Watched a video of Jack Neary mentioning cleaning brass with Laquer Thinner / Acetone. I’ve never heard this before. Reloading for 30 years but not for competition. I’ve heard of putting mineral spirits in your media but not Laquer Thinner. He didn’t explain how he used it. Does anyone here use acetone? What are the benefits? Is this just for benchrest discipline to quickly remove the lube?
Cleaning brass
- Thread starter FunkeyMonkey
- Start date
Schippergreg
Silver $$ Contributor
I believe he was using it to remove the lube used to turn the necks.
I believe so too and he did mention removing any other type of oil residue on or in the cases.
jepp2
Gold $$ Contributor
No. Concern about it attacking the tumbler bowl. In a tumbler, acetone will be gone in a few minutes at most. It does remove oil well. My hands are white after using it.
A lot of folks mix Nu Finish with mineral spirits to thin the Nu Finish down. Nu Finish is kind of thick. If the Nu Finish isn't thinned with mineral spirits it clumps up in the media the clumps have to be squished out with fingers which is a little messy on the fingers. I see no value added other than that from the mineral spirits. I use Nu Finish and am a clump squisher.
I don't tumble cases anymore. Instead, I use 0000 steel wool to clean the necks (always did this even before tumbling) then wipe the cases with a shop rag lightly saturated with mineral spirits. Works great for me. Cuts down the time of processing cases for reloading, less equipment, less consumables (media), easier to manage my case prep since each rifle has its own dedicated cases.
After sizing, I wipe off the Imperial Sizing wax with a paper towel. Works great for me.
After sizing, I wipe off the Imperial Sizing wax with a paper towel. Works great for me.
I use Imperial sizing wax to lube for F/L sizing and neck sizing with a mandrel. After all of the sizing is done, I wipe off the excess wax with a paper towel. Then I rinse the cases in lacquer thinner. This removes the thin film of wax left behind. It dries in a few minutes.
PopCharlie
PopCharlie
Yea, the 0000 steel wool works great for me. Been using it since I started handloading back in the mid-90s. I tried tumbling with rice for a while and it does a good job but I mostly just use the steel wool and wipe the cases down afterwards. The tumblers main job now is coating bullets with HBN.
I used to use steel wool but disliked the bits it sheds. I use 3m cubbies you can get different coarseness, grey, maroon and green. I use maroon on case necks and.dont bother with bodies, they discolour but nothing builds up on them, case necks get carbon build up on the outsides. I use the green scrubbies to clean copper pipe when I sweat fittings on.
How do you rinse with Laquer thinner?
sqrlgtr
Gold $$ Contributor
Never Dull from auto parts store (mag wheel cleaner) if I really want them to shine comes in a tin can just pinch off a wad and chuck up brass in drill, or mini lathe according to what kind of mood Im in. Just takes a few minutes. forgot to add use a paper towel to clean off residue before taking out of drill/lathe. I usually don't clean but fifty or so at a time. Oh yeah also use a PMA brass holder for brass, not drill/lathe chuck on its own and run neck brush in neck at same time goes pretty quick after you get hang of it.....
I dip each case in a small jar containing the lacquer thinner, and swirl it around, dump it back in the jar. I let the case dry upside down in a loading block. Takes just a few seconds to rinse, a few minutes for the lacquer thinner to evaporate.
PopCharlie
coldboreshot
Silver $$ Contributor
Same
Thanks - I have a very similar procedure that I use 100% acetone (wife’s nail polish remover) on dirty bearings. It works wonders removing grease, oil and dirt from bearings just never thought to use it to remove case lube. Makes sense.
I quit using Nu Finish and mineral spirits because of the heavy coating it left on the tumbler bowl. It took me about an hour to remove the worst of it and cleaning the cases remover the rest.
I use a 60/40 mx of corn blast and Lyman Treated Corn Cob.
I use a 60/40 mx of corn blast and Lyman Treated Corn Cob.
Lots of finger/wrist twisting and wiping and rinsing going on by the guys who "don't clean" their cases. Sooo much easier to just tumble them... Hundreds at a time! But then you wouldn't have the bragging rights to say "cleaning" brass is a waste of time (but you still wipe/scrub every single individual case by hand one at a time).
It's a lotl ike Erik Cortina saying stop chasing the lands it's stupid, but then he recommends lengthening .003" seating depth now and then to see if it shoots better. Same thing.
It's a lotl ike Erik Cortina saying stop chasing the lands it's stupid, but then he recommends lengthening .003" seating depth now and then to see if it shoots better. Same thing.
Last edited:
Shooter13
Gold $$ Contributor
He was also talking about removing the lube that gets INSIDE the case when you are turning necks, talked about primers that didn't go "bang" after turning I think.
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