wet ss tumbling water spots

[Kryogen]

I tumble my cases with softened water, soap and lemishine.
They come out spotless and shiny.

Then they dry, and they look dull with spots.

How do you keep the brass super shiny? rinse with distilled water before drying? Seems like a major hassle.

Or just send the cases in a vib. tumbler when all prep steps are done for a final polish before reloading? That would seem like a way easier way to do it.

 

[BLACKBRIAR]

Make sure you rinse them well. I do a final rinse of pure hot water then place them in a towel and see-saw the towel (brass rolls from one end to the other) to get excess water off. The towel is usually damp. I then place them on a dry towel to air dry.

 

[Rory McCanuck]

I've had good luck with exactly that method.
Rinse it with water as hot as you can get it from the tap, the more heat absorbed by the brass, the faster it dries.
So long as there aren't big beads of water sitting there, there is nothing to make the spots.

 

[Kryogen]

I rinse with cold water, only difference. maybe something in the water? Because I dry them alot and they still spot.

 

[dead meat]

What is that stuff they throw in the dishwashers to eliminate spots, seen those stupid ads a thousand times and still don't remember the product.

 

[Ryvax]

Jet dry

 

[dead meat]

Jet dry

There you go, the advertising industry would be very happy with you. Don't know if putting brass in a dishwasher would work well, it didn't work good on a rifle from what i remember a fellow did a while back.

 

[bigedp51]

Make sure you rinse them well. I do a final rinse of pure hot water then place them in a towel and see-saw the towel (brass rolls from one end to the other) to get excess water off. The towel is usually damp. I then place them on a dry towel to air dry.

+1 Best advice above, rolling around on the towel removes the water on the outside of the case and much of the water on the inside of the case.

Hot water rinse in tumbling basket.



Speed drying below, five gallon plastic bucket and hair drier.



Spotless brass.

 

[Chinbullco]

Hot water rinse and dry in oven at lowest temp - 170F, after rolling in towel.

 

[Kryogen]

still spots, has to be something in the water or the ph or something.

 

[ted_dent]

still spots, has to be something in the water or the ph or something.

The harder your water is the more spots you will get. The spots are just the minerals in the water that get left behind when the water evaporates. Towel drying to remove most of the water on the external surfaces will eliminate the spots.

 

[Rory McCanuck]

A spoonfull of citric acid will help eliminate spots too.
Also does a nice job of cleaning by itself.
The water here in Manitoba is almost stupid hard, so I know what you are dealing with.
Of course, the spots won't actually harm anything

 

[rodregier]

Use distilled water - LOL!

Anything dissolved in the water will leave spots when it dries.

Same concept behind this spotless car washing system -

ht tp://www.crspotless.com/


"... de-ionized water filtration system..."

 

[Kryogen]

well, I could use distilled water, it's just that you need like a gallon each time you clean brass. I think I'd rather just walnut tumble once all prep is done...
I have free distilled water at my office but it still seems like a hassle.

 

[zuke]

The brass can be dries almost instantly with 100% "rubbing" alcohol available at the Walmart phamacy.

 

[Winchester30-30]

If I'm doing smaller batches I just lay then out on a towel roll them around like a kid rolling play doh on the table then set then in my tray to drain any moisture out if them, hot water to rinse a must helps the brass dry faster, havnt tried the oven method but beware if you forget about them in there forget about shines!

 

[Wired leader]

A spoonfull of citric acid will help eliminate spots too.
Also does a nice job of cleaning by itself.
The water here in Manitoba is almost stupid hard, so I know what you are dealing with.
Of course, the spots won't actually harm anything

Lemi-shine is citric acid and I would advise against using a "spoonful" of it. The citric acid is just to add the shine not to clean. The pins and the soap will do the cleaning.
If you use too much lemi-shine, it will leach zinc from the brass and you will be left with brass that has a pinkish hue or even pink spots. You can do some googling to learn more on this.
I recommend no more than a 9mm case of lemi-shine or about a quarter of a teaspoon.

 

[rocor98]

Federal seems easiest to turn ( pinkish hue ) .. Just an observation.

 

[Wired leader]

It only happened to me once when I was starting out. There was no FC brass that I recall , but there was Winchester, Remington and even some Norma brass...All turned a pinkish hue and the winchester brass was quite pink in the groove at the head of the brass(30-06).
You can remove the pink by tumbling it again, with no lemi-shine or by dry tumbling it in a vibratory tumbler. It does not seem to harm the brass and I am still reloading the brass from that session with no issues(about 6-8 loads now).

 

[Wired leader]

havnt tried the oven method but beware if you forget about them in there forget about shines!

I tried the oven method some time ago. Thought is would be a good idea....Forgot about the brass. Not sure how long it was in the oven...maybe an hour. The brass turned dark with spots....so I just do the towel method now and leave it to dry under a hanging lamp that I drop to about a foot over the brass. There is no water left on the outside when I set it to dry and I have never seen any spotting that way.