citric acid for case cleaning

[hillbill]

i recently came into a couple 5 gal buckets of citric acid paks.from a shut down turkey farm.im not sure what they used it for. possibly to make the water more palatble with nasty medicines in it.not sure.
 
ive read on other forums how it is used to clean cases.im curious if anybody here has used it and how?
 
ive tried it with one batch of greasey 223 cases and it seemed to work well.degreased them and brightened them up.
 
has anybody else done this?

[Larry L]

I use 9% vinegar and it cleans surprising good. A little Dawn with the mix and cases come out squeaky clean. About 30 minutes in the oven at 175F and they're ready to load.


FWIW, the acid in vinegar is not citric but acetic acid. Not the same thing but both are mild acids found in nature. I'd use the citric acid just like you have. A solution of 8-10% acid should be more than enough to clean reasonably clean cases or like once fired brass. A little Dawn will ensure the oils and grease are not an issue. I'm using 2 cups vinegar to one gallon of water and about a teaspoon of Dawn. Your citric acid will do fairly good at the same rate providing the acidity level of the packs are around 9%.

[FPH]

I use a small amount of Wisk and a couple of tablespoons of Cream of Tartar.  Mixture came of a friend of mine who had been a factory shooter for Hornaday.  Makes them like look like new.

[Land_Owner]

hillbill...I have used Real Lemon juice concentrate straight from the fridge, pouring a quarter cup of juice per 2.5 gallons of hot water in a 5 gal. bucket over a thousand cases of .223 Remington.  Let the cases sit three minutes in solution, then swish the bucket vigorously, sit for three minutes, swish again, and before ten minutes pour out the solution and rinse thoroughly with hot water.  The cases are shiny bright, but duller than vibratory cleaned.  I dry mine in the Florida sun, laid out in the driveway for two/three hours, while mowing the lawn and weed eating the edgings.  I don't size, deprime or reload those cases for another week or longer, so am not worried about moisture in that brass. 

When I want to store the brass, I run the the washed cases through the vibratory case cleaner for 20 minutes with a brass polish added to the corn cob medium.  They really shine after that and store for months without a noticeable dulling.  The lemon juice cleaning really does it all for quick turn around short term reloading and shooting, but adding the reduced time vibratory cleaning puts a "brighter than new" shine on them that lasts.

[LaOtto222]

I have used Lemi Shine in a wet tumbler. It can be used in an ultrasonic cleaner as well. It is a dishwasher detergent so it is found in the section at WalMart where you find the dishwasher soap. It is a all natural citrus cleaner. BTW it works well and is recomended by the people that do SS tumbling media.

http://www.stainlesstumblingmedia.com/

Good Luck and Good Shooting