Lemi Shine - How Much, How Long

[243winxb]

None. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-brass-cleaner

[gnostic]

Where did I go wrong, my brass turned pink?

[doulos]

Ive never tried Lemi-shine. Didnt have any on hand. So I just tossed 2 caps of bottled lemon juice into the Thumblers along with a squirt of Dawn. Tumbled for 2 hrs. The brass came out awesome. Looks brand new inside and out. We are all overthinking this.

[Conditor22]

gnostic, we need more details and a picture would be nice to help you.

I'm thinking you left the brass soaking in lemishine/citric acid to long after it got done tumbling

[lightman]

Where did I go wrong, my brass turned pink?

Pink brass sounds like too much Citric Acid. It takes very little. It depends on your water hardness but a 380 or 9mm case is plenty in a 15# drum. I started a thread a few weeks ago about my brass occasionally coming out dull. I about decided that I left in in the solution too long when it quit tumbling. I now note the start time and empty it pretty quickly when it stops.

[MUSTANG]

Where did I go wrong, my brass turned pink?

As stated above; too long in the cleaner. Acid will attack the sink in the brass, and the pink is micro etching of the surface brass after the zink in the surface layer was reduced. Long term tumbling in media will reduce the pink color; but one would have to polish the case with 000, or 0000 steel wool to get rid of the pink color (removing the micro top layer of the brass).

I also find this happening with range brass I pick up that has become discolored from prolonged exposure such as under the snow for a winter. When cleaned in ultra sound with Lemi-Shine for too long it will turn pink sometimes.

[gnostic]

gnostic, we need more details and a picture would be nice to help you.

I'm thinking you left the brass soaking in lemishine/citric acid to long after it got done tumbling

I wish I knew how to post photos... I soaked the dirty cases in Lemi Shine and Dawn for about an hour, they looked cleaner, but not like the ones in the photo. I re soaked them in tap water and left them in the sun to dry. They dried with a pink cast.

[gnostic]

Thanks for responding... I think Lightman and Mustang have it right, I soaked them in too strong a solution and for too long. I normally clean my brass by tumbling in corn cob that I buy online. Cases cleaned in the corn cob mix, don't seem to last as long as they did when I wiped them off and reloaded them. The cases that turned pink, I ran through the Dillon and they shot fine...

[ioon44]

"I also find this happening with range brass I pick up that has become discolored from prolonged exposure such as under the snow for a winter."

Brass like described will turn pink with citric acid cleaning and brass that is not discolored from prolonged exposure comes out bright and clean after being wet tumbled at the same time, but doesn't matter when loading and shooting.

[T_McD]

I have not used pins as brass on brass seemed to get the job done. I started just using hot water and dawn and that worked great. added some lemishine and could see no difference, especially long term. all my brass that I wet tumbled has tarnished some with time. dawn and water for the win

[Bayou52]

I've been wet tumbling for years with jewelry like results. However, I shoot and reload so often that perfect results just aren't called for.

In the past year or so from my last post to this thread, for my everyday/plinking rounds, I've saved a lot of time and effort by not been wet tumbling them. Instead, I just soak them in accord with the following recipe:

1. After decapping, put the brass on a plastic bucket and add 1 ounce of Persil brand detergent. This stuff is much more intense than Dawn, Tide or any other detergent I've ever used. It is definitely different - even the water feels different once it's mixed in - feels slippery, slick and thicker.

2. Add a spackling/shake of Lemi-Shine and cover everything with hot tap water,

3. Agitate the brass a couple of times while it is soaking. Soak for an hour or so then rinse in cold water.

The brass comes out quite shiney - way good enough for reloading everyday stuff. After the brass is put through a sizing die, it shines even more.

Just FYI -

Bayou52

[Dieselhorses]

All "brass" is not created equal. As I am still working to perfect my homemade, 1HP, variable speed tumbler and an acceptable, ribbed tub for it, I'm still using the dual HF one. At any rate, I size and decap everything before cleaning. Sometimes this involves lube like lanolin/isopropyl alcohol and this leaves a residue. To cut down on the time and possibly having to changing water in tubs, I'll spray the brass down with brake cleaner-just enough to get the majority of lube off. My pins are SS but I cut each and every one (1/4") from 3/32" rods to make around 5 lbs. Out of all the recipes thus far, it stands true about covering brass with water, a few squirts of Dawn and a pinch of LS. One recipe I've found included salt and white vinegar but I didn't see a difference with that. Remember to always check for stuck SS pins after washing/drying! Don't know what kind of effect one would have going down the bore.

[jmort]

A dash of Lemi Shine, a dash of Meguiar's G17748 Ultimate Wash & Wax
30 minutes of rotation with the chips. An hour with pins.

[Tripplebeards]

I use 1/4 tsp of lemi shine and 1 TSP of dish washing liquid and fill tap water to the top in my HF double rock tumbler containers. I tumble for at least 4 hours..sometimes more. My brass comes out like picture perfect shiny gold. I picked up a 25 oz box of Lemon scented Utra Shine from the dollar store to try since I couldnt find lemi shine today. I will see how my brass turns out. I will try a whole Tsp of it since I read it was weaker then Lemi shine. If it looks as nice and shiny it sure beats $4 to $7 for a 12 oz bottle of lemi shine. The white crystals look identical.

[Tripplebeards]

Here is the results of the dollar store knock off. It didn’t completely clean some of the primer pockets after almost 10 hours of tumbling. One of the brass pieces still has some lightly oxidized spots that weren’t even removed. I checked my brass after 3.5 hours and it looked exactly the same as it does now. I even dumped out all the dirty water at 3.5 hours after I inspected the brass. I then added all new water along with another Tablespoon of dishwashing liquid and teaspoon of the knock off lemi shine and tumbled up till now. The brass has a satin look to it and feels more textured than a nice smooth finish like with using the lemi shine. I’ll spend the extra couple bucks to get nice shiny brass because I’m OCD but if somebody’s looking to save money it definitely works you just won’t get shiny brass and the primer pockets aren’t perfectly cleaned like they always are with lemi shine. It was just a little bit of carbon buildup in chunks in spots in a few of the primer holes. All in all, it still cleans the brass and primer pockets good enough if someone can’t find lemi shine.

[jorg0370]

I'm still tweaking my setup for cleaning brass, but I have sent through over a thousand rounds. I repurposed a free treadmill and some spare parts to tumble a two quart container from the Dollar Tree store.

Using less Lemi-Shine seems to be better than more, and not for too long either. Seems like the brass turns dull if there's too much Lemi-Shine, and pink if it's in there for too long.

The best results I have seen are when I dump in four pounds of stainless steel pins, a tablespoon of Dawn dish soap, a quarter teaspoon of Lime-Shine, 200 cases of dirty decapped brass, and then filled with tap water into the container. Quantities are approximations. I tumble that for at least an hour, maybe two, and then rinse a few times before separating from a pasta collander into a five gallon bucket, and drying. I'll store the mostly dry cases in ziplok bags with a bag of silica gel to remove the last bits of water.

[ubetcha]

I don't really measure. Just fill the ultrasonic with hot water ,throw in the brass, sprinkle some citric acid in ,and a few drops of dawn and run until it looks clean. Tumble in vibrator when the cases are dry until I remember I left the tumbler on or the timer turns it off. I like clean brass going through my dies. Also I find it's easier to spot cracked cases when clean.

[bmortell]

Heres my oldest dirtiest 44 special cases i had, tumbled yesterday in a small tumbler that holds 50 with pins, 1/4 tsp citric acid, drop dawn. Only did about 30 min to be good enough to look good. After i fill and pour water off several times to dilute untill its clear. To seperate i have the tumbler full of water and pull cases out mouth down, pins fall out instantly when submerged and mouth down. I then put them on a towel and roll them back and forth in it. Then mix a squirt of nu finish in my corn cob tumbler, dump the cases in and the tiny bit of water left inside gets absorbed and the outside gets polished and waxed. This step was also short only about 20 min since i was busy, But it can get more reflective with longer times these are more a shiny matte finish

[1hole]

I've been reading a lot of threads on wet tumbling, hoping to fine tune for the best/easiest results. The one common denominator for almost everyone seems to be Lemi-Shine (or citric acid), but the the quantity used to seems to vary a lot.

Curious to hear what you think is the correct amount, and if you think/know there are ill effects or just plain wastage from using too much.

Same for how long you tumble. I'm sure that experience has told you how long is enough to get the maximum shine, and how long is just a waste of electricity/wear on the machine.

This isn't a science and we can't answer your questions the way you wish. We don't know how tarnished your cases are nor do we know what dissolved chemicals may be found in your water. Just use whatever solution strength you like and leave it soaking (or tumbling) until you get the results you want, you'll quickly get your own answers.

[Tripplebeards]

I just found the updated lemi shine boost. I experimented with the above cases that I used the $1 store knock off lemi shine on. I cleaned the residue left on the cases from the $1 store tumble with an apple cider vinegar soak....it was the only vinegar I had and after a half hour it did nothing. I threw the cases in with a 1/4 tsp of lemishine this time (forgot it was 1/4 tsp instead of the 1tsp with the knock off I tried) and a TBS of $1 store dish washing liquid. I had some errands to run so I let it tumble from 10:30 am to 5:30pm. The case in front was with 10 hours of the $1 store knock off lemi shine. You can see it already started oxidizing even more after a couple days. That doesn’t happen with the original lemi shine for me ever. You can see oxidation on it as well as tarnish. The original lemi shine beats it hands down. The super shiny Lemi shine cases are in the background. After four hours they normally are just as shiny and primer pockets squeaky clean.




Here the pic of the $1 store knock off lemi shine from post #75 using 1 tsp of the off brand abs a TSP of dish washing liquid for comparison...




The knock off lemi shine didn’t clean the primer pockets or insides of the cases completely along with leaving some oxidation on the cases. It still works good enough but I like shiny cases and primer pockets and at a 1/4 Tsp a tumble it lasts a long time. It took me 6 years to burn up a 12oz bottle of lemi shine even after polishing garbage barrels full of range brass the last couple of summer with it. I’m sure the new $8, 24 oz bottle will last me a good decade or more.