Cleaning Brass (my method)

[Endofcomment]

Hey guys, I have mentioned my method of cleaning brass on a couple threads and thought I would elaborate if anyone is interested.

The method I use is a 2-stage method, it may seem more time consuming but it is actually quicker than some of the methods and an extremely thorough clean. I have read that some spend 3-4 hours tumbling with ss media. this has been accomplished in about 3 hours and to me its cheaper.


Here are some pics before cleaning.

you can see the carbon on the .45acp cases are the worst.

the .44mag cases are getting dull from me handling them.

here is the batch before cleaning

Ok first stage of cleaning is ultrasonic. There are two steps to this cleaning stage.

First step is to clean with hot cleaning solution in ultrasonic for 24 minutes.
The solution is about 2 table spoons of dish soap (degreaser), half white vinegar, half hot water. just enough to cover the brass so I just eyeball everything. I have had about 500 .45acp brass in this jug cleaning at one time.

Rinse thoroughly then shake in some baking soda and ad some hot water to cover.
Run in ultrasonic for another 24 minutes then rinse and dry.
Once dry move on to stage 2.

Stage 2 is easy.
Once the brass is dry I put it in my tumbler with some liquid car polish for a couple hours depending on how shiny you want the brass. In this case the .45 was considerably duller than I like so I had to run it for 2 hours the .223 could have stayed in for 30 minutes.

Thanks for looking.

I apologize for all grammer in advance

[Endofcomment]

Some of the detailed cleaned pics.





Here are some pics of some never fired brass, These where loaded but never fired.

[noylj]

That's a lot of work just for shiny cases.
Why vinegar? Acetic acid can leach zinc from the brass.
A little citric acid will work almost as well. You are also overdoing the surfactant/detergent.
I have an ultrasonic so I decided just to play with some scrap brass.
My first try was the tub full of water, a couple drops of Dawn, and a teaspoon of LemiShine.
Turned on the heater and the ultrasonic.
After 30 minutes, almost all cases were very clean. At 60 minutes, all the cases were clean except for a few that still had a small bit of carbon in the primer pocket. This was about 100 .45 ACP cases.
I removed them, shook them, and left them to dry.
After two days, they still looked the same.
Did the same thing again, only after they came out of the US, I put them (wet) into the tumbler with corn for 30 minutes. They came out shinier and after several days still look good.
I then tried a tap water rinse. These cases look no better or worse than the one that were not rinsed off.

I wonder if any metallurgists have OK'd these cleaners?

Acids will leach zinc from brass and also form soluble copper salts. The use of acids should be minimized.

Exposing brass to frequent vibrations, it will suffer a change in state and become very brittle.

Effect of Acetic Acid on Mass Transfer of Copper Corrosion Products in Fossil Power Plant Cycle
Tamara I. Petrova and Anna V. Furunzhieva
Moscow Power Institute, Moscow 111250, Russia E-mail: petrova@twt.mpei.ac.ru
One of the basic reasons for equipment failures at fossil power plants is the presence of corrosive impurities in water and steam. Presently copper-based alloys are widely used at fossil power plants for manufacture of condensers and low-pressure heaters. Brass corrosion products (copper and zinc oxides) go into the water. This intensifies corrosion of carbon steel. Corrosion of copper-based alloys is influenced by different factors: temperature, oxygen concentration, chloride, sulfate, organics etc. Recently a lot of attention in utility industry has been attributed to the effect of organic impurities (acetic, formic, and lactic acids, in particular) on corrosion of construction materials. Of the above mentioned acids, concentration of acetic acid (ed.: vinegar) in the power plant cycle is significantly higher. Therefore, it is important to study the effect of acetic acid on brass corrosion rate and release of copper corrosion products from metal surface...It was found that at the studied chemistries the corrosion rate of brass was higher with an increase in concentration of acetic acid up to 300 ppb (ed.: not PPM or percent, PPB).
Release of copper corrosion products from metal surface also increased with acetic acid concentration in water.

[Na-vah-duh]

Dam that is a lot of work. Stainless steel media is easier and comes out much better as well with only 2-3 hours with the high speed motor.

[Endofcomment]

It's actually not that much work. Also I am plenty comfortable with the very little extra work to be able to put the money I saved into more guns or components.

[Endofcomment]

Here is an article from where I got the idea for my solution from.

http://www.6mmbr.com/ultrasonic.html

I think if bench rest guys are using this to success and not having any case failures I will be safe as they tend to push the limits of chamber pressures.

[Lead Waster]

This is my technique

1) Seperate brass (.45, .40 and 9mm really don't play well together!)
2) Toss some nufinish liquid car polish into the walnut media (lizard bedding) of my tumbler.
3) Tumble a bit to mix up the polish and break up lumps
4) Toss in brass
5) Battlefield 3
6) Holy crap, I've been playing for 3 hours!
7) clean brass!



Actually, I've decided that I want to deprime the brass first now, as I've had some primers not fully seat into my .45s and I'm wondering if it's primer crud that does not get tumbled off when the spent primer is still seated.

[Dark Mod]

I get the same results just from leaving the tumbler on overnight....

[Enter_the_Dragon]

Two hours tumbling on walnut with a capful of NuFinish and then 30 mins with fine corn media.

[Endofcomment]

I get the same results just from leaving the tumbler on overnight....

Even on the inside of the cases??

I wouldn't be able to leave my tumbler on all night as I live in an apartment and reload in my room so I wouldnt be able to sleep with all that going on...

[Knife Edge]

Hey guys, I have mentioned my method of cleaning brass on a couple threads and thought I would elaborate if anyone is interested.

The method I use is a 2-stage method, it may seem more time consuming but it is actually quicker than some of the methods and an extremely thorough clean. I have read that some spend 3-4 hours tumbling with ss media. this has been accomplished in about 3 hours and to me its cheaper.


Here are some pics before cleaning.

you can see the carbon on the .45acp cases are the worst.

the .44mag cases are getting dull from me handling them.

here is the batch before cleaning

Ok first stage of cleaning is ultrasonic. There are two steps to this cleaning stage.

First step is to clean with hot cleaning solution in ultrasonic for 24 minutes.
The solution is about 2 table spoons of dish soap (degreaser), half white vinegar, half hot water. just enough to cover the brass so I just eyeball everything. I have had about 500 .45acp brass in this jug cleaning at one time.

Rinse thoroughly then shake in some baking soda and ad some hot water to cover.
Run in ultrasonic for another 24 minutes then rinse and dry.
Once dry move on to stage 2.

Stage 2 is easy.
Once the brass is dry I put it in my tumbler with some liquid car polish for a couple hours depending on how shiny you want the brass. In this case the .45 was considerably duller than I like so I had to run it for 2 hours the .223 could have stayed in for 30 minutes.

Thanks for looking.

I apologize for all grammer in advance

simply awesome. Thanks for this time saving process.

[chim-chim7]

Too many steps. Throw in tumbler, load on progressive. Done. if you like it and it makes you happy that's all that really matters.

[problemchild]

Other than looks what does the shiny brass do for you?

All I do is tumble mine in corn cob for 60 mins and call it a day. No need to make it look like brand new. And i tumble 10,000 at a time.

[stand125]

I have started to throw my brass in a bucket and swish around for a couple minutes with some dish soap, rinse well and then dry before tumbling. I notice alot less dust when seperating the brass from the media and it shines up faster than throwing it straight from the range to the tumbler. I also throw in used drier sheets to keep the dust down as well. I never really worry about super shiney brass though.