Can I clean my brass for too long?

salt will not affect your brass whatsoever unless there is a galvanic (electrolysis) reaction caused by the presence of another more noble metal. bronze or steel for example.
brass does contain zinc, if not then it is not brass but copper or bronze. cheap brass can turn to pink goo in 24 to 48 hours under the right circumstance.
the acid washing may affect the casings, the pink stains can be polished off if they are thin enough. did you use acid?
drying in the oven will not affect the hardness or temper in the brass( your home electric oven will not get hot enough, no matter how hard you try, short of lighting it on fire) you`ll just make the brass really hot and you`ll lose your temper if you pick it up with bare hands. you need to go to a pink to red heat colour in the metal before that happens .
OP, feel free to PM me and we can talk metal characteristics and how temperature and environment affect them.
 
I've been cleaning pistol brass for probably six years with vinegar/lemon juice/dish soap mix and it works good enough to make clean, somewhat shiny brass. The only time I've gotten discolored brass was when the brass wasn't completely submerged in the liquid, and left for awhile. I'm sure I even started a thread way back about this, calling it Dr. Moreau's island brass.

My mix is half vinegar/half water, splash of lemon juice, couple drops of dish soap. I submerge it in an appropriate size bowl, stirring 4-5 times? in 30 minutes, and rinse well and very soon after that. Like, immediately into clean water to rinse. There should be no funky colored brass doing it this way. Stir with a plastic utensil. Roll out wet brass on old towels and air dry, or if you're in a panic use a hair dryer.

For functionally clean brass, this will work. For awesome looking brass, use a tumbler.
 
I'm another person that just uses water vinegar and a little dish soap to clean my brass. Works perfectly fine and I get clean brass. I only make 20-40 rifle rounds at a time, so this method works really well for me, most of the time I'm just trying to take off the lube.

Kevin
 
Suther said:
Okay so I dont have a tumbler or anything yet. I decided to clean my brass with a recipe found online.

1 part vinegar to 4 parts water, with a dash of dish soap and a pinch of salt.
Mix well, add brass, soak for an hour, agitating occasionally. Rinse well, and dry.

The first time I did this, the brass was in the wash for around an hour. Then I tossed 'em in an old pillowcase, and threw them into the dryer for a bit. This was pretty loud so after like 20 minutes I pulled them out, and laid them on some paper towel. It came out looking good, no complaints.

So I did it again last night. Except this time I got distracted and forgot about it. This morning I rinsed it off and I left it out in the sun to dry.

My question is will this harm the brass at all? I know some people tumble for 4+ hours, so would 12-14 hours soaking in a bath hurt anything? The brass looks different this time...I was thinking that could be because it was left to air dry, rather than tumbled in a dryer? I dunno... I just need to make sure Im not going to blow my face off reloading this stuff because I f***ed it up or something....

My other question is about the salt. Salt is usually a bad thing for metals, is brass any different? It seemed odd to me that you would add salt to the mix, so I didn't do it the first time. I did try it this second time to see if anything was different, but because I left it overnight I can't say what if any difference the salt may have had.
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Honestly, all you really need is dish soap. Get a 5 gallon bucket or even a smaller one with a lid so you can shake it.
If you have hard water, add a pinch of lemishine, you can let this sit overnight safely if you don't overdo the lemishine. Rinse well and dry off what you can with a towel. I let mine sit overnight on the towel in my basement with my dehumidifier on.
 
I have a juice jug I use for this purpose. Its clear plastic, with a nice screw-on lid so I can just pick it up and give'r a good shaking every few minutes. Then do the same for rinsing - pour all the water out of the jug, add fresh clean water, shake, rinse, repeat.

Also as I said, Im not really concerned with pristine brass. As long as its safe to shoot, I dont really care how pretty it is. The whole reason I washed this stuff at all is because I have the brass just sitting here, and a bit of free time, so I figured might as well. Besides, if I can do a half-decent job washing this way, it means I can hold off on buying a tumbler a little bit longer, and spend that money on reloading components instead.

Does anyone have a preference for their soap?

Standard dawn dish soap is what I used, and seems to be a popular one, but I have also read of people using dishwasher detergent, and laundry detergent. Anybody have any experience with anything other than standard ol' dish soap?
 
I'd leave the dish soap out. It does nothing. 12-14 hours in dish water won't do anything.
Putting your cases on a cookie sheet then into your oven set on 'warm' for about 15 minutes will dry 'em faster than your dryer. No noise at all either. Don't touch 'em for another 15 minutes after taking 'em out.
 
sunray said:
I'd leave the dish soap out. It does nothing. 12-14 hours in dish water won't do anything.
Putting your cases on a cookie sheet then into your oven set on 'warm' for about 15 minutes will dry 'em faster than your dryer. No noise at all either. Don't touch 'em for another 15 minutes after taking 'em out.
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Now this I doubt.

If it did nothing, why does practically everyone use it? If it doesn't help in cleaning the brass, at the least it would help in keeping whatever you are cleaning off of the brass suspended in the water, and not redeposited on the brass when you drain your water...Because, well, its soap, Thats kinda what it does...

I tried the dryer once, didn't like it. Although I have heard of throwing a few old towels in with the brass - its supposed to quiet it nicely. Might try that later...
With the heat at 30+ right now, there is no way in hell Im using the oven to dry anything. Right now mother nature can do all my drying for me. Besides, sunshine is free.
 
do you think 200F is too high of a temp to dry brass with?? I usually do this for 45 mins or so to completely rid the case of any and all moisture. I have shot about 50 that were prepped like this, with no ill effects, but wonder sometimes if I am doing more harm then good.
 
duncansuds said:
do you think 200F is too high of a temp to dry brass with?? I usually do this for 45 mins or so to completely rid the case of any and all moisture. I have shot about 50 that were prepped like this, with no ill effects, but wonder sometimes if I am doing more harm then good.
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That is the temp I use but only for 20-25 min is sufficient..and then let them cool works great
 
duncansuds said:
do you think 200F is too high of a temp to dry brass with?? I usually do this for 45 mins or so to completely rid the case of any and all moisture. I have shot about 50 that were prepped like this, with no ill effects, but wonder sometimes if I am doing more harm then good.
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not in the least, although 45 min may be a while longer than you need.
 
If you're going to leave 'em in an oven for 45mins, tell ya what, compare that to giving the cleaned brass a dunk in hot water at the end, dump them into a strainer (I use a cheap fryer basket from the Dollar store) or a towel and shake the excess water off, pour them onto a cookie tray lined with paper towel and lay them out by a fan for an hour. You might end up not using that oven drying method again...
 
No-one has mentioned using the dishwasher or taking a shower with your brass!

I have both a vibratory (dry) and a tumbler (wet with SS pins) and I don't NEED either. Soapy water, lots of agitation and a good rinse, followed by 24 hrs of air drying is fine. I only use a vinegar-water solution if the brass is stained. 24 hrs in that solution will not weaken the brass, only discolour its surface.

This is not a RELIGION, but the anger and frustration shown by some who do it differently makes it seem that way to some.
 
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