What a MESS!!

[Toymaker]

I wet tumble bottle neck cases with steel pins and straight walled cases with ceramic media. For both I use 2 tablespoons of Dawn and 1/4 teaspoon of LemiShine. It's worked great for years. Tonight I was tumbling a load of 223 brass. After two hours (usually enough) I opened the tumbler and found BLACK CASES. They were BLACK.

That set me back a moment as I thought about what I could have done wrong. Then I started checking things. Last week at a store I saw a 24 ounce of Dawn, Apple Blossom, for 99 cents. Who care what they smell like!!! I grabbed a bottle. That's what I used tonight. Reading the bottle it says "Non-Concentrated". The almost empty bottle on the shelf says "Concentrated". The instructions with the steel pins doesn't say I have to use concentrated. But it appears you do.

So beware.

The cases are back in the tumbler with two tablespoons of home-made lye soap shavings. I know that'll clean them.

[geargnasher]

That'll clean them if you use dead soft water, otherwise you'll get a nice coating of magnesium and calcium stearate scum all over everything. Stick to the phosphate detergent, it contains dedicated surfactants and dispersants which are what really do the work, the emulsifying properties are only the icing on the cake.

Gear

[runfiverun]

Too much soap can make a muck of things too.
I was running some 223 range. brass last week and had to change the black scum water after every batch.
I wasn't using dish soap but car wash with polymers in it.
the low surfactant soap would pull so much grunge out of the cases iand hold it in suspension it wouldn't even settle out overnight.

[Toymaker]

It was 11 o'clock last night, but the brass came out nice and clean, inside and out; and shining better than new. Today I have two loads of 30-06 brass to do. But first I'm going to the store and getting a bottle of concentrated Dawn. :bigsmyl2:

[Moonie]

It was 11 o'clock last night, but the brass came out nice and clean, inside and out; and shining better than new. Today I have two loads of 30-06 brass to do. But first I'm going to the store and getting a bottle of concentrated Dawn. :bigsmyl2:

My preference is car wash and wax as the dawn tumbled brass tarnishes fairly quickly. The car W&W cleans as well and adds a layer of protection from tarnish.

[w5pv]

So far I have been disappointed with my wet pin tumbling,I have had to redo them in the viberatror tumbler with lizzard bedding to make them come out nice and shining.When I used Dawn Ultra no phosphates with Lemmi Shine the water was a black mess.I rinsed the whole mess several times.The brass was clean but dull.

I washed the bottle and pins a dried them getting ready for the next time.After reading I will go to Dawn Concentrate with phosphate hoping this will work.I used rain water the last time but think I will use my well water filtered to take out the iron and calcium.

[truckjohn]

And to think what sort of Phillistine I am for simply using the washing machine at the Laundry-mat late at night when nobody is there..... A little laundry detergent works just fine...

Shiny, shiny brass in 20 minutes - and it only costs me $0.50!

You should hear it when you pour 20 lbs of brass into the dryer, though... It sounds like somebody is running a jet engine inside the laundry mat....

[John Allen]

I once put about way too much lemishine in (lid fell off) and figured screw it my cases came out so shinny it was like looking at the sun!!!

[Plate plinker]

Gotta love lemi shine.

[RED333]

You should hear it when you pour 20 lbs of brass into the dryer, though... It sounds like somebody is running a jet engine inside the laundry mat....

:bigsmyl2:

[Walter Laich]

I use Armor-All car wash liquid in mine. Seems to keep them shiny longer. Something about the wax in this stuff. They still come out very shiny. Hard to look at in the Texas Sun

[paul edward]

Cleaning and polishing can be considered two different operations. Detergents or TSP (tri sodium phosphate) clean by dissolving the oils and grease that hold dirt and other contaminants. The clean brass can then be polished in a chemical bath like citric acid in water. Citric also passivates the surface of the brass helping prevent corrosion.

[harrelson]

I get the same black results when using the LSD and stainless pins if I have case lube on the brass . My lube is lanolin and alcohol 1-10 mix . I really haven't found a fix for this yet


Bob

[C. Latch]

I'm still using Armor All Wash n Wax as someone here suggested last year, with a dab of citric acid, and my brass comes out sparking clean every time, and they stay sparkly until I load them. I have a bit of .38 brass that was cleaned last summer sometime, and it's still brilliantly shiny.

[cajun shooter]

I loaned my Thumlers model B to a friend and gave him the Dawn/Oxy and the Lemi-Shine with the written directions on the entire process. When I received it all back, I had a load of 44WCF brass ready to be cleaned so I ran them as I always have for the past 4 years using the pins. Used the ceramic before that.
When I opened them up and expecting to see my like new Starline cases, I was in complete shock to see very dirty grey cases. I sat there in disbelief trying to figure out what could of went wrong and it hit me. I took the model B to my kitchen sink and added some hot water and Dawn/Oxy; what appeared was a black, dark gooey mess. It seems that my friend that had used my equipment neglected to use the last step in my instructions. That step was to rinse and clean pins until the water runs clear.
I was a little upset to say the least but even at 67 I learned another lesson in life. No one will take care of your things like you do.
I posted this before about the use of Lemi-Shine, but I'll do it again. If you have nickel cases, watch on the amount you add as it will take the nickel finish off the cases. Take Care David