Brass Cleaning Question

[Jeffery8mm]

New reloader here!  I have saved brass from before I decided to reload.  I want to clean it up but have to tumbler.  I read where there is a liquid you can make up and use.  Anybody have that recipe?  And how do you dry the brass afterword> I assume you punch out the primers first.
What do you put the brass in to wash it?  
Is there a disadvantage to not having a tumbler when you are not really reloading ALOT of brass??
Thanks
Jeff

[quickdtoo]

I'm where you are Jeffrey, I only shoot a limited amount and haven't convinced myself to invest in a tumbler.......yet!   I've been cleaning the brass with ~1/8 cup salt and 1/4 cup vinegar(lemon juice will works too) mixed in enough water to cover the brass, let it sit for 10-15 minutes and rinse. Stick em in a shell holder upside down to dry. I deprime first. After the cases are dry, I run a bronze bore brush inside to remove any debris, this probably won't work on bottle necked cases, I've only done 45-70 and 45-120 brass so far. Cabelas sells a shell drying rack for $6 that I ordered for my 45 cal brass.

[Jeffery8mm]

Thanks quick!!  I am going to mix some up soon.  I read that you could place the brass on a baking sheet in a warm [150degree] oven to dry it.  You think that would be ok?  What if you could agitate the cleaning solution? Say, mix it up in an old milk jug and shake it around some??
Just some thoughts!
Jeff

[quickdtoo]

I don't even really measure it, just eyeball it, that's pretty much the way I cook, too!  I put some water in an old pan throw in some salt and pour in a bit of vinegar, swish it around until the salt dissolves, throw the brass in and add enough water to cover the brass, swish a little more to mix and leave it sit. The oven would be fine on low heat, just turn the oven on warm for a bit, turn it off, then place the brass in there. You can also place the brass on the pegs in your dishwasher and clean it that way, but some people have issues with the lead residue from the primers. I don't know for sure...I did one load by itself, no dishes in the washer, and they came out sparkling.

[Jeffery8mm]

I will run that dishwasher idea by the wife!!!!!  She should get a kick out of that.  Maybe I wont tell her and just let her open it up and find the brass there!!!    I will try the oven idea though
What does the salt do??  saline?
Jeff

[Redhawk1]

I think a tumbler is a very good investment. I tumble a little as 20 rounds. I don't have to wash them first, I just drop them in the tumbler and an hour later they are clean and polished.  

[Gun Runner]

I got ahold of some TSI400 (brand name) cleaner a bunch of years ago. I dump a bunch of shells in an old coffee can and pour this stuff over them, swish it around for about a min, drain the stuff back into the bottle thru a old T-shirt. Rinse the cases in water and put them on a pan and dry them, Either in the sun or oven depending on the wx. Cases come out nice and bright and pinkish color inside. Only prob cant find TSI400 in the gun shops since the enviros. decided it was a hazmat thing. I found TSI400 on the net there in NJ, ordered a gal of the stuff but when it got here found out they had added $20.00 to the bill for hazmat charge. Wife uses it to clean her jewerly, and the stuff comes out sparkling. Dont know ifin the hazmat chg. would apply to other states, but here in commifornia the tree huggers get their way a lot. This stuff will clean up brass that has set out in the weather and almost turned black, back to shinney brass in most cases.

Gun Runner

[quickdtoo]

Here's a previous thread on the subject from the H&R Centerfire forum

http://www.graybeardoutdoors.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=46841&highlight=cleaning+dishwasher

[Don Fischer]

I just read that deal on the dishwasher and am in shock! quickdtoo is 57 yrs old and retired. How come you don't just buy a case cleaner? I couldn't imagine standing over the dishwasher putting cases on those little stick's one at a time then running the dishwasher to clean and dry. Just strikes me as odd. Like Bill Gates buying the sunday paper to get the money saving food cupons.

I guess if it works tho that's great. I use a Dillon cleaner and alway's befor depriming. Just can't see any reason to run a dirty case into a die.Waited to many year's to get a cleaner and concidering what's invested in equipment, it's a small price. Of course I also used to use STP for a case sizing lube, cheaper than lube's of the time! A little Bill Gates in all of us huh!

[quickdtoo]

And some more recipes from a thread at AR that I can't link to...

Put your cases in a small bucket and pour boiling water over them. Put in half a handfull of Cascade and agitate for a few minutes, rinse well. Add one cup white vinegar, agitate and rinse well. Let dry on old towel.
.........

Home built brass tumbler...
http://www.speedsoft.com/theashes/tumbler/tumbler.html

.........


For heavily tarnished and dirty brass you can use a mixture of 1 quart white vinegar to which you add a tablespoon of salt. Soak and occasionally agitate the brass. It will be clean, if not quite polished, in about 30 minutes. Can't get any cheaper than that.

........

You can buy a Krazy Kloth, an impregnated cloth, in the kitchen utensils section of your supermarket. Wipe the brass with that, let it set a few seconds, then wipe with a paper towel. Really polishes it up. Some folks use that to clean the brass immediately after firing but if you're as cheap as you say, that would mean the cloth would gather lots of carbon over a couple of hundred round of shooting and you'd have to spend another $3.95.

........

I use a bit of white vinegar, a little truck wash and hot water. In say, a 2 gallon bucket, about a cup of vinegar,2 capfulls of truck wash and half fill with hot water.Stir occasionally.After an hour or so, tip out ,pick up shells and rinse with hot water.I then usually leave them on the hot water system for a day or so to dry out.
............

I made my case tumbler from a $5.00 thrift store Ice cream maker. The kind with the bucket on the outside for ice and a canister inside for the ice cream.

All I did is remove the agitator from inside, I put some thin foam rubber stuff with a sticky back on the inside of the canister just because I thought it might work better. Then I took a small 2X4, about 6" long I guess, and attached it to the top outside of the bucket. Throw in some tumbling media, brass, tip it on its side (thats what the 2X4 is for) and plug it in.. Walk away and an hour later Voila! youve got clean brass.. The media costed more than the tumbler..

[quickdtoo]

Don, I was only reloading for one caliber at the time, have one more now...can't see spending $60 on a case cleaner for a couple dozen cases a month at the most when these methods work great and I already have the stuff here at home.... :wink:

[Jeffery8mm]

I'm with quick for now, as I am only doing very little.  The ice cream maker seem very doable!!!!

Jeff

[Don Fischer]

I can really relate to that stuff. The dishwasher thing really caught me tho. Year's ago a friend of mine and I used to rummage junk yards looking for toothpaste tubes to fortify the lead for our cast bullet's. If we didn't find any, we emptyed tube's at home and let the wives, make that ex-wives, go buy more!

[quickdtoo]

Yup, kinda like the people that drive all over town shopping coupon buys to save a few cents but use $$ for gas doing it!!

FWIW, I read about the dishwasher thing somewhere on the net, thought I'd try it and report on it....come to find out, there are more than some  shooters who use it....and admit it....I was surprised that Longcruise is one of em!!

[Locoweed]

I was oven drying about 400 30-06 National Match cases that I had lovingly processed when my wife came along and, without looking, turned the oven up to about 400 degrees.  This, of course, ruined the cases.  (As an aside, a friend of mine was once applying PlasoLux paint to the heels and toes of his Army jump boots and was drying on low heat when his wife turned the oven up on him, too.  Baked his boots.)  I should have divorced her on the spot rather than waiting another fifteen years.  Anyway, it might be a good idea to put a note on the oven door that it is in use.  As far as the salt and vinegar solution goes, I often use it as a pre-wash for really dirty cases before putting them in the tumbler.  I rarely add the salt as it turns the brass pink.

[quickdtoo]

And just what do you have against pink??? :-D  :-D  :-D  I guess mine's never in long enough to turn pink, must take a while for that to happen.

[glock29]

Locoweed;

Baked Boots AND Brass ?
How'd that combo taste ?
:^)