if you are going to use Lemi-shine do not follow the Dishwasher directions unless you live alone...
You might find a world of hurt and pain should you load a basket of brass into the dishwasher...
1/4 tsp Lemi
1/2 tsp Lemi
1 tsp Lemi
1-1/2 tsp Lemi
1 Tbsp Lemi
More Lemi
30 Min Tumble
60 Min Tumble
90 Min Tumble
120 Min Tumble
180 Min Tumble
Longer Tumble
if you are going to use Lemi-shine do not follow the Dishwasher directions unless you live alone...
You might find a world of hurt and pain should you load a basket of brass into the dishwasher...
All to 1 Gal of tap Water. Iam in Texas and the waters harder than a wood peckers lips
1.5 Tbl Spoons Dawn
1.5 Tbl Spoons Yellow Meguiars Wash and Wax
1/4 Tbl Spoon of Lemi Shine
1 Table spoon of Cream of Tartar
up to 120 minutes in tumbler
rinse soap off in sink
Shake Dry in towel vigorously
Bottle neck cases are dried on plastic pegboard drilled out to neck size
Pistol Cases are dried standing up on paper plate
Results are brass that shines like a diamond in a goatsazz and spotless primer pockets
F.A.R.T., three quarters full of pistol brass. Cold outside tap water almost up to the neck of the container. A tablespoon of Armor All Wash and Wax, a teaspoon and a half of citric acid, NO pins. 90 minutes, several water rinses, several turns in the separator to get the majority of the water out of the cases, a quick towel dry and out in the sun to completely air dry. Bright and sparkly, outside, and clean enough inside.
I do this at my club (hence the lack of hot water on the range, otherwise I might be able to use less citric acid and car wash mix)). The ninety minute run is long enough to let me get in some practice while cleaning the brass, short enough that I can get the drying done before I leave, and, if I'm industrious enough to start early, I even have time to use my club's automated brass sizing machine.
Last edited by kevin c; 10-13-2018 at 03:31 AM.
Don't have a wet tumble but I hand shake in a plastic jar with hot water, soap, Lemishine for about .5hr to 1hr while I cruise the forums or watch TV. Rinse with hot water, towel dry then place in old toaster oven for 30min at 200*, leave them in until cool to touch then run them for another 30/45min in dry tumbler with cobb and Cabela's additive. Clean, dry and presentable.
kevin c - You could drag a Coleman stove there to heat the water, just an idea. Heat makes the Citric work better and faster; Or a small hot water pot would do also.
I'll have to try using a wash/wax car wash soap in the harbor freight tumbler. I've been dry tumbling mine after wet tumbling in order to get the water spots off fron when they dry.
RCBS tumbler, 50 pistol size cases, 5 pounds of SS pins, 1 litre of water, 25 ml Cascade dish washing machine detergent powder, 5 ml TSP, 5 ml Lemi-shine. Tumble 90 min and check them sometimes I change the water at 90 min. If I add auto wax it’s Simonize wash and wax added by soaking during the rinse. Adding too much citric acid and soaking the cases too long in the acid will make them turn a pinkish colour. I remove the primers and scrape clean the primer pockets prior to tumbling.
I haven't used my Lemi Shine yet, but today, I did a load of rifle brass with Citric acid...~2 1/2 tsp, several drops of Dawn liquid detergent in an 8" Lock N Lock bowl. I filled the bowl with hot tap water to almost cover the brass, then followed with some nearly boiling water water...to cover the brass fully. I agitated it for maybe 30 sec.-1 minute, then every couple of minutes...for a total of about 10 minutes soak time. As you can tell, this is not a precision operation, but it got the job done. I then dried the brass in the oven at its lowest temperature...170 degrees for a couple of hours. Done! I like this method! It even took care of the KROIL I soaked the brass in to deactivate the primers before I decapped them. Lemi Shine would probably work as well.
Soaked the primers in what? I had some that were in water for a week. They all fired!! First one scared the you know what outa me.
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So two different kinds of acid? Interesting. Never thought to try tartaric acid before I went to Lemishine. I know a lotta folks use citric and I had trouble finding it until I realized that was Lemi (mostly) is.
How does that work out for ya? Were you using it before Lemi Shine or add it recently or ???
I use about one half casing from a 380 or 9mm of Lemi to the gallon or so when I think I _need_ it. Most newish brass doesn't even really need it unless I see REALLY bad primer pocket scum or have older brass that's been sitting around a while.
Hot water, 1 tsp. Lemishine, squirt of Dawn and 30 minutes in the large HF ultrasonic cleaner.
I have REALLY hard water (even through the softener) so mine gets a BIG squirt of Dawn and a Generous shake of Lemi-Shine (I don't measure anything). I have 50 Starline .44 Special brass that have been run through the wet/pin method twice and still don't have anything resembling a shine. They had a "funny" stain on them after they were shot the first time, I don't remember what powder/primer combo I used with this bunch, they got mixed with another batch of load trial brass, it was one of three possibilities.
i use 3.7cc of lemishine (its a lee powder dipper), a squirt or two blue dawn/palmolive, 1lb of ss pins and warm water on my harbor freight rock tumbler with a 4" piece of plastic pipe.
1/4 tsp Lemi Shine
3 drops of Dawn
Tumbler is a 4" x 12" piece of PVC with a cap on one and and a rubber clean out plug on the other.
Fill with cases anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 of container.
Fill with water to within one inch from top of container.
Tumbler turns at approx. 45 rpm
Tumbler set for 2 hours, everything has always came out clean in that time.
Works for me.
Last edited by Steve E; 11-05-2018 at 11:04 AM.
NRA Endowment Life Member
GOA Life Member
North American Hunting Club Life Member
I just came back to this thread. Y'know, I do keep my range scrap melting rig at the club, a double jet burner Bayou Classic with a propane tank pot that D Crockett says holds three gallons. And the club just bought a small cement mixer. Wow, I could go industrial, do half a five gallon bucket of brass at a time, and in half the time using steaming hot wash solution. Both the concept and the brass will be dazzling!
I just had my first disappointment with wet tumbling. I tumbled some brass that was dark and stained from laying in some leaves. I though a little more LemiShine might be helpful so I used 1-1/2 of a 9mm case rather than the normal single 9mm case. The brass came out clean but no where near as shiney as normal. The addition of more LemiShine was the only different thing that I did to this batch. So I guess that you really need to balance the LemiShing with your water type.
My formula for a Thumlers 15# drum is a cap full of Armorall wash and wax, a 9mm case full of LemiShine and enough water to cover the cases a few inches. 2 hours gets all but the worst cases looking better than new.
Are you using a media like SS pins or whatever????
I use the SS chips, and they are aggressive in their cleaning.
Plain water would work, but I use citric acid, Dawn, and some automotive wash and wax, all in small amounts.
The chips cut the time down to under one hour. I am seeing how short I can go, but I am thinking 20 to 30 minutes. Right now at 45 minutes, way clean. Also, I use distilled water. The water here is not so good. And I have the bottles to fill and shoot.
Last edited by jmort; 11-23-2018 at 10:37 AM.
2 gal bucket DIY tumbler
2 tsp citric acid
4 squirts dawn
7 # stainless pins
1/2 full of brass
95% full of hot water
I normally go 2-3 hours but -- forgot and went 5
Purty.
At 3 hours I see noticeable roughening of the mouth, so I am backing it off to 2 hours. This is with a Thumbler's Model B. YMMV.
I just got an $11 timer to run my tumbler. No more "oops forgot" for me. Hmm maybe I need one on my lube heater too...
I give loading advice based on my actual results in factory rifles with standard chambers, twist rates and basic accurizing.
My goals for using cast boolits are lots of good, cheap, and reasonably accurate shooting, while avoiding overly tedious loading processes.
The BHN Deformation Formula, and why I don't use it.
How to find and fix sizing die eccentricity problems.
Do you trust your casting thermometer?
A few musings.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |