Cleaning brass

[Sandstorm]

carbon on the inside of the neck beneficial

Yes...for me it is.

 

[cw308]

The carbon on the inside of the case you could look at two ways . 1) Can make seating smoother 2) The build up inside and for the chemests , wouldn't it cause a difference in the powder added. Yes it's picking at straws but when measuring in thousands and tenths of a grain.

 

[Chiquita]

Well,
If I use graphite to size the neck the left over graphite that is inside the neck will act similar to carbon and help with seating tje bullets. Am I correct?

 

[Capt. Oblivious]

Yes, it should be easy to feel if there is a difference when you seat a bullet.

 

[BDman]

My friend tried one of the special elixirs without pins on deprimed brass. The primer pockets remained dirty. He went back to using the pins. I've used the pins with Dawn and a half tsp of Lemishine for 45 minutes to 1 hour and I don't think prettier brass is possible.

At times when I want to quickly clean some brass and reload it, I've tried both rice and buckwheat groats with deprimed brass in my rotary tumbler. After about one and a half hours, the results have been very impressive. Passably clean primer pockets, shiny brass outside with some Carbon remaining inside. Now, I find myself doing this more than wet tumbling unless it's brass that has gotten dirtier than normal. The rice or buckwheat beats out the corn cob or walnut media. At least IMHO.

 

[cw308]

The reason I posted the above was only for my reasons for changing to wet tumbling with the recommended ingredients. I am trying the Brass Juice with dish detergent and LemiShine along with the pins . I'm shooting 50 rounds every week , it's a small run to clean so I use the single drum Harbor Freight tumbler with 1 lb of pins , does a great job.
I prefer my cases to look as clean as possible , may not be necessary but that's just me .
Chris

 

[divingin]

At times when I want to quickly clean some brass and reload it, I've tried both rice and buckwheat groats with deprimed brass in my rotary tumbler. After about one and a half hours, the results have been very impressive.

The one time I tried the groats, the cases came out clean, but I ended up with a fine white powder over all the cases (inside and out), as well as a caked-on powder on the inside of my vibe tumbler bowl. Is this something you deal with?

Rice works, but just OK for me (read: "not great"); my go-to is still crushed walnut shell treated with a tablespoon or so of automotive cleaner wax.

 

[cw308]

divingin
When I dry tumbled I liked the walnut media better even less dust , then corn . Found its best to use what's recommend from the manufacturer. After 25+ years of dry tumbling I switched to wet tumbling for the past 5 years and wouldn't go back to dry . Brass comes out spotless if you follow the recommendations.
Chris

 

[BDman]

The one time I tried the groats, the cases came out clean, but I ended up with a fine white powder over all the cases (inside and out), as well as a caked-on powder on the inside of my vibe tumbler bowl. Is this something you deal with?

Rice works, but just OK for me (read: "not great"); my go-to is still crushed walnut shell treated with a tablespoon or so of automotive cleaner wax.

Haven't had that issue but a friend of mine did. He ended up lightly washing the groats and then baking them at like 375 degrees for 30 minutes to dry them. He said they've worked great for several dozen runs since. The ones I use are a Russian brand, very hard with very little dust. I like them in the tumbler but, I've never tried them in a vibratory cleaner.

 

[divingin]

divingin
When I dry tumbled I liked the walnut media better even less dust the corn .

Yeah, Corncob does a better job on polishing than walnut. Walnut cleans hard stuff off the cases better than corn. Sort of depends what you're after. [As an aside, look into grit blasting media at your local home improvement/hardware store for bulk walnut shell and occasionally corn cob (you need to decide on a grit size; I like the smaller stuff.)]

I generally decap and wet tumble my pistol brass (I shoot bullseye using light loads, so brass gets pretty filthy), unless I need something right away, in which case it gets tossed in the vibe tumbler for 30 minutes to an hour.

 

[Hoot]

Home Depot has 25lb medium grit crushed walnut for $27.15 with free shipping. Hard to beat walnut. I've tried the fine also and found the medium is faster acting.

Hoot

 

[Heavy Metal 1]

One time I accidently mixed my corn with walnut and the brass came out just fine so now I use the mixture of the walnut & corn on purpose. It saves me a step in not having to run two different tumble sessions.

 

[divingin]

One time I accidently mixed my corn with walnut and the brass came out just fine so now I use the mixture of the walnut & corn on purpose. It saves me a step in not having to run two different tumble sessions.

You used to run twice, once in walnut and once in cob? Clean then polish? Whatever floats your boat, but that seems like overkill to me (personal opinion.)

To be completely truthful, on occasion I've run fired pistol brass through the dies without cleaning at all (late at night, out of ammo, and shooting the next morning. I pretty much suck at planning.)

 

[Heavy Metal 1]

You used to run twice, once in walnut and once in cob? Clean then polish?

Yes, that. Brass defects are easier for me to see with polished brass.

 

[cw308]

You can use any kind of dry media for any number of times but it will never clean as well as wet tumbling . The insides of the cases are as clean as the outside , don't have to contend with the dust . I let them air dry on there own. I rotate my reloads so drying time is not a issue. When I first read about wet tumbling I didn't like the sound of water on the inside of the cases , after giving it a try and working out a system , I will never go back to dry . Gave it all to a shooting friend.

 

[ditter]

Deprimed brass. Hot water, tablespoon of Dawn, pinch of lemishine, and stainless chips. 45 minutes. Drain dirty water. run fresh water for 10 mins. Good as new. primer pockets spotless.

Johnnys Reloading Bench did a video of brass juice. Not too impressive versus Dawn and lemishine.