Water and brass

[nipponese]

Ok... so I just had a lube accident and long story short, all my brass is covered in a LOT of lube... I'm pretty ignorant on the chemistry between brass and h2o, is submerging the brass in water to remove the water-based lube a bad idea?

[Baja_Traveler]

Of course not. Fill a bucket with hot water and a dish soap like Dawn and scrub away. Rinse the brass in clear water and towel dry.

[Chris M]

During the annealing process (to extend the life of the brass), brass cases are dumped into a bucket of water to rapidly cool them.

[nipponese]

Right on, thanks for the help!

[rsrocket1]

You'll learn that water is used in a lot of brass cleaning processes. Ultrasonic cleaning consists of soaking the brass in a soapy, sometimes acidic solution of water. Stainless steel tumbling is done in a soup of water, and old fashioned brass cleaning involves swishing brass in a bowl/bucket of water and soap followed by a rinse and an air or oven dry.

[Southpaw45]

I soak brass in Simple Green and water all the time. Just make sure there completely dry before reloading of course.

[LexLuther]

I dry mine in the oven on the lowest setting for 30 minutes with the door cracked open. there is no better way to make sure the water is out of the spent primers...

[Whiterabbit]

I do the same. If I let them air dry, the water doesn't go fast enough and I end up with water spots. In the oven, no problem. in MY oven, 30 minutes is not enough to get the inside dry, and I end up with misfires. Pull the bullet, the primer never went off.

So now I dry in the oven for 30 or so to make the outside dry and pretty, then let dry overnight to make sure the inside is dry before adding primer.

I'm thinking about a dunk in IPA after the water cleaning then air dry. Should be dry in 5 minutes, I should think? It's done all the time in industry, H20 wipe to get the dirt out, then IPA wipe to get the H20 out...