How to correct too much lemi-shine while wet tumbling

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eusor

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Hi,

I just started with wet tumbling and I made a small mistake. The first batch was great but I added way too much lemi-shine in the second batch (I have the liquid version, clearly misjudged the quantity)

As you can see, the brass is now a dark brown-goldish color (it looks a lot darker than on picture). Is there any way I can bring them back to the original bright gold color?

I already tried to retumble them an extra hour in cold water w/o lemi-shine (after a good rince).

Thanks!

3 on the left: Not tumbled
2 in the middle: First tumbled batch
3 on the right: Last batch with too much lemi-shine

brass.jpg
 
That's not too much Lemieux-shine. Too much turns the brass copper colored. It leaches the zinc from the surface or something along those lines. I've had what you're describing happen when a steel case slipped in with the brass. I had to clean the pins by rinsing them really well and then tumbling them by themselves for a few hours. Then rinsed them again and retumbled the brass. Don't forget some dish soap in the water.
 
Looks like you really over did the Lemishine. I used too much first couple batches but they didn't get as bad as yours. They did however get better after a couple of reloads and tumble.
Oops I was looking at the left ones Sawzall is right.
Also what soap are you using? I switched to a car wash wax. Got a jug of Armour All cheap and found it works better than Dawn that I was using before.
 
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sawzall said:
That's not too much Lemieux-shine. Too much turns the brass copper colored. It leaches the zinc from the surface or something along those lines. I've had what you're describing happen when a steel case slipped in with the brass. I had to clean the pins by rinsing them really well and then tumbling them by themselves for a few hours. Then rinsed them again and retumbled the brass. Don't forget some dish soap in the water.
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Hmm, in this particular instance, there wasn't any steel case mixed with the brass.

However, maybe there was some other contaminants? I guess I’ll have to experiment a bit more :confused:

I'll also try to tumble the pin by themselves to see if it can improve things... However, they look fine :|
 
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that doesn't look like too much lemishine... Something is going on there. What type of soap did you use?

I personally use dawn dish detergent and tide coldwater HE.
 
An over night tumble would shine them up.

But yes, like others have said, you had something in there that may have caused a reaction or contamination, gotta watch steel getting in there.

My mix is a dribble of dish soap , and a small pinch of lemishine, seriously , 20 grains maybe.

Do you rinse your pins and tub after?

eusor said:
Unfortunately, I don't... I might have to borrow one :\
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I'm wondering if the excessive liquid LemiShine effected the rubber liner, I only use the granules.

I would just put the pins in with no brass with some hot water and dish washing soap and let it tumble for a few hours.

This will break in the pins more getting rid of the sharp ends and give the rubber liner a scrubbing.

When you do tumble normally with your cases the water should still be soapy when you are done, the dish washing soap holds the dirt in suspension.

I had a dirty batch of range pickup brass and didn't add enough soap and the cases came out dark.

I tumbled them again and the cases came out clean with plenty of bling.
 
Let the pin's tumble for a couple hour's with too much soap and NO Lemmishine, rinse very well then tumble as usual. I have the crystal Lemmishine from Canadian tire and I use a LEE 2.8CC scoup that's about the same capacity as an empty 40cal
 
Update: I've tumbled the pins for a straight 6 hours with a 4 teaspoon of dawn in cold water (on a 2 Frankford rotary). The result water was gray/darkish, it seems there was some kind of residue left, still not sure what it was? Maybe like bigedp51 said, the rubber reacted with quite a bit of lemi-shine or the lukewarm water, I just don't know yet.

I've just finished tumbling a new batch with 2 teaspoon of dawn and 1/2 teaspoon of lemi-shine for 2h. The batch turned out pretty good.

I've also added 5 rounds of the problematic batch to see how they would turn out, they're now a bit brighter, It'd say a 1/3rd of the way to normal brass color.

I guess I'll just use them as is and they'll slowly turn out clearer as I use/retumble them. I'll also try to find some crystal lemi-shine instead of that liquid version, I'm not sure I fully trust it... And I'll update this thread if happens again or if I have another idea of what could have caused it...

Thanks!

ice2152 said:
May not be shiny but aren't the primer pockets clean and interior case? That's the main goal isn't it?
Click to expand...

Super clean... But you know, shiny brass! ;)
 
Are you sure that the liquid lemi-shine is the same stuff as the crystals? I have in front of me a container of the crystals, which works good, and one of liquid "lemi-shine Rinse/performance booster. It doesn't work worth sh!t for shining up the brass.
Another possibility... have you used graphite to lube the inside of your case necks? A wee little bit will make your brass look darker, and takes a while to get cleaned out of the pins/inside of the drum. Ask me how I know this.
 
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