Verdigris(green stuff) on brass

tactical_tech

tactical_tech

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Since day one of my reloading career I have used a sonic cleaner. Lately I've been trying some home made cleaning solutions with varying rates of success. One of them involved vinegar,dish soap, and salt. It worked very well, after rinsing and drying I figured it was good to go. Fast forward today, I pull the brass out to my surprise the brass looks old and several have verdigris on them, outside and inside. Now they weren't covered in it by any means. So I cleaned them again in the sonic cleaner just using the one shot solution. All the green stuff is gone, brass doesn't appear pitted.

So I'm assuming I either didn't rinse them properly last time or should have used a neutralizing solution to counter act the vinegar. Do you guys think the brass is ok to load? I'm usually the when in doubt throw it out kind but it's a couple hundred bucks in lapua brass.
 
I use the same home made mixture to clean range pickup brass and you didn't rinse the mixture off properly and this is why it turned green.

I do not know if you have anything other than a sonic cleaner, but a media tumbler dry or wet will clean your brass better, meaning more bling.

Your cases didn't sit outside for 20 years so shoot your Lapua brass and wash them in hot soapy water and rinse them clean after using any type chemical cleaner. Don't ask me how I know this but this isn't the first time in the world this has happened.

Note: I was reading at AccurateShooter.com and several people were using the same mixture for cleaning with stainless steel media in their sonic cleaners and getting better results. (dish washing soap and LemiShine)

STM_zps9d3bacae.jpg
 
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The STM instruction are what my baseline is only substituted Tide low EE washing liquid to aid in rinsing seems better.. I'm betting on the rinse cycly not being long or thorough enough.
 
I can't comment on the sonic cleaning and any associated solutions, but as above, using the stainless tumbling method results in super clean brass. Of note, I only seem to need to tumble for 1.5-2 hours, half of what they recommend. As soon as the brass is out, give it a quick hose down of hot-hot water (which helps seperate the pins). Then I dump them onto a big old towel, wrap them up, shaked them quite a bit, then just lay them out to dry. I usually come back the next day to find them bone dry (the hot water helps drying). That's it. If they are bone dry when I bag them, I've never had a problem with corrosion after the fact.

Given what you describe, I would strongly suspect making sure you give the cleaned brass a good wash off (dumping them into a small pail of hot water afterwards would work) and then laying them out to dry really well (if you don't need to reload them right away, give them a few days). I would bet after they are rinsed well, and dried well, you shouldn't have any problems if they are stored in a cool dry place.
 
Salt and vinegar creates an acidic solution that has been used for decades to remove tarnish from brass and silver. The issue is that since it is an acid it opens the "pores" of the metal, this leads to corrosion/tarnish. Usually green or black, to prevent this a thorough rinse is required, along with a thorough drying (usually in a oven or dehydrator, or in the natural sunlight on a warm day for several hours). Before I store my casings I lube and resize them, leaving the lube on provides a thin layer of protection to help keep the oxidization away, all you need to do then is give them a quick wipe down or a rinse in naphtha or anothe degreasing agent before continuing the reloading process.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I'm pretty sure now the rinse cycle was the problem. I have an old space heater that I use to dry them and it works great. I may have to try that STM solution some time and see how it works in the sonic cleaner. I inspected all my brass again and I'm confident now it'll be fine. Might have lost some of its shine, some have tiny pink bits (to much lemishine) but they'll still work.
 
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