after the scotch brite "brass cleaning"

[flynlr]

I had some brass in bad shape and a quick trip with the lee trimmer chuck and a scotchbrite pad they came clean as new, Now I see fine scratches all over them and wonder what would be the bast way to polish out the fine scratches.
I have a tumbler and some corncob media with polish . but it doesn't seem to do anything for the scratches. this brass is once fired but I had tossed into my scrap bucket because it was just to darn ugly to reload. I have hope that with the scotch brite pad and a step 2 I can make use of the hundreds of .223 brass in this condition I have.
thanks!.

 

[jeepmor]

First off, use a finer scotchbrite if possible. I think you need to get into the 600+ grit range to make the scratches small enough so you don't see them visually. You are correct, the media is not going to polish those scratches out anytime soon.

I had some stubborn brass and I was directed to Lyman's Turbo polish. It worked, kinda. Regardless, the brass did get clean enough to reload and it seems to shoot fine. There are still some dark spots, but I didn't feel like going the extra mile since they seem to be functioning just fine at the moment. But now, you got me thinking, I may have to toss those in the tumbler with that stuff and see if I can finally make them go the heck away.

You might try some wet cleansing methods, but be sure there is no ammonia in your solution, it degrades the strength of the brass. Search for a vinegar and salt solution somwhere in this reloading forum. I forget the recipe, but I recall it having good results. It won't help with your current scratches from scotch brites, but if you have any that you did not scotch brite, it would be worth a try.

 

[ReloaderFred]

You can use either Flitz Metal Polish or J-B Bore cleaner to take the scratches out of the brass. Use the same method you used for the Scotch Brite, only instead of the pad, use a soft piece of cloth with a little Flitz or J-B on it.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[kir_kenix]

ummm...maybe im a novice reloader, but those scratches don't hurt anything do they? i've got some pretty scratched up brass that i have reloaded w/o a problem. is this something that i should be concerned with?

 

[Mr White]

I agree with kir kenix.

Brass prep is the most time consuming part or reloading. Don't make it any worse than it has to be. Little scratches on your brass won't hurt a thing. I run everything through the tumbler for 3 hours after I shoot it, and thats it. I'm certainly not going to scotchbrite every case and buff them out with flitz and a soft cloth. Its brass, FGS! Run it through the tumbler and be done with it.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Load the dang things...Shoot them and most of the scratches will go away. And stop worrying about the dang scratches...

Next time soak them for 15 minutes, stirring them every once in a while in a solution of 1 pint water, 1 cup white vinegar, 1 tablespoon dishwasing soap and 1 tablespoon salt. Rinse the in plain water. This will remove the bad stuff. Then throw them in the tumbler for an hour or more. I would do this one time per set of cases only...Inspect them for pitting...

 

[brickeyee]

Walnut media loaded with rouge.

 

[flynlr]

an example

while a bit hard to see here. The above is the after and the below is the before
the scotch brite. now this is after a couple hours cleaning in the tumbler.
the scratches I am talking about in the upper piece leave a rough finish. which is why I was interested in polishing,. I have no problem spending the time to polish them. I will try the vinegar water bit on the box of brass like the lower example
to see what happens. the reason I tried the scotch-brite in the first place
was to remove the red crap on the brass, a little of which is visible in the lower piece.

 

[The Bushmaster]

The upper one looks just fine...The lower one really doesn't look that bad, but I know that photos don't always show the truth...

If you load and fire the upper one you may remove a lot of the scratches as it expands against the chamber walls...

 

[Hook686]

If you really want to polish the brass ...

... simply because the scrathes annoy you, though I see no problem with the 'satin' sheen exhibited by such Scotch Brite cleaning, you might try a rock polishing package of various grits used in rock tumblers. Something like this is quite reasonable at Harbor Freight and can be used in a cheap rock tumbler.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Hook686...The idea here is to polish (which they don't need). Not remove more brass. Cases are thin enough to begin with...

 

[Walkalong]

Ya'll are going to see daylight thru those cases pretty soon if ya keep grinding on em.