric acid, couple splashes sunlight dishsoap ,fill with hot water. Put rubber gloves on and stir couple times. Leave for 1 hr. Rinse throughly to get rid of acid. I dry mine at 120 degrees in oven or outside in summer. You can buy citric acid cheap from any wine making store , they use it to clean with. I bought a dillion brass vibro and never use it after using the above method . The brass comes out very clean and shiny. It takes alittle longer to dry rifle brass .
 
Cases dry faster if deprimed first. Been using a Lyman universal deprimer for ages. No need to worry about dirty brass scratching up dies.

I'm a vinegar and dish soap guy. Rinse very thoroughly, or green verdigry will show up inside the dried cases.
 
Here's a pic of a tumbler I made with an orbital sander. Has a similar one fpr almost 20 years, left it behind when I moved. this one is about 4 years old. Even if you buy a new sander, it'll cost you about $20. I used an empty paint gallon I had, but you can buy one for about $3.

cleaner1.jpg
 
First time I did 9 I used an old ice cream bucket, some soap, heavy duty gloves, and some brass wool. Thrashing around wildly did the bulk with a few done by hand to make them pretty. Grab a handfull and shake out the water and roll them on an unwanted towel, empty and dry the bucket and put the brass back in to air dry.
 
Papaclaude said:
Here's a pic of a tumbler I made with an orbital sander. Has a similar one fpr almost 20 years, left it behind when I moved. this one is about 4 years old. Even if you buy a new sander, it'll cost you about $20. I used an empty paint gallon I had, but you can buy one for about $3.

cleaner1.jpg
Click to expand...

Now, that's clever!
 
Unless you are looking for super accuracy, they needn't be brand-new-shiny.

Deprime with a universal deprimer. That makes everything else easier, with or without a tumbler.

Before I got a tumbler, I used to use the sleeve from an old flannel shirt. Dumped the cases inside, gave it a good squirt of lighter fluid, then shook. Dumped the cases onto a cookie sheet or something and let them dry. Worked just fine.
 
ATOM said:
Now, that's clever!
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First one was invented out of necessity - I couldn't get half the stuff i needed where I lived. this one was the result of cheapness - the old one worked so well I couldn't justify buying a real tumbler when I got back into relaoding.
 
Papaclaude said:
First one was invented out of necessity - I couldn't get half the stuff i needed where I lived. this one was the result of cheapness - the old one worked so well I couldn't justify buying a real tumbler when I got back into reloading.
Click to expand...

Well, I just wish I'd thought of that before I bought the expensive one.
 
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