Citric acid brass cleaner

[Ole Joe Clarke]

I use the citric acid from Walmart with a little dawn dish washing liquid mixed in. I don't heat it up, I just let the cases soak about 15 minutes and rinse them off. Then I spread them on a cookie sheet and place them in front of the AC vent in the music/reloading room. Works really good for me.

[toallmy]

Used the citric and hot water on some brass works like a champ primer pockets and all.I have been using vinegar ,water salt and down but I was concerned about damage to the brass. But I am now having trouble with the brass being to clean . When I run the clean brass into my lee powder through die to expand the case it is sticking and I have to really snatch it out hard and then I am concerned the powder charge is thrown out of the little 9mm case. Now I need to find some kind of liquid polishes to rinse the brass in after citric cleaning for smother loading. Has anyone got some ideas. I know I should get a case tumbler but I hate sitting there and watching it jiggle around. I gave my younger brother my last case tumbler I might go visit hem with big box of brass and some pollish. This makes me think I might be lazy about cleaning my brass .

[62chevy]

Used the citric and hot water on some brass works like a champ primer pockets and all.I have been using vinegar ,water salt and down but I was concerned about damage to the brass. But I am now having trouble with the brass being to clean . When I run the clean brass into my lee powder through die to expand the case it is sticking and I have to really snatch it out hard and then I am concerned the powder charge is thrown out of the little 9mm case. Now I need to find some kind of liquid polishes to rinse the brass in after citric cleaning for smother loading. Has anyone got some ideas. I know I should get a case tumbler but I hate sitting there and watching it jiggle around. I gave my younger brother my last case tumbler I might go visit hem with big box of brass and some pollish. This makes me think I might be lazy about cleaning my brass .

Rinse your brass 3 or 4 times after cleaning. Could also be you are flaring more than needed. I clean in this solution and then tumble after they dry and the 45 acp will stick some because my Lee powder through die is rough. My other Lee dies work just fine.

[toallmy]

Might try polishing powder through die will see if that helps .o I changed out inside of the powder through die with a 38 s/w expander to help with shaving lead .I better take it out and look at it .Thanks.

[Pee Wee]

Did anyone mention lemmyshine

[62chevy]

Did anyone mention lemmyshine

Yes many times but may have been spelled differently.

[ncbluedot]

Let me also chime in as a fan of the citric acid bath. I procure my CA at the local home brewing supply store. My son recommended not mixing citric acid and dish washing soap since the soap is a base and the two are working against each other. I'm an accountant, what do I know? Any how, after I dip my brass in citric acid, I rinse with plain water then dump in a bath of soapy water, rinse a couple more times then dry in the sun. The dish soap seems to clean any left over crud in the primer pocket and remove any remaining greasy blackness on the case from using Unique (don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan but it seems a wee bit dirty). My two cents.

[toallmy]

This citric acid stuff works . I picked up a old r.c.b.s. 150 kt swc 357 mold off of ebay . It was supper grimie ,but no rust or scratches looked like it was put up 20 years ago Greased up but got grimmer . I had a 2 quart bucket of citric acid mixed up from brass cleaning so I warned it up and went to cleaning up the old mold soaking and scrubbing over and over with a old toothbrush. It came out looking like a brand new mold it completely removed everything including the finish I sit it on a burner to dry it out and it startled to flash rust but I rubbed it up with some 2 stroke oil real good and sit it up for the night. It was clean to bear metal . After I got my set of handles I took it to the basement and gave it a good heat treatment in the lead cooker lubed her up and went to pouring some nice looking .359-.360 bullets . That was what I was looking for I wanted an older mold because of concerns of new mold dimension . It worked out real nice .

[GhostHawk]

After reading a good chunk of this thread I had my wife pick me up some cheap citric acid from the dollar store. 1 ice cream pail, about 75 very grungy .223 brass, a quart of hot water, a sprinkling of citric acid, and a few drops of dawn turned me into a real believer!

I did take each piece of brass and wiped it clean dry with a cotton towel, I doubt I'd of had to. But what little grunge remained after several rinses came right off with the towel.

Turned me into a real believer.

Inexpensive, easy, not really time intensive, with awesome looking clean brass as the end result. Thank you to ALL!

[toallmy]

Yep what he said. I hadbeen using vinegar water dawn and salt but it was hard on the brass the citric acid seams less harmful on the brass. I don't tumble my brass . But I would like to find a good liquid pollish , the brass is to clean squeaky clean. If that makes sense.

[blueeyephil]

Now is a good time to begin watching the clearance racks at Tractor Supply and WalMart and others. Canning supplies will soon be taken off the main shelves.

[AllanD]

Please don't think i'm totally nuts, but today I cut some rhubarb for making sauce; knowing how tart it is, I made a slit in a stalk and stuck 1/2 of a really tarnished penny into the slit. In three minutes the half in the rhubarb was bright. After I cooked down the rhubarb I poured off a little of the now pink liquid (minus the pulp) into a dish and added two tarnished pennies. The result was the same bright pennies. The conclusion of these experiments was to add sufficient sugar to taste to the remaining infusion and refridgerate for later consumption. A search showed oxalic acid as the poison in the leaves and I remember oxalic acid as a bleach for stained wood, but what chemistry is at work in the juice of the rhubarb stalk? This is not a spoof posting. I do not plan large scale production, but where are my range pick up cases? John

Oxalic acid is the chemical agent at work, it can be found in the cleaning isle of your grocery store as "Barkeepers Friend"

Many of the organic acids are employed as corrosion removers, Citric as is discussed in this topic,
Acetic (Vinegar).
I've employed a mixture of Acetic & Malic acids to remove rust from steel.

And for the record (referencing several comments in the first several pages
Ascorbic OR Citric acids will prevent fruit from browning.

De-rusting steels work well with several other acids.
Hydrochloric will remove rust while you watch, but will turn a virulent yellow color,
from the Ferric Chloric created

it must be noted that Ferric Chloride is used as an etchant for copper in the manufacture
of printed circuit boards and it etches nickel nearly as well... it is used by coin collectors to
raise worn out dates on coins (particularly on Buffalo Nickels)

[sliphammer]

I've been using citric for a couple of years now. Sorry I didn't know about it 40 years back.

[AllanD]

Be aware Acetic acid and Hydrogen Peroxide will also create a particularly nasty lead compound Lead Acetate,
which is argueably one of the most "bioavailable" lead compounds... so use care in choosing where you dump it...

On another test mixed 1/2 peroxide 40 volume with 1/2 vinegar,removes lead real good . used some of this on an AK copper coated steel case in 15 minutes it ate all the copper off,that was yesterday and the case hasn't rusted yet so I dont know if thats a problem or not. Turns lead to mush.

[toallmy]

Yes that is how I cleaned my auto berals of lead whean I was working out sizing cast for my guns. 50/50hydrogen peroxide and vinegar . A have the mix in a mason jar and drop the beral in for a couple minutes and swab it out with ease ,but take the time to clean and oil up afterward. But onely stanless it will harm a blues finish.

[dudel]

Well, I'm sold! I picked up a bottle of Ball's Citric acid (in the canning section of WalMart) for about $3. I put 500 9mm cases into a plastic shoe box. Added about 1 TBSP of the Citric acid powder in the with the brass. I added enough hot water that the brass was submerged about 3 inches. Agitated the box by shaking it in the sink. Water began to get dirty almost immediately (and these were already tumbled cases)! I left the brass in for about 10 minutes. Rinsed well, and put the brass out to dry in the sun on a towel (I have a powder coat oven that should work well for drying). The brass looked great, and the pockets and inside the case were much cleaner. Figuring that the citric acid bath removed any corrosion protection, I gave the brass a quick tumble in corncob media with some NuFinish.

Next time, I'll just start with the Citric acid wash, and finish in the tumbler to get some corrosion protection on the brass.

This was easy, cheap and fast. Normally you only get to pick two of the three. My plans to go with steel pins and liquid cleaning are over.

[Ole Joe Clarke]

I use the citric acid in cold water, just leave the brass in the solution a little longer. Then I rinse in cold water and put them in front of the AC vent to dry.

[toallmy]

Is I said earlier ,I had been using vinegar,water,salt and dawn , but it is hard on the brass . So I switched to the citric acid it is working out pretty well and it gives me more time with the vinegar you have to stay right on it or you start getting pink brass and that's bad... last night I tried rinsing the brass off with automotive liquid car wash and wax. After the citric bath. This time I put some dawn in with the citric acid and i an not shore it helped but I don't think it hurt . I left some brass in the citric acid bucket going to look at it after 6 hours and after 12 hours . Just to see man I hate to clean all those primer pockets .

[Walstr]

Citric acid in warm water replaced my dusty tumbler process for sure. With a new batch of grnd walnut, I added "Dillon Lube" to 'polish' all brass after cleaning. I confirmed w/Dillon that their case lube containing Lanolin will NOT adversely affect primer or powder. [See their response to my query on their site.]

So far it's da bomb! No re-sizer sticking & smoother operation, no hazardous dust.

[dougader]

If anyone is familiar with how nasty brass cases can get when loaded with W296 or other ball powders as in 357, 44 mag and 454, then you know that hours of tumbling will not remove that seemingly bead-blasted grunge. I've tumbled cases like this over 12 hours and they never get clean.

Well, 10 minutes in a warm citric acid bath and then 30 minutes in corn cobb with polish makes the cases shine like new. After the ca bath, I rinse the cases 3 times in hot tap water and then dry them in the sun. That's when they get the tumbling.

I only do this with the magnum-stained cases. All others get put away after drying from the ca bath..

I processed 300 once-fired Hornady 480 Ruger cases I picked up from Max Prasac, a tester of the new Ruger Super Blackhawk 480. They were pretty stained on the exterior from the magnum powder burns. Now they look like new.