Brass cleaning

[kjohn]

I finally broke down and ordered some steel pins and a tumbler today. I had some really grungy brass come to me, so I gave it to Deaner, my trusty gunner buddy. In one hour with pins, water and a bit of cleaner - presto! Just like new. Years ago, I used my dear old Thumbler's Tumbler, then advanced to a Frankfurt Arsenal shaker. Also tried citric acid. Nothing compared to the brass Deaner cleaned for me.

 

[Redmaple]

I also have the Franklin Arsenal Tumbler/with stainless steel pins. Nothing beats it! A couple of drops of Dawn detergent, a half teaspoon lemmishine and hot water are all you need. I deprime the brass first. The first cycle is just 15 minutes, or so, to get the surface grime off. Then, change the water and cycle for another 45 minutes. Factory new..

 

[downwindtracker2]

I got a tumbler barrel given to me, so I built the rest. My wife has a rock tumbler so it was a simple matter of doing a better job. I found SS pins, 1/4teaspoon lemonshine and Dawn worked for me. Others have used car wash. instead of Dawn. A dollar store strainer and a plastic bag on a magnet rounded out my inexpensive kit.

It's nice to have the primer pockets and the necks clean.

 

[4n2t0]

For pistol brass I don't bother with pins. I'm sure it's much different with rifle brass, especially since you probably want a very clean pocket.

 

[barsik]

I bought one of those inexpensive vevor jewelry tumblers and use a modified nra cleaning solution that gets me to about 90% of what the pins do. pins work fantastically well but are a royal pain to separate and inspect each individual piece of brass, so I don't use pins anymore. 1/2 of a sunshine dishwasher pod, 1 cup vinegar, and 3 cups of scalding hot water and 30 mins in the tumbler does a decent job. rinse three times and spread the brass out to dry on an old towel. don't want to spend any more time than I need to prepping brass and my OCD left with my natural hair color.

 

[270WSMXBolt]

I anneal then sonic citrus clean. Then de-prime and resize and trim. Then walnut tumble and clean with compressed air. Then set neck tension with mandrel. Then Optimus Prime. And so on. Cheers

 

[Silverado]

Walnut with jewellers rouge made my match brass so shiny you could check your teeth in the reflection.

 

[667]

I fell into the wet tumbling rabbit hole a few years ago
I ended up building a tumbler in which I can do upwards of 1000 ..223 cases.
It may be over-kill, but shiney, like new brass is nice to work with.
I take it one step further and deprime my cases before they go in... Clean primer pockets are nice too

 

[Butcherbill]

I bought one of those inexpensive vevor jewelry tumblers and use a modified nra cleaning solution that gets me to about 90% of what the pins do. pins work fantastically well but are a royal pain to separate and inspect each individual piece of brass, so I don't use pins anymore. 1/2 of a sunshine dishwasher pod, 1 cup vinegar, and 3 cups of scalding hot water and 30 mins in the tumbler does a decent job. rinse three times and spread the brass out to dry on an old towel. don't want to spend any more time than I need to prepping brass and my OCD left with my natural hair color.

I use a dry media separator to spin the brass and separate the pins, it removes the pins completely. I don’t even have to check for pins inside the cases.

 

[mctrigger]

I’m overly OCD for no good reason but it makes me happy. Homemade wet tumbler as mentioned couple 9mm cases level with lemie shine and a few drops of dawn. Hour later that brass looks new. I run it all through a lee app prior to tumbling. At the very least it keeps the Dillion clean when I reload. My range pick ups are pretty dirty usually. I only uses a pound of pins. Which are 304 tig 1/16 rods cut to 1/2” lengths and it does make a difference to me. Quick spin in a media separator, shake in a towel then in an oven for 45 mins and good gravy they are lovely. I’m all hot and heavy over a head stamp sorter now.

 

[Dmay]

I use a dry media separator to spin the brass and separate the pins, it removes the pins completely. I don’t even have to check for pins inside the cases.

I'd like to hear and see exactly what you do. I've been wet tumbling with pins for many years now, and have never found a fool proof way to be sure they are all out......short of a visual inspection at some point. Shaking them under water is my most successful method, followed by drying and shaking around again, but I still get the odd few pins.....and I'm very opposed to any, as I then use an AMP annealer....

 

[Butcherbill]

I'd like to hear and see exactly what you do. I've been wet tumbling with pins for many years now, and have never found a fool proof way to be sure they are all out......short of a visual inspection at some point. Shaking them under water is my most successful method, followed by drying and shaking around again, but I still get the odd few pins.....and I'm very opposed to any, as I then use an AMP annealer....

After the tumbler is done I attach the strainer end to one side of the Frankford arsenal drum and fill with clean water and rinse into a strainer on a 5gal pail a couple times, this catches the majority of the pins.

After I’m done rinsing into the strainer I dump the brass into the Graff dry media separator, close it all up and spin it back and forth a few good rotations in both directions.

I usually dump the clean brass onto a towel on a big metal baking tray and let it dry overnight beside the wood stove, I do the bulk of my brass cleaning over the winter. In the summer I’ll sit it in the sun if it’s a hot day.

Initially I used to inspect cases for pins but after finding none I don’t bother, I usually roll the cases around by hand on the towel to spread them out and occasionally will find 1 or 2 pins afterwards. The media separator seems to spin out any water so pins don’t seem to stick to cases, I’ve yet to find any in a case when I start processing or loading. Pistol cases I clean in bulk (5 gal pail) so I don’t bother decapping before I clean, rifle brass I decap first as I’m not doing the same volume.

 

[little b]

The best secret I have found for getting pins out of the brass that has not let me down is Ballistol, I learned about this from Slam Fire Radio years ago.
I have the blue ball from Frankford for rinsing brass, cut a coupe notches into a 3 gallon bucket for it to sit into instead of the bucket fins it came with but after doing the first rinse when I fill the bucket with the ball of brass in it I add a little bit of the Ballistol to the water and then spin the ball. And super hot water for the rinses. Works amazingly and adds a initial bit of lube into the case which for pistol brass is all I find I need. Rifle brass I still fully lube.
It's cheap and lasts for years, I'd bet if you try it you won't go back

 

[DiMP]

I dump the brass and pins into a big vegetable strainer I got from the dollar store. It has ~1/4" holes in the mesh. A bit of shaking over a big tupperware drops out most of the pins. I then just tap together cases upside down 2 at a time to knock out any remaining pins as I transfer them onto a towel to dry. I tend to wash only 100 rifle or 200 pistol brass at a time, so it doesn't take too long to shake them all out

 

[blazinbilly]

I use a dehydrater to dry brass

 

[PPCLI-Jim]

Been running a FART for close to a decade, one of a number of worthwhile upgrades for reloading. During the summer i have a black tote cut to about 1 inch in height, I put my brass in that for zero cost drying. During the cooler months, I do the old dehydration machine.

 

[Gatehouse]

I dump a 5 gallon pail of brass into a cement mixer, fill the pail with water and give them an initial rinse for about 15 minutes. Drain and rinse then add a pail of HOT water, squirt of Dawn and a heaping tablespoon of citric acid. Let it roll in the cement mixer about an hour, drain, rinse and spin then drain into a strainer bin. Then dump the brass into dryer rack screens and let sit in the sun to dry. In winter the brass goes into dehydrators. So I usually try to get as much brass as possible cleaned and dried in the hotter months.

Gets the brass nice and clean and no effing pins to deal with!

 

[Sniffer]

I use a Frankfort Arsenal tumbler.

For 9mm I initially clean without pins, I fill the drum up to around 3/4 full with brass and fill with hot water, some Dawn and tiny bit of Lemishine. Let it run for about an hour and then rinse.

Once dried (I use a dehydrator) the brass is clean enough to lube and deprime / resize. Then it is back in the tumbler with pins this time (with more Dawn and a little Lemishine). I run for an hour and then drain the water and rinse a little to get most of the grime out, then refill with clean hot water and run a little more (this part is key to get shiny brass - just running with the grimy water wont get even near as good results).

When complete I rinse and dry, brass is then deprimed, sized, super clean and ready to load.

I just got a Rollsizer so looks like it will happen just after the initial cleaning without pins (supposedly for best results Rollsizing needs to happen at this point).