How do you guys make your brass shine??.

[garym1a2]

Me too, plus it makes it easier to size.

Walnut media and Nu Finish car polish!

[Swede44mag]

Lizard333:
How Much DOLLARS is the Stainless Steel Media and how do you clean it afterwards?

[BigBlack]

BB's, water, dawn, lemishine and 3 hours in thumler. Less time may have worked but I started it and then went to church. Here is some of the roughest I could find for a test. And no I would not use the brass it was just a test. SS media is about $50 per 5lb. I want some but for now the BB's I got from walmart works just fine. The only drawback to BB's is fighting off rust and they do not get the primer pockets like the tiny SS media does.

[-06]

Out of Semi Chrome Poli and using a bit of Wright's polish in the media. I tear a paper towel into four pieces and poke them into the media. They come out dirty black. Keeps the media clean a long time. To get rid of some of the dust I run it with the lid off a little bit--it sits outside my door on the patio to keep the dust down inside. Thanks for the tip on Lemon shine. Have been using vinegar on real dirty/coroded brass.

[RKJ]

I got the Lyman Ultra Sonic cleaner (on sale at Midway) and it cleans the brass inside and out. I don't have to use my tumbler but do as I like them to look new (yeah I'm kind of weird about some things).

[klutz347]

I don't? And it doesn't bother me. My tumbler gets the brass clean, I don't care about the shine.

Same here.

Maybe 1 hour in walnut media and that's it.

[Lizard333]

Lizard333:
How Much DOLLARS is the Stainless Steel Media and how do you clean it afterwards?

You can buy the media alone for 50 or 60 bucks. You dump all the dirty water and brass with the media into a brass separator. I got mine for my birthday from dillons. Works great.

[wgg]

Just add NU Finish Car wax and it will do the job.

[zomby woof]

The SS media looks nice. However, every time I've got my brass wet , to rinse off mud or whatever, I've regretted it. Too much of a pain to dry. I go through too much brass and too many different calibers. Waste of time. I could see it for special occasion corroded brass or something but not every day cleaning/polishing. We want clean, shiny is a preference (which I want).

I also don't Nu-finish. It certainly makes the brass feel good. It's nice and clean and slippery. We don't want slippery in our brass.

Here's what I do.

Brass cleaning
I like my brass clean and shiny. I have a one hour timer with two vibrating tumblers.

1. Put dirty brass in media separator, spin to remove dirt, grass un-burnt powder etc…
2. Place brass in walnut, polish (currently Fritz), fabric sheet and mineral spirits for one hour.
3. Remove from walnut and place in Corn cob, fabric sheet and polish for one hour.

It’s that simple. My brass is clean and shiny.

[Cap'n Morgan]

Someone set me straight on this; Mineral- or white spirits is that the same as turpentine?

[MtGun44]

Not exactly, but I don't think you can actually buy real turpentine anymore. It originally was
from pine trees, but some time back a turp substitute came out, and I now use "mineral
spirits" for cleaning paint brushes and such. In this application you are just looking for a
slow evaporating solvent, so any of these should work.

Bill

[bunkysdad]

For some reason when I saw this topic I thought there might be a lot of support for ultra-sonic cleaners, and I have been wanting to purchase one. It appears that they might not be as desirable as I was imagining, so can some of you elaborate on them from your experience please. I might rather spend that hundred bucks on molds and other goodies if the ultra-sonic is gonna be a waste.

[Alchemist]

For some reason when I saw this topic I thought there might be a lot of support for ultra-sonic cleaners, and I have been wanting to purchase one. It appears that they might not be as desirable as I was imagining, so can some of you elaborate on them from your experience please. I might rather spend that hundred bucks on molds and other goodies if the ultra-sonic is gonna be a waste.

If you are looking for bright shiny brass from an ultra-sonic, save your money. The brass will be clean, but not bright. It works best for busting the grunge from range brass that has been laying around for awhile. I was disappointed with the results on brass...but I'll be trying it on getting the carbon out of the AR-15 bolt carrier. I think it will do well for that.

[RKJ]

For some reason when I saw this topic I thought there might be a lot of support for ultra-sonic cleaners, and I have been wanting to purchase one. It appears that they might not be as desirable as I was imagining, so can some of you elaborate on them from your experience please. I might rather spend that hundred bucks on molds and other goodies if the ultra-sonic is gonna be a waste.

I truly like mine and use it a lot, but as Alchemist said they clean brass but don't polish. It cleans SS and makes it look brand new (I put my 629 in and it made me proud. I also use mine a lot for other parts and it cleans like you wouldn't believe. I would advise against putting anything in it with mediocre bluing on it as it will remove it. Oh well I was going to have it re-blued anyway. I am very pleased with mine and am very happy with it and feel it was money well spent.

[gofastman]

soak for an hour or two in 1:1 mix water and Simple Green PRO HD or Simple Green Extreme (same product, different label) I use a heated ultrasonic cleaner, but I'm sure a bucket or sink will work just fine.
Then tumble in Cabela's vibratory tumbler kit for a few hours.

That SS media kit looks cool!
Too bad I just bought the Cabela's kit, maybe I'll upgrade someday, in the not-so-near future, that is.

[snuffy]

The Hornady one shot ultrasonic cleaner solution works great! I'd give it 5 stars. A quart bottle should last for a long time, it's a concentrated citric acid with a bit of soap that's mixed 40 to 1. It will do many loads once it's mixed, it will get dirty, then it needs to be tossed out.

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct...tNumber=711474

If you've got some brass that's been exposed to lots of rain, it'll look black, that's discolored brass, not corrosion. The US cleaned with the Hornady one shot cleaner will take that black off, leaving clean bright brass. It will NOT be shiny, to get that knock yer eyes out shine, you need to tumble in corn cob with some sort of abrasive made for brass.

The US cleaner with the Hornady stuff will get every bit of primer residue out of d-primed brass. Also, all the carbon INSIDE the brass. My HF cleaner needs 3-8 minute sessions to clean up the crustiest brass. Some say that's too much bother to keep track of turning it back on, I say so what? I have the cleanest brass around, especially after a tumble with 20-40 corn cobb and flitz tumbler additive.

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct...tNumber=816895

Get the 20-40 corn cobb from drill spot . com. They're the retail arm of grainger, it's much finer than the stuff you normally find at gun shops. The lizard bedding stuff from pet stores is way too big for small cases like .223 up to .270. It'll jam in the cases so tight, you'll be picking it out all night rather than be loading them.

[bobthenailer]

IF your tumbler can be used with a liquid ? use bb gun bbs & joy dish washing detergent & the rest water if theres tarnshing add some lemon juice & tumbel for 1 hour . been doing it this way for over 30 years ! i use a vibrator with corn cob and flitz polish to put on the final polish for protection but it is not usually needed .

[G__Fred]

Unfortunately there is no secret, just trial and error (and a notebook)!

I use 3 parts Walnut to 1 part Lyman’s Red Polish.

Initial: I make the mix and tumble w/o brass and with lots of cut up dryer sheets (to remove the dust).

When it is time, I place the Brass in a coffee can (my home made tumbler), add 1.5 cups of the media, a few cut-up dryer sheet pieces. Run for 6-hours, SPOTLESS!

[Discipulus Plumbum]

Hi all - new here - first post. Have been "lurking" for some time wanting to get into casting.

I'm one of those guys who likes clean & shiny and like some of you, I started using SS media (already had an RCBS Sidewinder tumbler). After doing a little internet research, I found the company that makes the SS pins (cut wire shot). They sell it direct for half of what I saw quoted in the above relplies. A five pound bag is $25 and $5 shipping - ten pounds was the same shipping charge - so I bought two bags. The company is Pellets LLC in Tonawanda, NY. (716) 693-1750 - <pelletsllc.com>. Tell the nice lady that answers the phone you want it for cleaning brass and she knows the right size to send you.

I have had great results with very dirty brass - some I picked up on the range just to see how clean it would get. Could not tell the difference between my once fired and the stuff that looked like it had been on the ground for several months.

I also have had less than optimal results - clean but not very shiny. Probably let it tumble too long and the brass reacted with the water/soap/Lema Shine mixture and it came out looking tarnished.

My $.02 - Am sure I will be back for some research/advise when I start melting ingots and pouring my own.

[milprileb]

I like clean brass, shiny is okay too but I am not going to run brass in any wet solution and have to get it dried. Not a issue with a low shooting volume but I shoot a ton of ammo and its just something that makes good sense to me.

Been cleaning brass over 30 yrs with walnut hulls and sometimes Nu Finish added, its been a good solution for me. Never had a second thought to change it for anything that makes brass wet.

You can make t his brass cleaning a real PITA if you work at it !!