I have not cleaned any brass for a while, but yesterday I had to pull out the FART and clean some 9mm brass. After getting ready I realized that I can't remember exactly what I used the last time. I remember I used dishwashing liquid and/or car wash and wax, plus some Lemi Shine, but couldn't remember any of the details.
So I decided to go the wash and wax route with Lemi Shine. The following went into the tumbler:
2 Caps of wash and wax, 9mm case Lemi Shine, +- 1k 9mm dirty cases, hot tap water up to the neck, and the 5lb SS pins.
After running the tumbler for 2.5 hours, I couldn't believe the results. The cases were dull, looked tarnished, and started getting the blackish color.
They were definitely clean and I could have used them to reload, but I decided I need to figure out what happened. I wasn't sure if I did not have enough soap, or maybe too much Lemi Shine, so I decided to try the other soap. This is what went into the tumbler:
About 3 squirts of Palmolive dishwashing liquid, about as much as for dishes, half a 9mm case Lemi Shine, +- 1k 9mm tarnished cases, hot tap water up to the neck, and the 5lb SS pins.
Because I wasn't sure if the previous results were due to the soap or lemi shine, I decide to run the tumbler just over 1 hour, to see if the results were improving, stayed the same, or getting worse.
After the hour, the water was still nice and soapy, and when I emptied the FART I could see some dirty water again, and the cases were getting to the nice and shiny look. The cases were not perfect yet, but much better than before. So I decide to stop while I was ahead, and put the cases into the ready to load rotation.
I am just posting this thread to hopefully help somebody else running into the same issue. It seemed to me that maybe I did not have enough soap during the first attempt, but at least now I know I'll probably go back to the dishwashing liquid and a little bit of lemi shine. Next time I will probably measure how much dishwashing liquid I use, and then write it down.
Probably the moral of the story is that, do not just keep record of your loads, but also keep record of your procedures, including the cleaning part of it.