Cleaning Pistol Brass
- Thread starter Tamitch
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lauderdale
Member
Tumbler.
Reloadron
Contributing Member
Tumbler.
Ron
Ron
Drue
Member
I would use an ultrasonic. It cleans inside and out, including the primer pockets. I tumble then after, to polish them.
Drue
Drue
AV8TOR
Member
I bought a 3 pound Harbor Freight rock tumbler and wet tumble with 1 pound of stainless steel pins and extremely happy with the results.
Grumulkin
Member
This is the best way to go.
This is .223 brass but you will get the idea. This brass was picked up after sitting in the rain for 4 days and most was covered in mud. I rinsed them when I got home to remove the red clay, removed the primers with a Lee decapper die and then threw them in the Thumler's Tumber for about 5 hours in a mixture of 5lbs of stainless steel pins, 3 1/2 qts. of water, 1 oz of ArmorAll Wash & Wax and a .380 case of Lemishine. After taking them out of the tumbler I either let them sit in the sun for a couple of hours til dry or put them in the dryer for 40 minutes on high heat (one of those fishnet laundry bags on the sweater rack). This method cleans the outside, inside and the primer pockets. For rifle brass I throw them in the vibrating tumbler with corn for about 15 minutes after resizing to remove any lube (not necessary for pistol brass). Hope this helps.
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Hondo 60
Member
If I were starting over, I'd go with wet tumbling.
Use a rock tumbler - stainless steel media pins with a bit of Dawn dish washing liquid & Lemi-shine
Use a rock tumbler - stainless steel media pins with a bit of Dawn dish washing liquid & Lemi-shine
ColtPythonElite
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A regular old vibratory tumbler, some bulk corn cob, and a litter Nu Finish cat polish works great for me.
Shootshellz
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Tumbler with corn cob media (25 pound bags available at PetSmart; sold in the 'bedding' aisle) with some NuFinish car (not cat) polish (not sure my cats want that 'showroom shine'). Toss a couple of used dryer sheets into the mix to prolong the life of the corn cob.
ColtPythonElite
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Cat polish.....lol
Bula
Member
Kitty's aside, nufinish auto polish and fine ground cob leave my cases glimmering. Wet/pin polishing is nice if you have the time. It leaves them better than factory. But too many steps for my taste and available time to load.
bob4
Member
shooter1
Member
I have looked all over town and no stores carry "Lemishine."
Where do you find it?
Wal Mart, Kroger, and most other similar stores
str1
Where do you find it?
Wal Mart, Kroger, and most other similar stores
str1
In the section where they sell items for dishwashers. If you don't find it there you can order it online and pick it up at Walmart.
3 pound Harbor Freight rock tumbler that's what I would do as well , maybe even a duel drum harbor freight , watch for harbor freight sales and 20% coupons makes it a great deal, I always find lemi shine its in the dishwasher detergent isle !
and you can get the pins on Amazon not to bad of price
and you can get the pins on Amazon not to bad of price
+1 on rock tumbler repurposed to wet brass cleaner.
Get the spare drive belts when you buy the tumbler- it WILL break/wear out.
Get the stainless steel pins that are magnetic. Makes cleanup a heck of a lot easier, use a strong horseshoe magnet.
Dawn / Lemishine for sure. Don't crowd the brass, it needs room to tumble. Even primer pockets come our clean, so decap before cleaning.
Use a post cleaning rinse with dilute Spot-Off (Jet Dry etc) in water, then force air dry, can be as simple as placing cleaned brass in a wire basket, use furnace vent, hairdryer or just a small fan.
Store in plastic tubs, but leave the lid off for a few days to vent any residual moisture.
Get the spare drive belts when you buy the tumbler- it WILL break/wear out.
Get the stainless steel pins that are magnetic. Makes cleanup a heck of a lot easier, use a strong horseshoe magnet.
Dawn / Lemishine for sure. Don't crowd the brass, it needs room to tumble. Even primer pockets come our clean, so decap before cleaning.
Use a post cleaning rinse with dilute Spot-Off (Jet Dry etc) in water, then force air dry, can be as simple as placing cleaned brass in a wire basket, use furnace vent, hairdryer or just a small fan.
Store in plastic tubs, but leave the lid off for a few days to vent any residual moisture.
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weaselfire
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- Jan 13, 2013
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Another wet tumbler here, Harbor Freight dual tumbler, steel pins, Dawn and LemiShine. Toss in an old pillow case with some rags and run through the dryer. Don't tell my wife about the dryer... 
Jeff
Jeff
I haven't broken a belt yet.....but the large rubber seal that goes under the lid developed a leak and had to be replaced. I picked up a spare belt just in case.
dwhite
Member
Wet tumble with stainless steel pins. HF dual drum rock tumbler.
I use RainX car wash with carnuba wax beads rather than Dawn. I think it makes the cases shinier and they seem to stay that way longer.
All the Best,
D. White
I use RainX car wash with carnuba wax beads rather than Dawn. I think it makes the cases shinier and they seem to stay that way longer.
All the Best,
D. White
Tumbler.
When I first got into reloading, I was too poor to buy a tumbler, so I built my own out of parts scavenged from a Qume printer (remember those?). I use a coffee can for the container. It can only handle about 50 to 60 .223 cases at a time, but that works fine for me.
I never thought about tumbling bullets since the tarnish doesn't impact their performance, but gilding metal is 95% copper and 5% zine, there's no reason that they shouldn't polish up just like brass.
When I first got into reloading, I was too poor to buy a tumbler, so I built my own out of parts scavenged from a Qume printer (remember those?). I use a coffee can for the container. It can only handle about 50 to 60 .223 cases at a time, but that works fine for me.
I never thought about tumbling bullets since the tarnish doesn't impact their performance, but gilding metal is 95% copper and 5% zine, there's no reason that they shouldn't polish up just like brass.
thump_rrr
Member
When I started reloading I bought a vibratory tumbler. I was only shooting pistol and the vibratory worked well enough.
I then got into precision rifles and while reading up on reloading for precision I came across articles talking about ultrasonic cleaning for brass.
I purchased an ultrasonic cleaner then realized that you had to run the brass multipe cycles and that the water had to be degassed to work well and you had to run small batches etc.
I then learnt about tumbling with SS pins .
Pour some hot water into the tumbler, toss in some brass, a squirt of liquid dish washing detergent, and a bit of Lemishine and a few hours later you get perfectly clean brass.
Buy yourself a media separator to remove all the pins froom bottleneck cases otherwise you will be shaking each case under water to free up all the pins stuck in the cases.
I fill the media separator with water and spin the handle 10 times in each direction and the pins are seperated from the brass.
I then got into precision rifles and while reading up on reloading for precision I came across articles talking about ultrasonic cleaning for brass.
I purchased an ultrasonic cleaner then realized that you had to run the brass multipe cycles and that the water had to be degassed to work well and you had to run small batches etc.
I then learnt about tumbling with SS pins .
Pour some hot water into the tumbler, toss in some brass, a squirt of liquid dish washing detergent, and a bit of Lemishine and a few hours later you get perfectly clean brass.
Buy yourself a media separator to remove all the pins froom bottleneck cases otherwise you will be shaking each case under water to free up all the pins stuck in the cases.
I fill the media separator with water and spin the handle 10 times in each direction and the pins are seperated from the brass.
snuffy
Member
I've been loading now for 55 years. The first 30 years I did NOT clean any of the brass! I only got a vibratory tumbler when I wanted to try molly coating. The tumbler was used to impact coat the bullets. I also tried tumbling the cases in some ground corn-cob. I was amazed to see how bright and shiny the outside became.
Recently I tried the ultra-sonic cleaned sold by HF. It's small, underpowered, but man does it make brass clean, even inside and the primer pockets. But I hate the drying process, it just takes to darn long! I can toss 150 45 ACP cases in the FA tumbler, add a dash of nu-finish, go make breakfast, return to polished brass ready to reload.
You do not need the insides of the cases OR the primer pockets spotlessly clean! The vibratory tumbler will get the chunks out of the insides and the majority of the primer residue out of the pockets,(if you deprime first).
Recently I tried the ultra-sonic cleaned sold by HF. It's small, underpowered, but man does it make brass clean, even inside and the primer pockets. But I hate the drying process, it just takes to darn long! I can toss 150 45 ACP cases in the FA tumbler, add a dash of nu-finish, go make breakfast, return to polished brass ready to reload.
You do not need the insides of the cases OR the primer pockets spotlessly clean! The vibratory tumbler will get the chunks out of the insides and the majority of the primer residue out of the pockets,(if you deprime first).
I have never had one break yet after 3 years? What are you doing to those poor belts?
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