Unexpected chemical reaction during BPCR cartridge cleaning

M

Metman2

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I was going to clean my .45-70 casings after firing a bunch that I'd loaded with Pyrodex. My usual method is to decap, then immerse in plastic pail of hot water with liquid soap and a couple tablespoons of vinegar mixed in. I scrub each casing inside with a plastic cleaning brush, rince twice in plain hot water, and dry. I always wear heavy rubber gloves.

My supply of dollar-store dish soap being gone, I used some no-name soap my wife has in her cupboard of household cleaning supplies. The stuff looks just like Murphy's soap. Alas, a strong sulfur smell soon filled the workroom and then the furnace started up and spread the smell through the house.

When I checked the label on the soap bottle, sure enough: "Contains Sodium Hydroxide". Generally not a great idea to mix that with acid (vinegar).
The casings didn't seem to show any ill effects, but my family was none too pleased. My son claims it smelled like a combination of burnt powder, bore-butter, and beer farts. (Quite the imagination the lad has.)
I doubt that if I'd used black powder this would have made any difference, there's sulfur in the residue and the vinegar-NaOH reaction would have still occurred.

Lesson: stick to dish soap, and read labels!
 
it sounds like you used some sort of oven cleaner. Adding vinegar would have neutralized the lye and I doubt the concentrations of acid and base would have been strong enough to have any major reaction.

cheers mooncoon
 
It is labelled "Hero All Purpose Cleaner" and has the corrosive danger symbol (skeleton hand). I spoke with a chemist colleague and he said that heavy duty cleaners sometimes contain Sodium Hydroxide which combines with grease to form soap. That way, if you use it to clean up grease, it actually reacts with the stuff you're trying to remove, sort of turning it into soap which accelerates the job. But it's generally not wise to mix it with any kind of acid. In this case it just produced fumes, not in any amount that posed a danger but you can smell sulfur at pretty low concentrations. So this was not a safety issue so much as one of "domestic harmony". My family have sensitive noses!
 
I drop my cases in soapy water at the range and rinse them off at home. Then I boil some water pour in a container with a couple of ounces of vinegar and drop the cases in. Then I dry and tumble them.

Mixing of chemicals can have a negative effect on the metallurgy of the cases causing premature failure..
 
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