Distilled Water and a Leaf Blower

[308Jeff]

We have really hard water here in AZ, and it's very frustrating to see your wet tumbled brass end up with water spots.

I started doing a "final rinse" on my brass with a gallon of distilled water, and then hitting it with the leaf blower for a minute and everything is purdy like it should be now. It's well worth the 83 cents.

Not sure if I even need the leaf blower, but who doesn't like operating one? :-)

[OS OK]

Are you combining any kind of wash and wax for cars in the soap?

[308Jeff]

Yes, sir. I've used both Turtle and Armor-All brands. Turtle seems to be a bit better.

[ioon44]

When using wash and wax for cars in the soap, do you rinse off all the wax and soap when the brass is clean? Or will the wax just stay on the brass?

[308Jeff]

If you don't rinse thoroughly, you'll ended up with discolored brass.

[blikseme300]

Same problem where I live, hard water. Tried distilled water as well, it works but it is not necessary if you remove as much of the water quickly. Used a leaf blower as well a few times. I now use a bunch of micro fiber towels in a pillow case to get the brass as dry as I can get before drying the brass in a dehydrator.

My method for cleaning brass is to use Dawn & Lemishine for 2 hours. I then pour off the dirty water. Refill with clean water and add about 2oz of Armor all wash&wax. Tumble for 10 minutes and then rinse the brass in my Frankfort Arsenal media separator. (I found that the 10 minutes is enough time and that longer causes discoloration.) I then shake the brass vigorously to get as much of the free water off. Then the brass is pre-dried in the pillow case with micro fiber towels followed by 2 hours in the dehydrator.

Enough wax stays on the brass to slow down oxidation as well as adding some slickness. Without the wax more effort is needed when sizing pistol brass and hang-ups in powder through expanders occurs.

[Eddie17]

I have fairly hard water also, an find that using lemishine helps!

[Grmps]

I have fairly hard water also, an find that using lemishine helps!

or citric acid (lemishine is mostly citric acid)

what I do to prevent water spots is after the wax/water is rinsed I run them through Wet/Dry Media Separator,
dump them on a towel, cover with another towel and roll them between the towels then I grab both ends of the towel the brass is in
creating a hammock and roll them back and forth a few times
I then load them into my food dehydrator trays, put them in the dehydrator and dry them for a couple hours.

https://i.imgur.com/jvrq5jm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/H6IFXqH.jpg

[Walter Laich]

. . . dump them on a towel, cover with another towel and roll them between the towels then I grab both ends of the towel the brass is in creating a hammock and roll them back and forth a few times . . .

same here. the 'hammock method' really does get rid of most of the water. Do it about 10 times back and forth or more if I'm trying to kid myself that I'm getting a bit of upper body exercise out of this :smile:

[Blue2]

Good ideas,what I did was take a board and hammer/set 140 finish nails in it. For my wet tumbler this is a nice fill for 223 to magnum brass case sizes. This gives me a count to keep track . I go through the wet SS pin process and then put them back on the board with pins. I then air blast them with compressed air removing excess water drops and then leave them to finish air drying. If I am in a bigger hurry I take a heat gun or hair dryer and hot air blow dry them . I get good results doing it this way and it is low tech as long as you have access to compressed air.

[JimB..]

Pin tumble with wash n wax plus Lemishine.
Lyman separator.
Dump in a bucket with a towel on the bottom.
Bounce for a few steps.
Pour out on a towel on the garage floor and push them around until spread out a bit.
Point a fan in their general direction and leave them overnight.

Have thought about a 5 gal bucket with some small holes in the bottom and a hole in the lid for a leaf blower, but haven’t tried it yet. Also considered a length of 4” PVC.

[Tazza]

I have heard people use a rinse aid, like what you use in your dishwasher to help prevent marks on your dishes, could that help too?

[Eddie17]

I think Lemi Shine has that built into their mix!

[anotherred]

Rinse and tumble out media using frankford separator. Next dry with a large micro fiber using the hammock method. Leave out on a different towel over night to dry. Pretty and ready to go to the appropriate bin next morning.

[308Jeff]

I have heard people use a rinse aid, like what you use in your dishwasher to help prevent marks on your dishes, could that help too?

I was topping my dishwasher off the other day with "finish" and got to wondering if that might help...

[Don1357]

I learned this trick where I ignore water marks. I honestly believe that it takes the least amount of effort in dealing with that problem ;)

[AllanD]

or citric acid (lemishine is mostly citric acid)

what I do to prevent water spots is after the wax/water is rinsed I run them through Wet/Dry Media Separator,
dump them on a towel, cover with another towel and roll them between the towels then I grab both ends of the towel the brass is in
creating a hammock and roll them back and forth a few times
I then load them into my food dehydrator trays, put them in the dehydrator and dry them for a couple hours.

https://i.imgur.com/jvrq5jm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/H6IFXqH.jpg

I do much the same, a Citric acid rinse followed by distilled water, and into the food dehydrator

I have a Much better use for my Electric leaf blower. I IGNORE the leaves but have a blower in my shed that is the air source for "foundry burner" I'm building, I want to try my hand at casting Brass.

[Mr_Sheesh]

I had a thought here; Get a germination mat (used to warm young plants or to warm a wine-making carboy) and put that under a cookie sheet or the like full of brass; If you don't have a food dehydrator, that might speed up the drying quite a bit. For fastest results, I'm trying to figure out how to put all the brass cases mouth-up or mouth-down, so they stay there and dry faster with less spotting. Test tube rack maybe?

[EDG]

Final rinse your brass in 90% to 99% isopropyl alcohol.
The alcohol absorbs residual water. From the alcohol roll the cases in a bath towel. Then stand in a loading block and place in front of a fan. The alcohol will flash dry and there will be no spotting.
The alcohol can be used several times.

[308Jeff]

I used to use my dehydrator, but found a hair dryer is much faster.

[David2011]

Same here, I have very hard well water and no city water. I don't wet tumble but I do clean with citric acid. After the brass is dry I run it through the dry tumbler with corn cob and Nu-Finish to get the water spots off. Probably not a palatable solution to the guys that wet tumble.

A wetting agent like Jet-Dry might help or Kodak makes a wetting agent called Photo-Flo 200 that is used to keep film from water spotting while it dries after processing. The dilution rate is 1:200 so a little goes a long way.

[308Jeff]

I've added Jet-Dry to the last couple of batches. It seems to help!

[RCE1]

When using a wet cleaning process, I will usually give a final rinse in clean water with a drop or two of dish soap just to break surface tension, then transfer to a wire collander and stir the brass around with the nozzle of my heat gun till dry. Works for me.

[308Jeff]

Used Jet-Dry for the 3rd time this morning. I think it's going to be a winner. You can see that the water doesn't want to cling to the brass. This is the cleanest, most immaculate stuff I've seen. Very happy.

Going to do an experiment with a small batch of brass. Tumble it, and rinse it, but not bother drying it other than letting it air dry. I'll let you know how it goes.

[308Jeff]

210355

This is the result I've been after. No more water spots.

[David2011]

Congratulations! The brass is gorgeous, Jeff. In the summer I spread my wet brass out on a sheet on the patio. Our climates are similar, as least when it's hot. The brass gets hot fast in the sun and dries quickly.

[308Jeff]

Thanks, David. I also sun dry here when it's warm. Works just fine. :)

[lightman]

I'm waiting on a media separator to arrive and I expect it will change my game. But for now, I separate the cases from the pins by hand and dump them in a bowel of clean water for a rinse. I'll towel dry them using some of the same methods mentioned by the others. In the summer they go onto a baking sheet and then set outside in the hot sun. With the current weather the same baking sheet goes into the oven set at the lowest temp for 30-45 minutes.

I've thought about a food dehydrator but have not committed to that just yet. I may make a "pillow case" from a big fluffy towel to do the initial drying in. I liked that idea!

[bangerjim]

Here is AZ, I use the sun as my heat soruce. Even on winter days, darker items in the sun get really hot! Even clean brass. I just roll them in towels as mentioned above and lay them out on fat baking sheet pans from the junk stores on the cool decking around the swimming pool. Dry in a short time - inside and out.

Banger