LEMI-SHINE Alternative?

[Cranium]

This is what I purchased. Ships from Grainger but costs a little less oddly enough.
http://www.drillspot.com/products/49...bs_blast_media

[MtGun44]

Yikes! FAR away from home now so can't look at the bag, and I forget which one. I
think it was the 20/40 but not certain. IIRC smaller is better.

Do a search on Graingers and corn cob here, I did not come up with this, this is info
from Mike in Co, he is the brass polishing guru.

I found a reference to PN 2mvr4, does this match what you are looking at?

OK, found it. "14/20 blasting media" add the NuFinish and you will be amazed, I
am sure.

Again - Mike in Co is the source, he cleans and sells brass for a living and this is
quicker and you have to see the results to believe how nice it looks and FEELS.
For somebody selling, this will really please the customers, just like new, literally.

Bill

[Safeshot]

For small quantities of Citric Acid a handy source and availability is Walmart. The "Great Value" brand of unsweetened Lemonade Drink Mix is 98% Citric Acid, costs $0.10 per .25 oz. package that makes 2 Quarts of Lemonade. Might be good for 1 quart or 1 pint of Case Cleaner. A little dish washing detergent might be added to improve it. Kool Aid brand Lemonade mix is "Similar" and is available for $0.20 per package.

I have not tried this as a Case Cleaner yet. I will try to "get to it" and try it Thursday or Friday. I will report on the results, Safeshot

[BoolitBill]

Has anyone tried Cream of Tartar? About 1/2 teaspoon in a Thumbler tumbler filled with water and your brass. Cheaper when bought in bulk. Works great for me!

[Longwood]

For small quantities of Citric Acid a handy source and availability is Walmart. The "Great Value" brand of unsweetened Lemonade Drink Mix is 98% Citric Acid, costs $0.10 per .25 oz. package that makes 2 Quarts of Lemonade.

I tried it today.
Thanks Safeshot for the tip.
It works extremely well. Four cycles of 4 minutes and I have nice clean brass, primer pockets and all.

[RP]

Try about any dishwasher additive like jet dry or a knock off I have gotten good results using them.

[Safeshot]

I have tried the "Great Value Lemonade Mix" (citric acid) (like "Kool Aid" mix) from Walmart in warm water with a little "Dawn" dish washing liquid. It did work to clean some very tarnished and dirty brass that I had. I do not think that it worked much if any better than Distilled White Vinegar in warm water with a little "Dawn" dish washing liquid. It may be "easier" on the brass or less "damaging".

[lgvenable]

Guys
All the citric acid does is remove all oxides and carbonates, to expose base metal brass. Period. This clean oxide free metal can be polished using any typical cleaner or polish, avoiding ammonia based polishes.

This is well documented out at places like finishing.com, where all they do is pre-clean metals of every type. In the truest sense, the surface is not passivated, as that would require something nastier like nitric acid.

That said, use a high quality USP grade citric acid to make a solution. The use of 28 grams /gallon works well (thats 1 oz per gallon). Since your using a very large excess of citric acid, the reaction is pushed to completion. If you use less concentrated citric, you can expect slower results.

Hot water use will increase the reactivity of the citric acid, for every 10 degrees centigrade the reaction rate doubles ( thats true for every chemical reaction/part of thermodynamics). So 160 to 180 degree F water will give a 8 fold increase in reaction speed, aka removal of the oxides and carbonates on the surface of brass.

go here for usp citric acid, or find another via Google...
http://www.ingredientstodiefor.com/item.php?item_id=39

After this it becomes the use of your favorite way to shine up the brass, without ammonia. Personally I think the use of small pieces of stainless steel will give the best surface without any real removal of metal. Thats my personal bias though.That said every gun site I go to had long threads on cleaning brass, and this is pretty much as straight an answer as you'll get.

One last thing, rinsing the brass with water which has gone though ion exchange resin will gve you a spot free finish, you could also use the spot free water made by the Mr Clean product for cars to rinse the brass and leave a spot free finish.

[WildmanJack]

Just did my first load of brass in an old Thumlers Tumbler I think the 9 pound model. Anyway, I used the stainless steel instead of ceramic media.
#1 Sure came out of the bottle neck cases way faster than the ceramic media did..LOL...
#2 Absolutely the cleanest cases I have ever seen except new ones. Even the primer pockets are clean as new...
I used a little too much Dawn and a squirt of Cascade dishwasher additive, the one that keeps the dishes and glasses spotless!!
Worked amazing and I only tumbled for about 3 hours..
Jack.

[MtGun44]

The surface is passivated by citric acid, if by passivation, you mean removal of embedded foreign material that
will form an electrolytic cell and cause localized corrosion. This is the purpose of passivation with stainless steel,
the place where I have seen it used in industrial processing for corrosion resistance.

Actually, nitric acid is being replaced for stainless steel passivation by citric acid in many shops. Works as well
or better, harmless and easy to dispose of.

Bill