Brass cleaning idea ????

[finattic]

OK guys I have an uncle with whom I shoot with whenever I get the chance. He is pushing 80 and still loves all of it, reloading, bullet casting and shooting. We have started gathering parts for a wet tumbler and he has an idea. Since he was a body man in body shops for nearly 45 years He and I are wondering if a paint shaker would clean the brass. His idea is a gallon can 3/4 full of brass and fill with water and add dawn and lemon shine and shake the stuffing out of them. I found today that harbor freight has one of a little over 100.00 and is air operated. Has anyone tried this and did you have any luck or what

Thanks
Alan

[44Vaquero]

Sure it will work! Add some SS pins and the results will be outstanding! 1/2 to 2/3 full bass and just enough water to cover the brass. Easy on the Lemi-Shine very small amount!

[rfd]

got a bud who uses a paint shaker to clean brass. works great for him, but oh the noise that thing makes!

[rodsvet]

For the price of the shaker and pins, you could just about pick up a FART at midway. I think they were just on sale for $160 including the pins.

[bedbugbilly]

We had paint shakers in our family lumberyard for years. Never really thought about it but I think it's a terrific idea and should work really slick. Plus . . . gallon containers are easy enough to come by - with a half dozen of the gallon cans it seems like you could almost make a production line out of it! I wished I had saved one - that would be quick and easy way to clean brass from BP loads!

[finattic]

well I really appreciate the replies guys were going to do a test run with a quart can one day this week, I was informed you can by empty 1 gal cans with the lids at lowes paint dept. We shall soon see. And yea I am kinda of worried about the noise too but we shoot with muffs on so I guess we can clean brass with them on too

[sliphammer]

Check out citric acid for cleaning brass - works great and its 90% cheaper than what you have in mind.

[John Boy]

The vibratory speed of a paint shaker and media (especially pins) IMO is not a good idea. It will scratch & dent the brass

[GhostHawk]

I can say with total honesty that I recently was reading about citric acid cleaning of brass. So asked the wife to get me some at the local dollar store. I had some .223 brass that had been fired at least 4 times, was getting pretty grungy. Deprimed, dropped it into an ice cream pail, covered it with water, a sprinkle of the fruit fresh citric acid, a few drops of dawn. Shook, swirled and within a minute the brass showing all had this nice golden gleam.

No SS pins, no wet tumbler, I did take them one by one once the water had been shaken out and used a plain old cotton towel to wipe each one clean.

They looked like new, looking inside was not a black hole, you could see brass clear to the touch hole. Primer pockets were clean and shiny. Total cost, a 1 dollar container of citric acid and a few drops of dawn, some hot water, and a hour of my time.

Call me a believer!

Everything fired from now on will get saved until I have enough to do a batch and clean them.

I would not have had to hand towel each one but it just seemed the easy way to get them dry and clean. An old toothbrush or primer pocket brush would have had those brass looking like new.

[jmorris]

For the price of the shaker and pins, you could just about pick up a FART at midway. I think they were just on sale for $160 including the pins.

And you don't have to hear the compressor run for hours...

[jonp]

I bet the brass is dented

[finattic]

ok update on the test run, first the brass was clean inside and out and none were dented. This was with dawn and hot water and only shook on the shaker for about 5 minutes. Also this was with a quart can and not a gallon. I was impressed until I looked at the primer pockets,
They were some what clean but not completely although when I touched the stuff It just fell out. maybe with some more shaking and possible more soap they would have come clean. I have come to the conclusion I am going to finish my wet tumbler and forget the shaker.

[44Vaquero]

5 minutes!? That's not really much of a test to base your decision on? Vibratory tumblers run an hour or more, SS pins 20 min to 45 min or longer! Try 10 and see what they look like?

[tja6435]

Lacquer thinner cleans brass great, I'd bet it'd be awesome in place of water in your shaker

[dudel]

Check out citric acid for cleaning brass - works great and its 90% cheaper than what you have in mind.

+1 I tried it yesterday for the first time. A $3 bottle of Balls Citric acid powder (from the Walmart canning section). I dumped 500 9mm cases (already tumble cleaned as a test) into a plastic shoebox, added a TBSP of citric acid powder and enough water to cover the brass about 3 inches. Water got dirtier as I agitated the box. After 10 minutes, I rinsed and put the brass out to dry in the sun on a towel. It looked great. Pockets and inside of the brass looked much better. Figuring that the citric acid wash took off any corrosion protection, I gave the dry brass an hour tumble in corn cob with NuFinish.

Next time I'll go straight to the wash, followed by a quick tumble. My steel pin and liquid tumbler plans are done.

[bobthenailer]

I would slow down the rate of the shaking to a much slower rate with a pressure regulator, no faster than you can twist your wrist ! IMO full air pressure is too violent for brass cleaning.

[Maximumbob54]

Also try Barkeeper's Friend. Cheap, works well, and you can save the solution and keep using it. Once it stops working then the acid is neutral and can be dumped.

[bruce drake]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?83572-Citric-acid-brass-cleaner

11 pages of posts on liquid case cleaning.

[Wayne Smith]

+1 I tried it yesterday for the first time. A $3 bottle of Balls Citric acid powder (from the Walmart canning section). I dumped 500 9mm cases (already tumble cleaned as a test) into a plastic shoebox, added a TBSP of citric acid powder and enough water to cover the brass about 3 inches. Water got dirtier as I agitated the box. After 10 minutes, I rinsed and put the brass out to dry in the sun on a towel. It looked great. Pockets and inside of the brass looked much better. Figuring that the citric acid wash took off any corrosion protection, I gave the dry brass an hour tumble in corn cob with NuFinish.

Next time I'll go straight to the wash, followed by a quick tumble. My steel pin and liquid tumbler plans are done.

Just the opposite, citric acid normalizes the brass and resists corrosion. You don't have to do anything else. Read the stickie, it's all in there.

[dudel]

Just the opposite, citric acid normalizes the brass and resists corrosion. You don't have to do anything else. Read the stickie, it's all in there.

Thanks Wayne. Good to know I can skip that step.