Washing brass with warm/hot water?? I have reasons to ask...

De-prime, wash in heated ultrasonic cleaner at 50 deg C, sort of dry, tumble lube with Lee case lube, resize, trim and chamfer, quick trip back through the hot u/s to remove lube and any brass shavings, dry inverted. Prime and load and make go bang bang.
 
Below is the secret to lubing the inside of the case and keeping it "dry". The lube below is powdered graphite that is nothing more than fine powdered carbon.

Plus when you use Imperial Dry Neck lube you can tell your friends you have a lot of balls. :evil:

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how do you apply that?
 
de-prime with the lee decapping die, then everything goes into the SS tumbler for 3 hours with HOT water, Dawn and a small squirt of lemishine. Separate media, and dry in the oven for 3 hours at 250F, flipping the brass around halfway so the bottom dries out too.

then i size everything and then i put the brass back into the tumbler, this time with no media for an hour. Dry again and then im good to start case prep and loading.
 
If I have a large batch of rifle/pistol brass, it goes into an old pillow case and into the clothes washing machine with Lemshine. I knot the bags very tightly so they usually need to be cut open when I dump the cases out to dry, into a couple of old cake pans. Then they go into the oven to be dried at 250F for about and hour. This works well for me.
Have you tried using zip ties to secure the pillow cases? I’ve done this before with other things and it works great. Wrap the open end a few times and then fold it back on itself. Wrap a zip tie around that and pull it really tight. If you’re worried use two zip ties. When you’re ready to open it up just snip the ties and voila. Good to go. And you can reuse the pillow case.
 
Below is the secret to lubing the inside of the case and keeping it "dry". The lube below is powdered graphite that is nothing more than fine powdered carbon.

Plus when you use Imperial Dry Neck lube you can tell your friends you have a lot of balls. :evil:

CH3epH9.jpg

Can I use this Imperial to size FL, or just for neck, tired of retumbling my sized brass to get rid of the lube ( lanolin), and btw, what's the best way to take out the Lanolin, soap and water doesn't do any good, tried Lacquer thinner and works but have to wash again with Dawn and warm water. Acetone nail polish seems okay but becomes expensive it it involves 3k of lube brass. thanks
 
Can I use this Imperial to size FL, or just for neck, tired of retumbling my sized brass to get rid of the lube ( lanolin), and btw, what's the best way to take out the Lanolin, soap and water doesn't do any good, tried Lacquer thinner and works but have to wash again with Dawn and warm water. Acetone nail polish seems okay but becomes expensive it it involves 3k of lube brass. thanks

This product specifically is meant for neck lubing.

Try purple SuperClean degreaser, that stuff eats grease. Canadian tire or lordco. 2-3oz to a pail of water works for my resizing lube removal needs, and my brass is ovendried
 
Well, I don't get so anal with my brass that it just has to look new every time I reload or shoot it. Unless you have lots to spare IMHO it's a waste of time.

I do however like it to be CLEAN.

If I only have a couple of hundred rounds of rifle brass it goes into a SS Pin Tumble with Lemshine from Canadian Tire. It has a mild acid in it that gets rid of the grease. The soap and pins get rid of the carbon, inside and out. Stains stat in place but seeing as they are purely cosmetic, I don't bother with them.

If I have a large batch of rifle/pistol brass, it goes into an old pillow case and into the clothes washing machine with Lemshine. I knot the bags very tightly so they usually need to be cut open when I dump the cases out to dry, into a couple of old cake pans. Then they go into the oven to be dried at 250F for about and hour. This works well for me.

If your referring to Black Sheep you have no idea how much brass he processes. He probally scraps more then most use.
 
Slightly off topic, I just picked up a SS pin tumbler. How much dish soap (and what brand) and how much lemishine are you guys using? Do you use both in the same batch?
thanks........
Dave
 
I don't tumble brass - just soak it in warm soapy water and vinegar or citric acid, as available. I then dry the brass on a cookie sheet in the oven @ 215 F for 15 minutes....

Does this ever cause your brass to turn “pinkish”? I’ve had that happen a couple times now. Wondering if I’m using too much of one ingredient.
My recipe......
4 cups hot water
1 cup vinegar
1 tbs coarse salt
1 tbs dish soap
I soak it for a bit and shake often in a sealed container. Some brass come out looking new but some gets a bit discoloured. I made the mistake of mixing aluminum 9mm cases with brass.....the brass came out very dark.
 
Ss pin wet tumbler

SNooker, I would say that all depends on how much your wet tumbler holds. For 250 pcs of 9mm i would say to fill up your drum with cases, then enough water to cover brass, give it a shake to release air. Then add 3 drops of dish soap. I use sunlight cucumbermelon... cause it smells goos. Then i add lemishine, 1 tsp will do fine bit i often add a rough more that what works. The how long part is going to have to be your experiment.
 
Can I use this Imperial to size FL, or just for neck, tired of retumbling my sized brass to get rid of the lube ( lanolin), and btw, what's the best way to take out the Lanolin, soap and water doesn't do any good, tried Lacquer thinner and works but have to wash again with Dawn and warm water. Acetone nail polish seems okay but becomes expensive it it involves 3k of lube brass. thanks

The powdered graphite is for the inside of the case neck only and not the outside of the case. This will lube the expander and leave the inside of the case neck dry and ease seating effort.

After lubing the case I wipe the shoulder and neck with my fingers to remove any excess lube. I also dry brush the inside of the case neck to remove any lube inside the case neck. I then dip the case neck in the powdered graphite and size the case. I then wipe the case off with a terry cloth towel to remove the case lube. I have plenty of freshly washed clean towels (old hand towels) and never use any chemicals to remove the lube. This wipe with the towel is my final case inspection and look over before loading the cases. This is all I have ever done in over 47 years of reloading, but if you wish you could wipe the case off with a rag and alcohol.

Any oil or grease on the case or in the chamber will prevent the case from gripping the chamber walls. "BUT" there must be a layer of oil or grease between the case and chamber to prevent the case from gripping the chamber walls. Meaning wiping the case with a bath towel or clean rag will remove 99.999999% of the lube and not cause a problem or increase the bolt thrust.

I also before shooting wipe the chamber and bore free and dry of any bore cleaners or protective lube with a dry patches.

Below is from the 1929 British Textbook of Small Arms, and explains why the chamber and case should be wiped dry before shooting.

The British used the base crusher system of measuring chamber pressure. A hollow copper crusher pellet at the base of the case was used to allow the firing pin to hit the primer. Then two proof pressure test cartridges were dipped in oil and the rifle was test fired. If the Enfield rifles headspace increased over .003 the rifle failed proof testing due to excessive lug setback.

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I have no space for a tumbler right now, so I wash my brass with hot soapy water with some nail polish remover and vinegar thrown in.

I also use hot soapy water and a rag to clean off the Lee lube after sizing.

As for drying, I heard a really good idea around here a while ago, although I haven't tried it yet. Put them on a baseboard heater overnight.
 
Does this ever cause your brass to turn “pinkish”? I’ve had that happen a couple times now. Wondering if I’m using too much of one ingredient.
My recipe......
4 cups hot water
1 cup vinegar
1 tbs coarse salt
1 tbs dish soap
I soak it for a bit and shake often in a sealed container. Some brass come out looking new but some gets a bit discoloured. I made the mistake of mixing aluminum 9mm cases with brass.....the brass came out very dark.

I find my brass gets rose tinted if I leave it in my pin tumbler for too long. I think the residue deposits back on the brass.
I have a home made tumbler that holds about 1.5L. I do about 50-100 .223 rounds at a time and add hot tap water, 2-3 Tbsp of dish soap and 3 capfuls of lemon juice.
If I leave it more than 3H it gets a pink tint, darkening the longer it's in there. Citric acid from lemon juice helps give it a nice color.
 
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