Hand cleaning 9mm brass?

[O_Blade_O]

Hello all,
i've already read about how to clean brass but it's mostly about what to put inside the tumbler, how much time, etc.
Due to my small numer of reloads, i'm not sure i want to put money on a tumbler, at least for now.
So, do you have any "hand and tool" way to clean the inside of the brass? I don't care much if they are shiny like new, just want to clean the burning leftovers.
For flashole i've already something in mind, but the cases? I was thinking about a 9mm brush in a dremel or something similar, cases in a tray, and one by one. Any solvent, solution?
Because i'd have to reload 100, 150 brasses couple at months at best, i was seeking some advice there. Thanks!!

 

[rcmodel]

They don't need to be cleaned inside unless they have been retreived from a mud hole.

The primary purpose of tumble cleaning is to clean the outside to get all the grit & grime off to protect the reloading dies.

Tumbling actually does little good inside anyway, as the cases very quickly become packed full of polishing media and no further movement or polishing action occurs inside the case.

A side benefit of tumbling is it makes them purdy to look at.

If you just want them clean, you can wash them in hot soap & water and then let them dry. Primer pockets can be cleaned with a small screwdriver blade or bent paperclip if thats all you have. But some folks consider that a waste of time too.

rc

 

[The Bushmaster]

If you wash them in soapy water and a rinse. Make damned sure they are DRY on the inside before you reload them. If you wish to clean primer pockets (I do) use an old broken choke/throttle cable cut 1" from the guide next to the handle. Makes for a real good multi-tool too.

 

[Nowhere Man]

Soap and water in an old milk jug will clean them up. You can add a 1/2 cup of vinegar to you soap and water to give them a shine.

Rinse and let them dry before reloading.


Dave

 

[JDGray]

I wash range pickups in a bucket of water, and gather them up in a towel, and shake em up real good to help dry the insides. They come supprisingly clean

 

[putteral]

Add some Sea salt to the water, vinegar and soap makes them even shiner!
1 pint of water
1 cup of white vinegar
1 TBL of Sea salt
1 Tsp of detergent

 

[FROGO207]

If you look on the larger sites like say Cabellas or Midway USA there is a kit from IOSSO products that uses chemicals premixed with soap already mixed. It removes tarnish and powder residue as well as carbon deposits.You put brass in a net bag and dunk them into it for a short time. Then rinse well and dry. I use an old cookie sheet in the oven on lowest setting for 5 min then let cool until I can handle the brass again. Brass comes out brite and shiney but does not have that mirror polish look. The kit is inexpensive and can be used several times before the cleaner has to be discarded. Refill cleaner is available also. I use this as a general cleaner for real tarnished range brass before I tumble it.

 

[Seedtick]

Hey rc, I found a benefit to a shiny inside.

I, ah, well I forgot. I forgot to turn the tumbler off before I went to bed and when I did remember they had been shaking for 30+? hours. I was scared I had damaged them some how but they were A-OK and they were really really shiny on the inside. I was using straight walnut at the time with Nu-Finish.

When I started loading said shiny inside 380 brass (turret press) it was much easier to see the powder level in them while I was placing a bullet on them to seat. I liked it.

So I started mixing untreated corn cob and walnut shells half and half with a little Nu-Finish for my media and now I let them run all night on purpose.

Long winded I know, but anyway for me I found a benefit for shiny insides. YMMV

ST

 

[1SOW]

I use range brass and was cleaning my 9mm cases with "putteral's" formula and it works, but it works best with the primer removed. Unless you have a dedicated deprimer, the case needs to be cleaned to deprime it.

I bought a vibratory tumbler (Cabellas) and I smile when I see all that shiny brass. I preclean with liquid laundry soap and water, rinse with a garden hose and use JDGray's drying method. I then deprime and tumble.

 

[O_Blade_O]

Many thanks!

Hey,
first of all, many thanks to all to you to these long and nice replies for a question a little silly, i guess.

I was looking for a good cleaning on the inside, if you say so it works so well, i'm thinking about this sequence:
1- Pick range brass
2- Little outside cleaning if needed (range is semi-indoor so floor is very clean)
3- Decap
4- Wash with "solution" and rinse, then dry
5- Resize and then reload

Do you suggest doing like that or... ?

Thanks!!

P.S. a TBL of Sea Salt is... how much is tbl?

 

[O_Blade_O]

Got some Brass cleaned with your instructions
Ok i didn't decap it before washing because i'm still waiting my equipment... dang, with August in the middle everyone is on vacation and much like my rimfire rifle last year, i bet i won't see dies and everything else before September.
Oh well...

So i got 30 pieces of 9x21 used brass. I saved them from a previous range visit, they got fired once by me.

Used the water vinegar salt and soap recipe, found a nice glass bottle with a round butt and sole bumps on the inside, well it seems suited for this work, here's the results:

Here's an uncleaned case and behind the batch i cleaned. This picture doesn't show it well, but the uncleaned one has some burning sooth on the mouth and body, the others are yellow shiny. Very Ok for the outside.

And then the most interesting. The inside is obviously well cleaned as I was looking for. Actually i had to pass a Q-Tip just to remove some of the biggest grit (white dots inside the uncleaned case) that "survived" the washing, but i think that a little more time inside the washing bottle should have removed it as well.
I used cold water too so it would get much better with hot water

 

[The Bushmaster]

O_Blade_O...That recipe is a good one as long as you remember that the salt and vinegar is capable of rendering your brass damaged by leaching the the metals in the brass. That would be the pink spots that show up on the brass (zinc). I will use that recipe on real nasty range brass that I wish to salvage, but only once.

Nothing beats a tumbler.

 

[O_Blade_O]

that's good to know; then i'll keep the vinegar and salt quantities at low. I want a good cleaned INSIDE before the shiny outside look of the brass... I'd like to refill clean cases for some reasons (better powder lookout, no grit mixing with powder, no cumulating fouling inside cases)...

 

[The Bushmaster]

In time, even after using that solution, the inside of the case will darken with carbon. It causes no problems at all. Those that insist on having shinny insides so they can see the powder level are kidding themselves. Especially if they are using a progresive press. Very few with progresive presses check, but ocasionally, the powder drop.

Now I am for SHINNY outsides. They are sooo perddy on the loading bench and at the shooting bench. After the bullet has been seated no one knows what they look like on the inside.

"Jewels of Destruction"

 

[BADUNAME37]

P.S. a TBL of Sea Salt is... how much is tbl?

A Tbl would be a Tablespoon. I would estimate that to be enough to fill either a .380 Auto case, or even a 9mm pistol case.

 

[woodsoup]

More like a .45 LC case. A TSP is about a .40 S&W. Check with the wife, maybe she'll loan you her measuring spoon set.