thoughts On brass cleaning equipment?

[anotherred]

Wet tumble, stainless pins for me!

[labradigger1]

I have been using a Dillon fl 2000 for years and it works great. I recently began using a thumlers model a r12 with Lemishine and ss pins.
Fwiw, vibratory is sufficient and you don't need to wait for the brass to dry.
Ss wet tumbling will clean the brass inside and out including the primer pockets and make horrible brass look better than new.
You should also consider a media separator with both types of media. I use both types about 50/50. If I am running large batches I will use the Dillon as it is massive and will hold substantial amounts of brass.
Lab

[bangerjim]

A large ZipLok container, some hot water, and a few teaspoons of citric acid! That's all I need. Forget the tumblers and vibrators. And a light spray of Armor-All + tumble before laying out to dry on a big towel in the sun. Dirty brass shoots just as accurately as shiny brass. I prefer to spend more time casting, loading and shooting than fussing around tumbling brass for just a shine. Citric acid is shiny enough for me. I don't sell brass, so I don't care what it looks like.....only how it shoots.

banger

[mdi]

A large ZipLok container, some hot water, and a few teaspoons of citric acid! That's all I need. Forget the tumblers and vibrators. And a light spray of Armor-All + tumble before laying out to dry on a big towel in the sun. Dirty brass shoots just as accurately as shiny brass. I prefer to spend more time casting, loading and shooting than fussing around tumbling brass for just a shine. Citric acid is shiny enough for me. I don't sell brass, so I don't care what it looks like.....only how it shoots.

banger

Yep! Tumbling, polishing brass is the most talked about and least important part of reloading...

[mdi]

mdi, you did mean $40 for 5 lbs. of pins, right? Don't want to scare the guy off, lol. Rod

OOPS! Yer right...

[Char-Gar]

The whole purpose in cleaning brass is to remove any grit or foreign matter that might scratch or otherwise damage the dies in the reloading process. Anything past that is just for cosmetic purposes. So, in my book, it really doesn't matter which system you use as long as the original purpose in accomplished.

I have been reloading since the late 50's, and brass cleaning involved wiping the cases off with a rag with some solvent on it. The brass itself just keep getting darker and darker. I had reloaded for almost 35 years before I bought my first vibrating case cleaner. It wore out and I replaced with with another just like it. I use walnut bird bedding laced with Mother's Mag polish.

[bangerjim]

If you want to really "wake up" your dry tumbling media and speed up the process, add a tablespoon or so of Bon Ami cleaner to it! Very mild abrasive....NO chlorine....amazing time reducer. You do have to rinse in water after. Do not use any other cleaner due to chlorine and other things in them!!!!!!!

[goryshaw]

Vibratory cleaner with walnut shells for initial cleaning after I get home from the range. Most of my shooting is AR-15 which leaves the cases with some carbon, so I clean them before resize/deprime step. After resizing they go in the ultrasonic with hot water, dawn and citric acid for 3-4 8 minute cycles then air dry on a dish mat. I've tried car wax in the ultrasonic, but it just clumps up on the surface. Only gets the wax on the cases when emptying the cleaner, then I have to wipe the wax off with a rag. Looks nice and keeps them from tarnishing, but not worth the effort.

Having said that, none of it is really necessary. When I started reloading I just used a solvent soaked rag to clean case lube off after resizing and didn't worry about the cases otherwise. Now it's mostly for peace of mind, I don't want any hiccups during rapid fire at a match.

[Vann]

While clean brass looks pretty, the only reason I clean my bass is to remove dirt and case lube, but more importantly it's to clean the primer pockets. I believe most primer problems are not caused by the primer it's self, but either in the way it was installed or by carbon build up in the primer pocket. I've seen a lot of rounds racked out on the line and in most cases the first thing the shooter says is "it must be a hard primer". While I know that hard primers do exist, I think that in most cases it's either a dirty pocket or improperly seated primer.

Just my .002
Vann

[zuke]

Here's 4000 word's worth of pic's. Posted many time's but still explanatory

[sparky45]

Strange, my brass looks just like Zuke's before and after examples, and I use SS, Armour All car wash/wax with a dash of Lemi-Shine.
Good pics Zuke.

[dudel]

Check out the Citric acid method sticky on the Cast Boolit section. I was leaning towards pins; but the Citric acid made me a believer. Fast, good and cheap. Not often you get all three.

[dudel]

The whole purpose in cleaning brass is to remove any grit or foreign matter that might scratch or otherwise damage the dies in the reloading process. Anything past that is just for cosmetic purposes.

How will the grit hurt the dies? You have brass, grit and carbide dies. The brass or grit are the softer of the three. I clean my brass, not to protect the dies; but to protect the brass. Plus clean brass sized easier.

[kryogen]

I have both, plus an ultrasonic cleaner. I don't use the US cleaner for brass. I just use it for parts.

I made a ss tumbler with parts myself, and with a 1/3 hp motor and large bearings, I could probably tumble 200 pounds on it.... My fully loaded drum probably weights around 50 pounds and it's no problem.

If I need to clean a minimum of 1000 or so really dirty cases, I might just toss them into the ss tumbler. Does a good job quickly. But then you need to rinse, dry, etc. Not convenient for me during winter so I just process large batches of brass during the summer.
Also, I strongly suggest that you deprime all brass that you want to clean in the SS tumbler. Otherwise, your water will get terribly black, you wont clean the pockets, and the brass will never dry.
I speed things up, I dry brass at 200F in the oven for an hour.

If I just need to get fired casings ready for another loading, I will just use the vib cleaner. It works ok, will get the brass clean enough to reload, and that's it. I can let it run all night, with corncob, and casings are good to reload.

I just find the corncob more convenient.
Shoot 200 9mm an evening, toss in the corncob, next day toss into the press, reload, done.

[mold maker]

How will the grit hurt the dies? You have brass, grit and carbide dies. The brass or grit are the softer of the three. I clean my brass, not to protect the dies; but to protect the brass. Plus clean brass sized easier.

Few rifle and not near all hand gun dies are carbide. Grit will definitely wear or scratch your dies, brass, and also your chambers.
With me clean, shiny brass, is a matter of pride. I clean my guns "shiny clean" as well.
While it's true that perfect shiny brass isn't a necessity, it shows your attitude, and protects your investment.

[country gent]

lapping is a simple process of a lead or soft brass rod or form with grit applied to it. ( sometimes forced into the lead or brass by rolling between 2 hardened steel plates) The proces does remove material from the harder material due to the grit impregnating into the softer material. SO a soft brass case with grit impregnates and is forced under pressure ito and out of a hard steel or carbide die. A sharp spec of carbon or grit can scratch the dies surface giving lines scratches on cases there after. Sometimes 1 or twice these can be polished out before the die becomes to big. Polishing a die is time consuming to do it right. I simply perfer to clean brass before so this dosnt happen. I clean in a vibratory with corn cobs and iosso polish maybe a little nufinish added. Brass looks good is clean and easier to work with. Another plus is when handling brass ( single stage press for rifle) my hands dont get black and grungy as quick. Lube pads and towels stay clean longer, I think less lube is needed on clean brass also.

[gunoil]

I made one like this:

http://youtu.be/3_FpiTzVYP8

Then my neighbor runs it in lizard litter, smooth and looks like gold. l can fill it in the dies. Really smooth.

[dudel]

Few rifle and not near all hand gun dies are carbide. Grit will definitely wear or scratch your dies, brass, and also your chambers.
With me clean, shiny brass, is a matter of pride. I clean my guns "shiny clean" as well.
While it's true that perfect shiny brass isn't a necessity, it shows your attitude, and protects your investment.

Not suggesting that one not clean brass. My post above talks about how I switched to Citric acid (after 30 years of corncob/walnut vibratory cleaning). Clean cases are good.

I just have my doubts about the dies taking the hit vs the brass. I know there are some old pistol dies that are not carbide, but try and buy new steel die today. You'll find many more carbide pistol dies than steel ones.

[kryogen]

I don't see a need anymore for ultra bright bling brass. It doesnt shoot any better than "regular clean brass".
I don't have enough free time.

[mdi]

How will the grit hurt the dies? You have brass, grit and carbide dies. The brass or grit are the softer of the three. I clean my brass, not to protect the dies; but to protect the brass. Plus clean brass sized easier.

I have one sizing die that has a bit of grit embedded in the ID. Every case run through it got a gouge in the length of the case. If the grit had been transferred to a case i think the grit may have become embedded in the chamber so now you have two screwed up components because of gritty brass.

I didn't tumble for the first 12 years I reloaded, I just wiped every case with a solvent dampened rag as I inspected it. No scratched dies, and I could spot any defects easily...