How do you clean your brass?

[RustVendor]

I hand deprime 9mm then put into the rotary tumbler with stainless pins lemishine and dish soap. I don't have any desire to make them shiny if it takes more work or money, ha.

 

[ChestnutBleach]

I usually do it every so often for personal use. I can never get it as shiny as some of you guys, so Whats your process to clean?

Mine is FaRT wet tumbler with warm water, 1 tbsp of citric acid, shine brite, armor all wash & wax.

It gets clean as you can see, but I don’t get that polish shine. It’s usually in for about 30-45 minutes then rinse and air dry. Once dry, I’ll run it through my sorting tumbler.

Then I’ll pre-process the brass to deprime & resize before rinsing one more time and dry. After that rollsize and finally spray with silicon lube and let it sit in a bucket until it’s time to use in the reloader.

This is usually good enough since it already take a bit of time for the drying process.

Curious what your process is

I don't rush cleaning brass, so I take time. Basic steps are:

• Deprime
• Wet tumble with SS pins, dish soap, and a pinch of Lemi Shine for 1-2 hours
• Rinse then wet tumble again with SS pins and dish soap, no Lemi Shine, for another 1-2 hours
• Rinse with distilled water (have hard water around my area)
• Let air dry

Result? Example:

I see a lot of tumbler use. Does anyone else use an ultrasonic cleaner?

I've not done much handloading, and that was only for my long range rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor. I like the ultrasonic cleaner for a couple reasons.

1) It gets the interior clean as well as the exterior. I've no experience with tumblers, but my naive impression is that it does not clean the interior of the cases as well as the exterior, is this correct? A fair bit of residue gets collected within a fired case over repeated firings; ensuring the interior is clear seems important from the perspective of consistency, and thus accuracy. Just my $0.02.

2) It does a fine job of cleaning up the exterior. The practical importance of this seems to be to smooth the cartridge and thus aid in extraction. Thoughts?

I use an ultrasonic cleaner for 5.7x28 brass to protect the special coating. All other brass is done via steps above. Ultrasonic cleaning is OK, but IMO it does't get brass like-new clean. Does it need to be? No, but it does look good when done.

 

[USPSA_OnTheSpectrum]

1.) Wet tumble in FART with pins and dawn for 1-2 hours depending on how much brass I have.
2.) Drain, rinse, tumble 2nd time with just pins and lemi-shine for 30 minutes.
3.) Drain and rinse with distilled water and let air dry.
4.) Once dry I just throw it in the dry tumbler with walnut media+wax+polish for as long as it takes to get them looking like factory new brass. Sometimes it's a few hours, sometimes it's 24+ hours. Mine's in the garage so I just let it do its thing until I'm content with the shine.

 

[ChestnutBleach]

1.) Wet tumble in FART with pins and dawn for 1-2 hours depending on how much brass I have.
2.) Drain, rinse, tumble 2nd time with just pins and lemi-shine for 30 minutes.
3.) Drain and rinse with distilled water and let air dry.
4.) Once dry I just throw it in the dry tumbler with walnut media+wax+polish for as long as it takes to get them looking like factory new brass. Sometimes it's a few hours, sometimes it's 24+ hours. Mine's in the garage so I just let it do its thing until I'm content with the shine.

IME, LS leaves a haze after tumbling. The 2nd tumble w/o LS gets rids of the haze and makes the brass shine. I'd recommend giving it a shot. Might not need the dry tumble.

 

[mindwreck]

geez your tumbing it 2 or 3 times. guys gotta tweak your process. no way am i wasting time tumbling multiple times. I do it once for 45 to 1 hour and its already super shiney.

if your brass is drying with a haze or residue, you didn't rinse it enough with clean water. toss them in a towel real quick before placing the brass out to dry. Like waterspots on a car. you want to towel dry it quick to prevent spots if you really care about that. If you lubed your brass and sized it before tumbling and it comes out with smudgy or grey looking film. you didn't use enough soap to suspend the lube off the cases. add some soap and retumble it again for like 15 minutes to remove it. If your cases are looking a little pinkish, you left it in the water too long after you stopped tumbling or you didn't rinse it enough and the acid leeched the zinc out.

been wet tumbling brass for 15+ years. SS pins with simple dish soap and lemonshine. I've picked up completely black cases left out in the sand and it shines them up right away in 1 go. its not rocket science.

and a last FYI. deprime if your wet tumbling. its makes it dry probably 10x faster. the primer cup just traps the moisture even in 120F summer sun. takes hours vs like 10 minutes if its deprimed.

 

[ChestnutBleach]

geez your tumbing it 2 or 3 times. guys gotta tweak your process. no way am i wasting time tumbling multiple times. I do it once for 45 to 1 hour and its already super shiney.

if your brass is drying with a haze or residue, you didn't rinse it enough with clean water. toss them in a towel real quick before placing the brass out to dry. Like waterspots on a car. you want to towel dry it quick to prevent spots if you really care about that. If you lubed your brass and sized it before tumbling and it comes out with smudgy or grey looking film. you didn't use enough soap to suspend the lube off the cases. add some soap and retumble it again for like 15 minutes to remove it. If your cases are looking a little pinkish, you left it in the water too long after you stopped tumbling or you didn't rinse it enough and the acid leeched the zinc out.

been wet tumbling brass for 15+ years. SS pins with simple dish soap and lemonshine. I've picked up completely black cases left out in the sand and it shines them up right away in 1 go. its not rocket science.

and a last FYI. deprime if your wet tumbling. its makes it dry probably 10x faster. the primer cup just traps the moisture even in 120F summer sun. takes hours vs like 10 minutes if its deprimed.

For me, it’s the LS. First started using quite a bit, then backed it down to a tiny pinch. No matter how much I use, it doesn’t get is as shiny as the 2nd tumble w/o LS. Brass gets pretty clean without LS in one go, but I still prefer the 2 tumble process.

Only reason I let it go for 1-2 hours/tumble is cause I’m doing other things. 45mins-1hr would have similar results.

 

[Malibu]

Our process:

Sort by caliber.
Save good brass, recycle bad brass.
Deprime.
Tumble in pins, soap, pinch of Lemishine.
Dry using Frankfort Arsenal Case Dryer.
Size.
Trim & chamfer if necessary.
Wash & dry to remove lube (if not sized with carbide dies).
Inspection of brass is continuous throughout the process.
Pack and label for storage if not loading soon.

 

[ar15robert]

Wet tumble here. Just soap and pins the first time then lube size trim and primer pocket crimp remove if needed.

After that back into the wet tumbler for an hr or two with dawn and lemi shine for that clean shiny look.

 

[xMAC1x]

I used the dry media vibrating tumbler splash of thinner and nu finish and torn into strips used dryer sheet.

I picked up the fart and still getting it figured out the capacity and time savings is impressive.

 

[Dooder]

I have a FART and multiple tumblers.

FART for when I'm at home and in the yard smokin a coupla racks of ribs. I've found dislike with lemishine, eff that. Sometimes I'll grab a lemon from the tree and squeeze it in there, but 99% of time I just use soap only. But I can do a few batches while the ribs are getting delicious.

The tumblers are for daily use. I prep my media - walnut only, with a splash of whatever petroleum liquid I have like coal starter, naptha, mineral spirits, or that CA compliant paint brush cleaner crap...but a splash of that and some liquid car wax, and a few bore patches. Mix that up so it's distributed and then dump in the brass. I turn it on before I got to work and shut it off when I get back. After dinner and the kids are sleeping I get into the garage to separate and prep for the next batch in the morning. I don't have to recharge the media every batch. It's really about how dried out it gets. I have to change the patches and add more juice every three or four days.

 

[G421W]

I'm a small batch of ammo reloader. A Franklin vibratory case cleaner handles 250 pieces of 9mm brass easily. I use Petco brand lizard litter. I add 2 cap fulls of Nu-finish liquid car polish and 2 used dryer sheets. I run the crushed walnut hulls (lizard litter) with the polish until it is well mixed. The dryer sheets I change with each batch as it attracts most of the crud.

Ran a couple of hours, my brass comes out clean and shiny. I spray the clean brass lightly with Hornady One Shot on a cookie sheet and shake it a bit, repeat 2x. Once its dry, its off to the Dillon case feeder.

I would not reload without Hornady One Shot or a substitute. Running the press is incredibly smooth with it on the brass.

 

[Randomdudewithguns]

Large Dillon tumbler, crushed walnut, Nu-finish car wax. Run for an hour, separate the media and it's gtg. Wet tumbling made some shiny looking and clean brass but was a PITA (imho). Hauling 5gal buckets to the club, using the cement mixer, drying on tarps in summer. Just got to be too much.

 

[getpro56]

I wet tumble with warm/hot water, squirt of dish soap, 1/4tsp of lemishine and SS media from sleeping giant brass ( https://sleepinggiantbrass.com/product/stainless-steel-tumbling-media/ ). I let it run for about 2hrs then toss it in the brass dryer. Seems to come out nice and shiny. Maybe not as beautiful as some that you see but I’m not in it for the pretty factor. Have had no issues w the media sticking to the primer pockets.

 

[bluenoise]

It’s been probably eight to tens years since I’ve reloaded brass cartridges, but I used a vibratory tumbler with walnut media and a squirt of polishing compound from Dillon. I only reloaded 9 mm. For shotgun shells, I don’t bother cleaning them.

 

[thresher]

I utilize both a wet and dry tumbler. Wet for the initial cleaning then the dry tumbler after resizing. This is done to remove the case lube
(Lanolin/alcohol). It's a bit tedious but gives me piece of mind.

 

[DesertDepotArms]

I used to use a concrete mixer and stainless pins (from stilly on CGN) with some dawn.

Years ago someone recommend ditching the pins and trying woolite white and ive never looked back.
I dont deprime first any way so wasnt too worried about the primer pockets getting clean.

 

[Joker67]

I use an RCBS rotary tumbler for an hour and a half for the first tumble . If it’s warm and sunny , I throw it on a towel in my backyard . If it’s sunny , the brass is usually dry in an hour. I can do 1200 pieces in a day while I’m doing other things
. Then I deprime with a Lee universal decapper on a Dillon XL750 which goes quick. I’ll just do it for 15 minutes at a time or whenever I walk past the machine. Suddenly , there is a 2 gallon bucket of brass ready for final clean.

For final, I use some lemishine , pins and a little armor all wash and wax. I let that run 2 hrs , then dry in the sun if it’s nice. If not, I’ve got a Lyman Cyclone case dryer which is great for pistol brass , slow for rifle brass.

I load a few months worth of ammo , then slowly process brass in the next few months. I sort when I walk by , 10 minutes here , 10 minutes there. Sorting sucks , but I no longer load certain headstamps. I’ve got a 5 gallon bucket of rejected brass and primers . I wonder what that’s worth? $100.00?

I would be a better shooter if I spent this time dry firing , but my costs are half factory for 9mm, 40,45 and 556.

 

[ar15robert]

Reloading 26 years last 7 years it’s been wet tumbling. Won’t ever go to corn walnut vibrator tumbler.

 

[KeyserSose]

i use a RCBS dry tumbler with lyman corn cob media. I will usually toss in fired 223 brass with primer still in for 2-3 hrs usually while i'm at work. I will then size and deprime, chamfer and debur, then throw my brass in for another hr to final clean the case lube and then I address primer pockets and flash hole before final loading,

 

[Ojisan]

Vibratory tumbler, walnut media, Dillon Rapid Polish.