I want SHINY brass

[FISH4BUGS]

I have a fair number of 5 gallon buckets of 223 brass. I was digging through them and came across 1000 deprimed 223 mixed brass in sealed zip lock bags. I must have had them for 5 years or more.
I have no idea where or how I got them. I do a lot of horse trading so who knows?
This brass was as shiny as new. It was mixed military. I LIKE shiny brass for my reloading. It helps me win my beauty contests with my reloads. :grin:
So it set me to wondering as I was prepping them for reloading...........all the while marveling at how darn shiny this brass was.
I have an RCBS Vibratory Tumbler that I have had for 30+ years. It works fine. It cleans the brass well but I can't seem to get the "new brass" shine on anything....even with new media. I get them nice and clean and sort of kind of shiny but no cigar.
How can I get that "new Starline Brass" shine on brass using the vibratory tumbler? Is this tumbler even capable of that?
Anyone else have any ideas? I am all ears.......

[Sweetpea]

I use mineral spirits and nufinish.

[lefty o]

wet tumbling with a little wash&wax added in will keep em shiny.

[Tom W.]

Try the little green ceramic triangles from Harbour Freight.

[Hannibal]

As others have said, SS pins , citric acid and car wash n' wax works REALLY well, especially if you store brass in zip lock bags.

I know of no way achieve the same finish with a vibratory tumbler and dry media.

[runfiverun]

wet tumbling followed by a polish in a dry tumbler.
it's like washing and waxing the old Buick.

[country gent]

I use corncobs with iosso brass polish and nufinish added. When I bring the BPCR brass home its in a jug of dish soap water. I start the polisher add 1 cap of the iosso and about the same of nufinish and let run. I rinse the brass several times with hot tap water and soak it in hot water for 5-6 mins. Probably about 10-15 mins run time on the polisher now mixing. I work the cases for a few minutes in a towel to remove water. I then add 4 ounces of alchlol and put the cases into the lyman polisher. I normally run them for 3-4 hours and they come out really nice and shiny as good if not better than new. I use corn cobs from a supply house for blasting work, I believe they are 20-20 grit and come in a 50 lb bag.

[Boolit_Head]

Dry tumble in corn cob overnight with some nufinish and they will look like new.

[lightman]

You can get a good shine with corncob, a splash of mineral spirits and a cap full of brass or car polish. The shiniest brass that I have had was with stainless media, car wash and wax and LemiShine. The corncob takes about 12 hours in my Dillon while the stainless is 2 hours. A bath in citric acid ( LemiShine ) before tumbling helps give the corncob a head start.

There is a learning curve with the stainless media. You water quality ( hardness ) will determine the amount of LemiShine needed and some water makes water spots worse than other types. The stainless media will clean primer pockets if you deprime first where as corncob won't. Some guys use stainless chips instead of the pins and report good results.

[Rcmaveric]

I toss them in a vibratory tumbler with walnut media and few cap full of nufinish. They come out come pretty good for my taste. I have forgotten about them for a few hours and they looked about new.

[XDROB]

I switched to SS wet tumbling a year ago. Was using two vibratory tumblers with Franklin Arsenal #5 corn with a tablespoon of Midway polish with good results. But I wanted primer pockets clean. Wet tumbling as stated above really gives that (Like New Look). And keeps your dies a lot cleaner.

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[seaboltm]

Nothing, I mean nothing, can match ss pin wet tumbling. I took some 60 year old m1 carbine brass to shiny new in no time.

[lightman]

The level of clean that stainless media can get brass is actually scary. When I first started using stainless media I dug some brass out of the burn barrel at the range and tumbled it. Two hours had it cleaned up but it was not great. I changed the water and ran it for two more hours. In four hours that burned brass came out looking better than new. After seeing the results I promptly took that brass out to my shop and destroyed it. Think shop hammer and anvil. I did not want that burned annealed brass to get back into circulation. No amount of tumbling in walnut or corncob would have even come close.

There was a very long thread about stainless tumbling on the old Snipershide Forum about stainless tumbling. Snipershide has gone through several changes but I think a search could find it. It discusses mods to the tumbler, formulas for cleaning solutions and drying the wet brass. Its very picture heavy. STM also has a web site with pictures and so does the "Big Dawg" site.

I would post up some pictures but since Photobucket dumped me I have not learned how to post pictures on the new host site that I joined. Waiting on one of my kids or grandkids to come over!

[Grmps]

After getting the brass shiny in a wet tumbler with sspins. You should soak the brass in a solution of car wash wax & water to coat the brass and maintain the shine

[FISH4BUGS]

So I take it that my quest (at least using the vibratory tumbler) is impossible?
By the way, what is Nufinish? Never heard of it.

[William Yanda]

Fish4bugs, check out the automotive section at wallyworld, look among the car waxes. Or go to Autozone, Napa, Carquest, etc. and look in similar places.

[winelover]

Automotive polish that's been on the market, nearly 30 years......it's that good. Been using it as a replacement for Westley's on my vehicles, when it was discontinued.

Winelover

[lightman]

So I take it that my quest (at least using the vibratory tumbler) is impossible?
By the way, what is Nufinish? Never heard of it.

Its an automotive polish. You can get a nice polish with corncob and automotive polish. It just does not quite get as shiney as stainless media and citric acid. That stuff comes out like jewelry! And it takes less tumbling time, if time is important to you.

[Boolit_Head]

So I take it that my quest (at least using the vibratory tumbler) is impossible?
By the way, what is Nufinish? Never heard of it.

Sure is. After the brass comes home it gets a hour or two spin in Walnut to get the dirt off then to the resizing die and back overnight in Corncob. Looks like new brass with nice clean primer pockets when I am done.I use this process because I shoot suppressed rifles so the brass gets extra sooty. The Nufinish will help it stay that way.

[Geezer in NH]

I use Wally World blue car wash and wax that comes in a gallon for $5 or so with a squirt of Dawn with 1/4 TSP of citric acid from the canning section. This is in the Frankford Armory wet tumbler w/their SS pins.

At first brass would dull up in a few months as I was using a table spoon of the citric acid. Learned here I was using way to much citric so cut it way back and the brass remains nice and shinny after a year or more. The wax in the car wash helps keep them that way.

I NEVER got this shinny bras with the Vib with walnut or CC even using Dillon's blue brass polish it was still not that pretty.

[kayala]

I wet tumble with SS pins, then resize and tumble (to remove lube) in lizard bedding with some NuFinish - as shiny as it gets.

[mold maker]

First make sure to use a magnet to remove every steel case, even if plated.
As the citric acid, car wax, and dawn loosen the crud from my de-primed brass, the SS pins scrub it off. Every tiny spot inside and out gets this treatment. The extra clean cases will start to oxidize before it dries if no wax was added.
I then size and trim or what-ever is left for it. The last thing I do is a couple hour in cob with NuFnish, which protects it, and removes case lube, and trimmings. The better than new shiny brass will stay that way for many years.
After 50+ years of trying every new method, I am satisfied. It cost a little more but perfection is worth it.

[EMC45]

I too use NuFinish wax with corncob. It looks better than new when done. If really cruddy I will do the coffee can full of scalding water, lemon juice and Dawn dish soap and shake like crazy. Both ways work very well and are low buck.

[Soundguy]

corncob and a little nufinish. if it is real splotchy, then a pass thru walnut shell first.

[Iowa Fox]

I too use NuFinish wax with corncob. It looks better than new when done. If really cruddy I will do the coffee can full of scalding water, lemon juice and Dawn dish soap and shake like crazy. Both ways work very well and are low buck.

Coffee can, boiling water, lemi shine with a shot of dishsoap. Dump the deprimed brass in. I'm probably the odd duck here but washing it gets it shinny enough for me.

[lightman]

The level of shine on your brass is a personal thing. Its kind of like your car. Some guys wash and wax their car every weekend. Some never do. The main thing is that you don't want dirt and grit in your dies or chamber. Also sizing dirty brass will get that same dirt and grit on the ram of your press causing premature wear. Your soapy water accomplishes this. The LemiShine will add some shine to it. Super shinny brass is a little easier for some to inspect and some of us take great pride in super shiny brass. Like I said, its a personal thing.

[FISH4BUGS]

The desire for shiny brass IS a personal thing. Good point. I DO take pride in my reloads. I always provide the guns and ammo when I shoot with non-gun owning friends.
I think my process will be what I have been doing PLUS some NuShine or some like stuff. I am at the point where I have all the reloading equipment I need, and no need to buy a new tumbler and SS pins. What I have works and has for 30+ years.
I tend to change out my medium when it doesn't work after about 2-3 hours of tumbling.
How shiny is shiny? We will find out.
Thanks for the info gang.
fish4bugs

[lightman]

Any polish will work. The automotive line of stuff available at Walmart is just cheaper than the stuff sold to reloaders. NuFinish is a favorite but most any brand, even the store brands will do the job. A splash of mineral spirits helps cut it and helps keeping down the dust. The polish also coats the brass and retards the tarnish that clean unprotected brass will get. It sounds like you have a good plan.

[rond]

I use Turtle Wax chrome polish with corncob or walnut, gets them clean and shiny, it has a wax in it that keeps them shiny.