Latest Experiment:
I got a free sample (4 oz) bottle of
Citranox. I put 1 tablespoon in a
FART containing 250 Federal 5.56 range pickups with their primers removed, 5 lbs of SS chips (abandoned pins a year ago) and filled with hot softened water from the laundry room spigot. Tumbled this initial experiment for 30 minutes. Dumped the slurry into a gallon jug and flooded the FART with the same hot water 3 times, until the suds subsided. kept the last hot water in it and added 1 tablespoon of the
Wash & Gloss. Tumbled for 10 minutes and repeated the flood rinse cycle as before. Filled my rotary bucket with clean unsoftened cold water and dumped the cases in the hopper to separate out the chips and as a final rinse. Dried on a fine grid sheet in the oven and was happy with the results.
They went from this:
To this:
Even the primer pockets were spotless:
Note: None of the flash holes had a chip in them
.
But, the insides, including the necks, still had the coating left from the byproducts of combustion. Loose carbon was gone, just not that brown coating, whatever its comprised of. I know some of you refer to it as carbon but I'm not convinced that's what it really is.
Works for me and the shorter time, compared to what it took for shiny insides using Dawn and Lemishine, eliminated the mouths peening.
Win Win
I am letting the finished cases sit outside on the covered porch to see how they resist tarnishing. Next, I'll try either using both additives at the same time, try reducing the initial tumble to less than 30 minutes or see if I can reuse the captured, used Citranox solution that I saved. Even if it doesn't work well more than one time, at
16₵ a load, it seems like a reasonably priced product.
Lest you observant members ask, Yes I removed the few steel cases from the range pickups with a magnet before cleaning.
Hoot