Cleaning brass by hand
- Thread starter LongDraw
- Start date
- Location
- Northern Ontario
Steel wool or one of those green cleaning pads - while you watch the news or at work.
gunasauras
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Western Manitoba
Here's one from Gunsmith Kinks:
I've never actually tried this one, but who knows....seems a tumbler is easier though!
"Use 1 to 1/2 oz. of Potassium Bitartrate (Cream of TarTar used in baking) to 1qt. of water. Dump in the dirty brass and bring to a boil for around 10 minutes. Drain and save the solution for future use. Flush the brass with hot water and wipe each case with a soft towel or flannel cloth."
I've never actually tried this one, but who knows....seems a tumbler is easier though!
"Use 1 to 1/2 oz. of Potassium Bitartrate (Cream of TarTar used in baking) to 1qt. of water. Dump in the dirty brass and bring to a boil for around 10 minutes. Drain and save the solution for future use. Flush the brass with hot water and wipe each case with a soft towel or flannel cloth."
This is off topic and I don't mean to steal the thread, but I have another great use for Cream of Tartar. It's the best thing going for cleaning the crud out of your stainless steel thermos. Put in a heaping teaspoon full of it, and a cup or so of hot water, and a handful of dry white beans (for an abrasive)....shake hell out of it for a few minutes, and it'll look like new inside!
Now - back to cleaning brass....if you don't have a tumbler, a wad of 0000 steel wool works well. I tumble too, but if you figure in the time it takes shaking the media out of the brass, wiping it clean, digging out the primer holes, etc., I doubt steel wool is all that much slower.
Now - back to cleaning brass....if you don't have a tumbler, a wad of 0000 steel wool works well. I tumble too, but if you figure in the time it takes shaking the media out of the brass, wiping it clean, digging out the primer holes, etc., I doubt steel wool is all that much slower.
The best stuff in the universe for hand-cleaning brass is Nevrdull - it's an impregnated cotton, you can find it at Canadian Tire and elsewhere. The film it leaves behind is suitable as a lubricant for neck sizing rifle brass - don't know about full-length sizing, and I'd want an extractor nearby before trying it.
Before I got a tumbler, I was cleaning all my brass by hand with brasso, without knowing that ammonia would weaken me cases. Well, In two years I've done that, both type of cases I cleaned, 45ACP and 44Magnum never failed me not developped any cracks. I was dampening a towel with brasso and rub the cases with it, followed immediately by rubbing them with a clean tower to remove the dried out brasso residues.
NevrDull is a miraculous product, that's the only stuff I found that wasn't an abrasive and that could remove the carbon 'crust' on the face of my 629 cylinder so I guess it is more than enough for cleaning cases altough I never tried that yet. It works good, but will require alot of rubbing.
NevrDull is a miraculous product, that's the only stuff I found that wasn't an abrasive and that could remove the carbon 'crust' on the face of my 629 cylinder so I guess it is more than enough for cleaning cases altough I never tried that yet. It works good, but will require alot of rubbing.
Slooshark1
CGN frequent flyer
I but my loaded rifle shells into the shell holder of my Lee Case trimmer that attachs to my drill. I use metal polish. Brasso works. But after your done spinning them in the towel of Brasso. Spin them in a towel that's damp to get any of the corrosive metal cleaner off, otherwise your cartridges will tarnish quickly and them spin them in a dry towel to remove the moisture. It's a pain in the but to do but it produces nice hunting rounds.
- Location
- Calgary, AB
I use the Birchwood Casey cartridge brass cleaning concentrate:
Dump your batch of cases into the heated solution for about 15 minutes.
Decant the solution (save it, as it can be reused).
Rinse the cases a couple of times in hot tap water.
Oven dry at 70C (preheated) for an hour, or let air dry for a couple of days.
The bottle of concentrate will make many solution batches.
moosehunter
Regular
- Location
- Prince George
Take your tools and head up to the dump. Built mine for about $20.00 bucks a few years ago. Works like a hot damn.
It also depends on how many cases you want to polish.
If you are loading about 30 rifle cases then do them by hand, but if you have a couple of hundred 45 ACP cases then you want a tumbler or something similar.
In the latter case, half filling a large milk jug to half way with 30% white vinegar and 70% warm water, and adding a drop of dishwashing liquid is a good mix. Just shake the mix with your cases in it and after a while most of the dirt should come off. After a couple of minutes of shaking your cases they will be clean but not shiny like out of a tumbler.
Afer that I used to rinse them in clean water and spread them out on an old towel to dry for a day or two.
However, nothing beats a tumbler.
If you are loading about 30 rifle cases then do them by hand, but if you have a couple of hundred 45 ACP cases then you want a tumbler or something similar.
In the latter case, half filling a large milk jug to half way with 30% white vinegar and 70% warm water, and adding a drop of dishwashing liquid is a good mix. Just shake the mix with your cases in it and after a while most of the dirt should come off. After a couple of minutes of shaking your cases they will be clean but not shiny like out of a tumbler.
Afer that I used to rinse them in clean water and spread them out on an old towel to dry for a day or two.
However, nothing beats a tumbler.
