How do you guys clean your brass?

I throw it in my Lyman with some bulk corncob and a little Nu Finish, then let it run a couple of hours or couple of days if I forget about it. It comes out plenty shiny for me. Some guys put too much time, worry, and effort into cleaning brass.

I cant help you much with the stainless question. But I hate tumbling. I used to spit shine every thing that crossed my path. Pardon the pun but it's now lost its luster

but Im a dry guy, with a little nu finish or turtle wax.

I've been using an ultrasonic then followed by a tumble in walnut media. Ordered the Frankford Rotary Tumbler yesterday to try wet tumbling.

Occasionally, I come upon large amounts of range brass that is stained. For this reason I use walnut rather than corncob. The walnut is slightly more abrasive.

If the brass is real bad, I'll give it a short soak in lemon water before tumbling.

For real "bling" I like Turtle Wax chrome and metal polish. It is ammonia free and has a cumulative effect in the walnut.

I've tried Dillons polish, and like it. However, the Turtle Wax is MUCH less expensive and does as good a job. I picked up some NuFinish to try but haven't used it yet. Hear great things about it.

I just use walnut in a vibratory tumbler,new media helps alot.
CC

Hornady ultra sonic cleaner with a cap full of their brass cleaner. Cleans them inside and out. Cleans the primer pockets if I deprime first.

#1...

But you're not "just wet tumbling for 10-20 minutes" if you're tossing in a vibratory tumbler afterwards. You're doing both.

As far as what the stainless steel media does, I don't have a clear top to actually watch the action, but I would think that it acts as an agitator as well as a little bit of abrasion. Whatever it does, my brass comes out looking completely new...including the primer pockets because I deprime first.

I have a wet tumbler but no ss media to try out yet.Years ago I used to tumble a lot in ss and Mr.Clean for jewelry and bronze castings and it worked great.
CC

Lyman vibrator, corncob media. Throw in 100 rifle cases or 200 pistol cases, turn it on, turn up the radio, and either play at the bench, or work on a stock. Couple of hours, nice and clean with a satin polish.

Dry rice and ajax,but keep it dry.
CC

Two steps for me:

1) Ultrasonic cleaner with a squirt of Dawn dish soap and some Lemi-Shine (~48 Mins)
2) Tumble in corn or walnut media (~ 12 - 24 hrs)

Spotless, shiny brass.

Ultrasonic cleaner from Harbor Freight. I researched the rotary tumbler with the stainless steel pins but opted out for costs and for the fact that I kept reading the stainless steel media broke down the outer layer/coating on the brass itself. The HF Ultrasonic cleaner was more of a test since I got it on sale. That was earlier last year and I just finally switched out my tumbler media as it remains pretty clean since the Ultrasonic cleaner does most of the actual cleaning now.

Most of the time, I just dry tumble in a vibrating tumbler with walnut shells. Cases can be used immediately after separation from the polishing/cleaning media.

I have a wet tumbler with stainless pins and use it with large batches of dirty cases like when I buy once fired cases. Gets the inside and outside squeaky clean but lots of time for the cases to dry.

Many decades ago, i used a ultra sonic cleaner. It got the dirt out but did not shine the cases. But, the magic cleaning elixirs that are not he market today were not available then.

I wet tumble with SS pins. The brass looks freaking brand new inside and out. It cleans the primer pockets and flash holes as well, since I decap prior to tumbling. I shoot in the woods or desert, so shiny brass helps with brass recovery. I place my pins and brass in the tumbler, add a squirt of dawn dish soap and a pinch of lemishine (citric acid or a squirt of lemon juice would do the same) and tumble for 30 min to an hour and then rinse and dry. I use an old speaker magnet in a sandwich baggie to separate the pins from the brass. I dry by dumping the brass in a beach towel and jiggling like polishing a bowling ball, then spread out on the towel. I put it under a ceiling fan in the winter, or on my 114 degree back patio in the summer. I might get a new vibratory dry tumbler again eventually, but just because I like tools and one can never have too many.

I haven't, but I would assume it would do a pretty decent job. It would likely take a bit longer to get a similar shine, and wouldn't clean the primer pockets or flash holes quite as well IMO. Next time I get some range pickups, I'll split a batch in half and try both ways to find out

I wet tumble with a small cement mixer, 25# of SS pins, water, Dawn and Lemishine. Does an excellent job, but is best suited for large batches. I want/need a smaller tumbler for smaller batches. But the wet method is the shizz!

I've tried them all. I now wet tumble using the Frankford rotary tumbler and SS pins.

I started wet tumbling using Dawn and Lemishine, but I read somewhere about using Armorall Wash and Wax instead. I just tried one load using that and think I will continue to use the Wash and Wax. It leaves a thin protective film, and seems to run through the sizing and expanding dies easier.

A couple months ago, I bought Rebel Tumbler setup from STM. Not Cheap, but the results are very impressive.

I deprime before tumbling with a Lee Universal de-capping Die.

Water, Dawn detergent, Lemi shine and stainless steel pins.

I've been letting it run for about 3 hours. I separate the media from the brass with a plastic "separator". Spread the brass out on a towel to dry.

Works very well for me.

1. Deprime
2. Wet tumble w/ss pins, lemishine, and dawn
3. Size, reload
4. Tumble in corn cob/nu-finish

50/50 mix of corn cob and walnut with a tiny amount of liquid car polish worked into the media before adding the brass. Turn on the tumbler via a cheapie lamp timer and close the door to the reloading room. Set it and forget it.

Old timers at reloading will note that the notion of tumbling/cleaning/polishing brass is a relatively new phenomenon. For years it was just, wipe it off and reload it.

I work in two stages. For pistol, relatively clean brass I resize/deprime, the stainless steel clean in a Frankford arsenal rotary tumbler and let sit overnight on a towel to dry. Then i tumble in corn cob with nufinish for an hour, and finish loading.

Rifle or really dirty brass I wet tumble first then size/load.

I clean brass with that ss media, I finish brass with corncob and nufinish to keep it really shiny and make it easier to work with.

Before I got the wet tumbler I would use a milk jug with soap/lemishine to agitate and clean most of the grime off my brass, it saves time and media