Alan in Vermont
07-08-2014, 10:24 PM
In my range scavenging I amassed quite a bunch of brass that had been trod into the sand and been exposed to quite a few heavy rains. The sand that stuck to the outside was no big deal, let it dry thoroughly then sake it vigorously in my media separator and it would clean up fine. The problem was with a fairly high percentage of the cases there was a deposit of really fine sediment that had washed in the and when it dried it would not come off. Tumbling (vibratory) would only serve to polish it in place. Couldn't have that!
There was no easy way to wash it out. Maybe a wet tumbler would have worked but I don't have one and don't really want to buy one, Thumler "B"s are expensive.
My cure was a crushed stone product used as fertilizer filler. Limestone bits 1/8" and smaller. No stone dust to speak of but I washed it thoroughly and oven dried it before I used it.
I just finished my first batch. Used just enough stone to just barely cover the brass as it tumbles. That seemed to be enough to fill the cases as they got covered and still let them spill the stone out as they came back to the top. 45 minutes was enough to clean the insides very nicely and leave the outside sort of satin finished. Where there was tarnish starting it's probably 50% gone.
When I get this lot, probably 18-20 pounds of 9mm, run through I'll run it again to brighten the exterior to get rid of the satin appearance and it should be good to go.
There was no easy way to wash it out. Maybe a wet tumbler would have worked but I don't have one and don't really want to buy one, Thumler "B"s are expensive.
My cure was a crushed stone product used as fertilizer filler. Limestone bits 1/8" and smaller. No stone dust to speak of but I washed it thoroughly and oven dried it before I used it.
I just finished my first batch. Used just enough stone to just barely cover the brass as it tumbles. That seemed to be enough to fill the cases as they got covered and still let them spill the stone out as they came back to the top. 45 minutes was enough to clean the insides very nicely and leave the outside sort of satin finished. Where there was tarnish starting it's probably 50% gone.
When I get this lot, probably 18-20 pounds of 9mm, run through I'll run it again to brighten the exterior to get rid of the satin appearance and it should be good to go.