Outside neck cleaning...

[thefitter]

Another thread got me thinking but I did not want to hijack it so here goes...

Has anyone noticed that after repeatedly cleaning the outside of the necks with steel wool or scotch brite pads that the necks are thinner?

Thanks

 

[Dshooter]

SS tumble and no need to clean the necks with anything else. What's with the username? I happen to be a PF....

 

[thefitter]

I get that, but many here do it this way. UA342

 

[Dshooter]

I get that, but many here do it this way. UA342

I've used very fine steel wool with no problems but only spin the case a couple times in my fingers. I didn't "scrub" them. LU 25 and headed out your way in a couple weeks....Chevron as it sounds

 

[thefitter]

Small world

 

[BoydAllen]

Using 0000 steel wool, I have never had a problem, but then I guess some people could screw up anything, so I won't say that it can't be done. I only give the case a couple of twists to take off the black, but no brass. I have done this over and over, cleaning the same small batch of brass for a PPC, with absolutely no detrimental effect. Also, in the short range benchrest game, no top shooter that I have asked wants all of the powder fouling removed from the inside of his case necks.

 

[SS427]

I wondered the same thing but before I could test it I gave up cleaning with steel wool. As the pad would break down it would get all over the place including me, my reloading bench, inside the cases and just about everything within a couple foot radius. I went back to cleaning necks with either Nevr Dull or Krazy Kloth from Sinclair.

BTW - my hands start cramp up cleaning them manually so I always used a cordless screw driver and a case holder. That could explain the wool all over the place.

 

[thefitter]

Maybe I'll run a little test.

My thoughts are that if you use a power source that after a dozen cleanings you should measure a difference.

I do not clean my necks this way but I do spin them in 0000 steel wool after turning and I do notice that it knocks down the slight ridge at the shoulder created during turning. And that is only once.

Thanks

 

[mshelton]

If you can, wipe the necks with Ballistol at the range, seems most the carbon comes off pretty easily then and the Ballistol residue that's left tends to work on the harder carbon.

Also a Krazy Kloth works well too on necks, Sinclair sells them.

 

[artbosco]

Another thread got me thinking but I did not want to hijack it so here goes...

Has anyone noticed that after repeatedly cleaning the outside of the necks with steel wool or scotch brite pads that the necks are thinner?

Thanks

No. Never. I use only 0000 steel wool.

 

[BoydAllen]

One more thing, I do not put Scotch Brite and 0000 steel wool in the same category, or view them as equivalent. They each have their own properties, which may overlap, but which are not identical.

 

[M-61]

One more thing, I do not put Scotch Brite and 0000 steel wool in the same category, or view them as equivalent. They each have their own properties, which may overlap, but which are not identical.

Especially the BROWN Scotch Brite . It will clean stains off concrete!

 

[LHSmith]

When I used to clean necks with steel wool, inside the case necks would be loaded with the stuff. I could use compressed air, but that would be inconvenient at a match, plus I don't know if that totally removes all of it. I do know that it tends to get all over the workbench and tends to hang on your fingers. I clean necks with Nevr Dull or Krazy Kloth as soon as I'm done shooting. I just don't get a cozy feeling subjecting a $1200 action mated to a $500 chambered barrel with a $200 -$450 trigger to tiny bits of steel wool. But that's just me.

 

[Brians356]

I don't believe 0000 steel wool is abrading the brass much if at all - it's burnishing it. I've never noticed any particles of brass coming off, but I suppose maybe it's impossible to distinguish brass from steel in the detritus.

In any event, I don't think it's practical to measurably thin a case neck by applying 0000 steel. Maybe, just maybe, if you applied the cumulative effort required to clean 1000 case necks to just a single case. But I doubt it.

The mess created by the disintegrated wool is another issue. When I clean necks, I don't do it over the workbench, I do it seated over a paper grocery bag, and let most of the detritus fall into that.

 

[artbosco]

NEVR-DULL is an excellent outside neck cleaner too, if you don't like the idea of using steel wool: http://www.nevrdull.com/

 

[Geronimo Jim]

Been using the Crazy Cloth for several years. Wipe cases after shooting and they sparkle!

 

[Lapua40X]

Can't see any reason to add the step of using special cleaners or steel wool to clean the outside of case necks.
The outside of all my cases come out clean as new after a couple of hours in corn cob media and a combination of Cabelas Metallic Cartridge Polish and Zymol.

 

[Brians356]

Can't see any reason to add the step of using special cleaners or steel wool to clean the outside of case necks.

"Add the step"? Anyone describing their method of cleaning necks by hand would not also then be tumbling them. I would have thought that was obvious.

 

[Road_Clam]

After I tumble, I like to give the neck a quick polish with some 3M medium scotchbrite pads . It not only removes any residual carbon that my tumbling did not clean, but polishing also provides a smooth finish which makes it much easier to spot small neck cracks in the brass.

 

[Lapua40X]

Can't see any reason to add the step of using special cleaners or steel wool to clean the outside of case necks.

"Add the step"? Anyone describing their method of cleaning necks by hand would not also then be tumbling them. I would have thought that was obvious.

Perhaps not as obvious as you thought ....... :

After I tumble, I like to give the neck a quick polish with some 3M medium scotchbrite pads . It not only removes any residual carbon that my tumbling did not clean, but polishing also provides a smooth finish which makes it much easier to spot small neck cracks in the brass.