Alternative to tumbling

[Jal5]

I tried cleaning some 38 spl brass today using hot water, conc. lemon juice, and some ordinary liquid dish soap. They turned out really good! Just a little labor intensive drying, cleaning inside with a q-tip, but not bad if you have a small number to do and no tumbler.

Joe

[stimpylu32]

Joe

I've been doing the old soap & water for years , sure I use a Vib & Tumblers but sometimes you just don't need them . This is what I sent to someone the other night by PM when they asked about the same thing .

" The best thing I have found to clean cases short of a tumbler is plain old dish soap and warm water , a lot of guys get hung up on the idea that the brass needs to be shiny to work well .

The whole concept of cleaning the brass is to avoid scratching the dies when reloading , sure the shiny cases look better but they actually do very little to help with loading and nothing for the shootability of the ammo . "

stimpy

[Jal5]

Rich,
I was surprised how good they turned out. For rifle ammo, reloading 40-50 cases during a reloading session, which is what I can do being that my bench is in the cold room downstairs and it is VERY cold right now, cleaning them in the kitchen is OK. But once I work up a load for the 357, that will mean larger numbers and I will pickup a tumbler on sale or used somewhere 

[Badnews Bob]

I know a guy who puts his brass in a net bag and tosses them in the washing machine with a load of clothes, cleans em right up.

[wncchester]

"...hot water, conc. lemon juice, and some ordinary liquid dish soap."

Just goes to show that many of us are just too anal about case cleaning, don't it?  As we agree, clean is the object and there are many solutons that give us that quite well.

I keep a gallon of white vinegar in my loading room for doing the same thing.  Vinegar has a mild acid, same as the more expensive lemon juice except it's from apples, and it cuts the gooey stull about as well as most detergents.  Pour enough to cover the brass in a bowl and let it soak for an hour or two, pour the vinegar back, then flush the cases with fresh water.  Spread them out in a single layer over a few sheets of newspaper in the sun and let them dry. 

A gallon jug of vinegar works good, it's cheap and lasts a long time!   

[cwlongshot]

For me its not an alternative, its something I do with range brass BEFORE tumbling...Same for the military stuff I PU from time to time.

 I have herd of the use of Vinegar nut never tried it. Plain old dish detergent works fine for me. In the summer the sun dries them, in the winter, I wait for the wife to leave and throw them in the oven. 

Generally, my brass that I shoot and pick up isn't dirty enough to really need this kind of cleaning. The stuff that Joe shooter left who knows when, gets cleaned before anything.

When I have to lube a case for loading it gets a quick trip thru the tumbler anyhow.

CW

[huntswithdogs]

A buddy of mine used to drop all of his empties in a bucket of carbcleaner and let them soak. Rinse them off with hot water and let 'em dry. If he was a in a hurry and his wife wasn't at home, he'd lay em out on a cookie shett and pop em in the oven for a bit for the drying process.

Me, I just keep tossing empties in the tumbler till I think I've got a full load and then turn it on for a while.


HWD

[hillbill]

i hate to throw cases with sizeing lube on them in the tumbler. messes up the media. ive used the dishwasher and the clothes washer and then lay them out in the sun or in a tray on top of wood stove.anybody make there own tumbler media by grinding corn cobs or walnut hulls in a meat grinder? jus a thought ive had.

[alleyyooper]

These cases are not new by a long shot. I had resized them then washed them in hot water and soap to get the case sizing lube off. Normally I use a Birch Casey case cleaner but am out.  After a night of drying in a mesh bag in my wood burning furnace room I put them in the tumbler nearly full of rice for a couple of hours.



  Al