Poor mans brass cleaning (Red Green Special)

Z

Zerex

CGN Regular
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Location
Victoria, BC
I was bored this afternoon, so I spent an hour rigging up 2 different redneck ways of cleaning 9mm brass.
I'm sure this has been done a million different times in the past but I thought I'd post my results for anyone interested:stirthepot2:
So here goes

Took some dirty once fired brass

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Bought a 7lb bag of crushed walnut shells from Petceterra for $11

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Set up 2 different redneck brass cleaning devices. Each ended up getting 75 pieces of brass and a cup of walnut shells.
The first was a tumbler with my drill

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The second was a vibrating cleaner with the old palm sander

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Left them in each device for 40 mins. I couldn't tell any difference between the two, so into a liquid solution (2 cups water, 1 cup vinegar, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 2 tablespoons soap) they went for another 45mins

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Took them out and they looked pretty spiffy:D

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I know this is nothing new and a ton of people have done it, but I had some spare time and wanted to give it a try
Cheers:)
 
I hate to break this to you, but I think they looked better before :)

Your gun doesn't care if the brass is dirty. For the amount of time you spent, you could have wiped the outsides of the cases off with a green scrubbie, scotch brite, or 000 steel wool for about the same result!
 
mwjones said:
I hate to break this to you, but I think they looked better before :)

Your gun doesn't care if the brass is dirty. For the amount of time you spent, you could have wiped the outsides of the cases off with a green scrubbie, scotch brite, or 000 steel wool for about the same result!
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I appreciate the fact that the gun doesn't care how the brass looks. The reason I did this was that the inside of the brass was filthy with residue from spent burnt powder and now its sparkling clean like the outside. I can't imagine its recommended to reload brass with all that black gunk still in the casing?
 
Love it!!Looks like cutting edge technology but as mentioned there needs to be a strip of duct tape around that stuff somewhere in keeping with respect for ol'Red.
 
Zerex said:
I appreciate the fact that the gun doesn't care how the brass looks. The reason I did this was that the inside of the brass was filthy with residue from spent burnt powder and now its sparkling clean like the outside. I can't imagine its recommended to reload brass with all that black gunk still in the casing?
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Well we wouldn't want to get black gunk on our black gunk the next time we fire those rounds, now would we?;)

The main purpose of cleaning brass is to remove debris that would either harm your dies or interfere with the case chambering in your gun. Anything beyond that is cosmetic. Whether you want to wash your brass by hand, or throw it in a tumbler, or even go as far as using stainless steal media is entirely up to you and the amount of time you have on your hands.
 
nice. why even bother with the acid bath after? and yes, the coppery patches on the shells is not a good thing. dont dare do that to rifle brass, coppery spots = week spots
 
Beater said:
nice. why even bother with the acid bath after? and yes, the coppery patches on the shells is not a good thing. dont dare do that to rifle brass, coppery spots = week spots
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No real reason, was bored and hungover on a Sunday afternoon so I wasted a couple hours of my day and a couple of dollars on Walnut shells.
In return I learned an important science lesson, got a handful of shinies and found that on CGN everyones a critic ;)
 
Zerex said:
......and found that on CGN everyones a critic ;)
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It took two years,lol?! Seriously, that is pretty cool what you did. Dont worry about the residue in the cases btw. My experience and research indicates it is not an issue re: safety or performance.
 
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well wasnt really tryin to be a smart ass, that can be very dangerous in high preasure loads. everything is a learning prosess, more info is USUALLY allways a good thing. i never wash after i tumble.
 
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