This is weird, I need help pls

just want to mention...
yes, forget the vinigar.
For a gallon sized tumbler, use no more than a 9mm case of lemi shine.
The soap cleans the brass. The lemi softens the water which helps the soap do it's job and also is what gives the brass the shine, but as I stated, too much will leech zinc from the brass and discolor it.
The discoloration is only on the surface of the brass and can be removed though.
 
This can't possibly have anything to do with the tumbler, far too uniform to be from any chemical reaction....it's gotta be from a rifle or a die....but wtf? There has to be a missing link here somewhere...
 
How could any of those factors have caused the uniform deformation shown in those pics?
According to his original post, the only difference is he added vinegar besides the fact there was less brass. I've cleaned less brass with more pins and no issues

I do think judging by the pics that there was too much acidity in the solution, but that would in no way cause the bulging


realistically unless he tumbled it with like 10lbs media, with just enough water to dampen it , it wont

but seeing as by his picture this happened IN the number im just trying to get as much info as possible

if the vinigar was the issue, the whole case would have been softened , and the necks / mouths would be deformed as well
 
realistically unless he tumbled it with like 10lbs media, with just enough water to dampen it , it wont

but seeing as by his picture this happened IN the number im just trying to get as much info as possible

if the vinigar was the issue, the whole case would have been softened , and the necks / mouths would be deformed as well

Honestly I don't think any amount of SS pins would do that or any other damage because of the size/weight of each individual pin.
Vinegar is just a different acid and not strong enough to damage the brass at all, but not necessary and in addition to the Lemi just raises the acidity of the solution beyond what is required to get the shine.

In any event, as stated before, just fire them once in his gun and they're good to go.
 
someone on a different forum advised on a similar thread that the vinegar will leach zinc from the case and soften it. you might want to educate yourself on the effects of acid on brass before you reload those cases. personally, I don't have enough information right now to confidently say if it could be a problem.
 
someone on a different forum advised on a similar thread that the vinegar will leach zinc from the case and soften it. you might want to educate yourself on the effects of acid on brass before you reload those cases. personally, I don't have enough information right now to confidently say if it could be a problem.

The brass if fine to use
It is the acid that causes the leeching of the zinc. It is fairly common with poeple who are new to the SS tumbling and use too much lemi shine. It will not hurt the brass in these concentrations. The discoloration can be removed with a dry vibratory tumbler or wet with no lemi-shine at all.
The acid would have to be very strong to hurt the brass.
 
Tagged for interest. Curious to see if this repeats with the next batch.

Are you sure you're not using an industrial cement mixer instead of a tumbler? ;-)
 
Thanks everybody who replied.
Kodiakjack's reply got me thinking. I bought tumbler used coz everybody seems to be out of stock. It was cheap($50). At some point motor must have gave up on it and it was replaced. I just got home and counted RPM of drum and it's running at over 50 rpm. Now I think its possible to have lots of media, small amount of brass rotating faster than normal banged the brass around. Coz brass rotates on its side, that explains shoulder getting banged rather than neck as it fell over every rotation. That's my theory anyways. As much as I wanna duplicate results I'm not willing to waste one firing cycle of brass that costs $1.50 each(once fired).
Thanks again everybody. Hopefully somebody learned from my mistake.
 
The case deformation you see DID NOT HAPPEN in your tumbler!! Repeat: NOT in your tumbler.

This has occurred from firing in the wrong/miscut chamber previously.

Once you fire them in your rifle, all will be back to normal.

You cannot reshape brass in the tumbler, other than right at the edge of the mouth slightly.

Regards, Dave.
 
Yeah, sorry man. I was just joking about the cement mixer thing. I don't even reload so PLEASE don't take advice from me, lol!
 
The case deformation you see DID NOT HAPPEN in your tumbler!! Repeat: NOT in your tumbler.

This has occurred from firing in the wrong/miscut chamber previously.

Once you fire them in your rifle, all will be back to normal.

You cannot reshape brass in the tumbler, other than right at the edge of the mouth slightly.

Regards, Dave.
THIS, RIGHT HERE! You have been told this several times. Simply resize, fire in your rifle. And you don't need to use full loads to fire-form cases. Or bullets either, for that matter. A little 700X (or Unique, Trail Boss, etc.), some filler, wax plug. $0.15, NOT $1.50.
 
Maybe you are right Dave but none of the cases that I fired in my rifle have rounded shoulders. As I said before I haven't fired any of these deformed cases in my rifle yet. Pls check out last pic I posted, it includes 9 cases from same lot, 3 not cleaned, 3 tumbled/deformed and 3 fired from my rifle. I got 175 cases and none other than these cleaned ones have rounded shoulders, which is why I still believe I did something wrong during cleanup, just not sure what part of the process I screwed up.

I'll follow the your advice for sure rookie wildcat.
 
That is because the fired cases have formed to your chamber.

The rounded ones were not fired in your chamber.They were fired in a chamber that is possibly defective or incorrect.

Please read the advice posted multiple times.

You would need a cement truck filled with rocks to cause damage like that and how would it be so consistent?

Did you inspect each case you purchased prior to cleaning?

Maybe you are right Dave but none of the cases that I fired in my rifle have rounded shoulders. As I said before I haven't fired any of these deformed cases in my rifle yet. Pls check out last pic I posted, it includes 9 cases from same lot, 3 not cleaned, 3 tumbled/deformed and 3 fired from my rifle. I got 175 cases and none other than these cleaned ones have rounded shoulders, which is why I still believe I did something wrong during cleanup, just not sure what part of the process I screwed up.

I'll follow the your advice for sure rookie wildcat.
 
That is because the fired cases have formed to your chamber.

The rounded ones were not fired in your chamber.They were fired in a chamber that is possibly defective or incorrect.

Please read the advice posted multiple times.

You would need a cement truck filled with rocks to cause damage like that and how would it be so consistent?

Did you inspect each case you purchased prior to cleaning?

I think I'm not being able to communicate my point very well. From "none of the cases that I fired in my rifle have rounded shoulders" I meant my gun is not faulty

Let me try and answer line by line

I still have 100 pcs from same lot that i haven't cleaned or fired have sharp shoulders

Only 50 out of 175 are deformed and those are the ones I just cleaned. I have cleaned 25 pcs before in vibratory tumbler and have fired them in my rifle. 9 cases I showed in last picture included 3 of each kind I just mentioned. (3 neither cleaned nor fired in my gun, 3 freshly cleaned & 3 previously cleaned and fired in my gun)

I Will follow the advice and fireform them and as I said before I do really appreciate all the advice.

Not sure how or why it's so consistent, that's why I posted the issue here.

No I didn't inspect closely, problem does stand out so its hard to miss but anything is possible. But why only those 50 I randomly picked and cleaned that day have round shoulders and not the remaining? Isn't that odd?

But anyways, it doesn't matter, all I wanted to make sure was that its safe to use and lot of you experienced guys have okayed it so I'm not worried anymore.

Once again thanks everybody, I will just fire form them in my rifle and go from there.
 
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