Is it safe to wash deprimed brass in dishwasher by themself (no other dishes, pots….)

[Forty Rod Ray]

Title says it.

Forty Rod

[243winxb]

No. If bag opens, dish washer may eat brass. They grind up small food particals. Maybe brass too?

[45DUDE]

If I have a bunch of dirty range brass I dump in gas and slosh around in a large coffee can then use a screen when I pour them out. Then I put them in my vibrator and mix room scent to get rid of smell and add a little liquid car polish. That makes then easier to resize.

[Winger Ed.]

I think you'd be wasting your time & effort.
The dishwasher probably won't do much to clean or rinse out the inside of the cases.
If they're in a bag, just dunking them in a sink of water several times will do the same as the dishwasher.

I wash brass in the sink with soap & water.
Open the drain & rinse them. That gets the dirt & surface oils off.
Lay them out on a towel to dry.

Size & de-prime rifle brass. Trim if needed. Tumble, then rinse in gasoline again to get sizing oils off.
Pistol brass goes from soap & water wash, to tumbler, then to reloading process.

[WRideout]

There are many posts on the forum about the use of citric acid as a brass wash. That is all I do, and it saves me the grief of my wife finding brass in the dishwasher, that she had not authorized.

Wayne

[imashooter2]

A mesh laundry bag and your washing machine along with all your shop towels would be a better choice.

[Baltimoreed]

Why are you wanting to wash brass? Black powder loads? I pulled some very old .25-06 out of my shop that had been in there for 10s of years and some polish, media and 3-4 hours in my orange ball and they look like new.

[bangerjim]

I use boiling water and citric acid as a cleaner in a big tub. Works great. Not mirror shiny but good enough.

Brass in your dish washer is just looking for an appliance repairman to call!!!!!!!!

[rancher1913]

are you single or married, that answer makes a world of difference to your question.

[JimB..]

Don’t do that, and especially don’t do it with dish detergent.

[ascast]

I have tried that and found it to be not so helpful. The brass came out very clean, but also tarnished almost black. I had a wood loading block drilled out so all case mouths faced down. No black powder residue, but very heavy tarnish. I am not sure if it was the heat or cleaning agents. Wow, you got some wild answer, LOL

I would think a bag full in the clothes washer might work fine.

[Hick]

I wouldn't-- some primers contain lead styphenate (may have spelled that wrong), and if you are shooting cast your cases will have traces of lead. You don't want lead anywhere near anything related to food production or dishes. Even washed alone, the brass can still contaminate the dishwasher.

[Geezer in NH]

No it is not safe it will line your dishwasher with lead residue from the fired primes and then wash the dishes you eat off? DON"T DO IT

Besides your wife or mother will KILL you.

[M-Tecs]

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ what Hick & Geezer stated.

[Forty Rod Ray]

Thank y’all kindly, reason says to not try it. This time I’ll go with reason. Oh, I’m hitched and have been happily so for last 56 years…

[Winger Ed.]

Oh, I’m hitched and have been happily so for last 56 years…

Even more reason to be careful what gun stuff you bring inside.

I used to wash large batches of brass for the first cycle in the kitchen sink, then dry them in the oven.
After the second .45ACP snuck into a batch and cooked off-----
ALL future reloading activities were forever banned from the kitchen.

[GhostHawk]

Ice cream pail + 50 to 200 rounds of empty brass + fruit fresh from the dollar store. Vary with amount of brass to clean. Teaspoon for 50, tablespoon for 250. + a few drops of dawn dishwashing soap. Boiling water enough to cover the brass.

Swirl, walk by 5 min later swirl again, come back after half hour and give it 3-4 more good swirls. Use large collander to strain. Rinse well with hot water. Dump back into the bucket, fill with hot water from the tap. Swirl well, drain. I dump mine into a towel and take it into the living room.

Run a small brush into each primer pocket, then roll the cartridge on a cotton towel laying on my leg.

Any splits, seperations will grab the towel making them easy to remove.

Once I've processed them all I pour them into a clean towel set in a warm dry spot for half an hour to dry.

I use a FA hand depriming unit. Will often start with a mixed bag of 2-3 types of pistol and maybe 25-30 rifle rounds. They get sorted in the process.

After they are dry they are ready for resizing die, primers, powder through die or flaring, M-die. Get a charge and get loaded.

No they don't look new, but I don't have to be ashamed of them either. Requires minimal tools, supply's, time.

[Rickf1985]

Ice cream pail + 50 to 200 rounds of empty brass + fruit fresh from the dollar store. Vary with amount of brass to clean. Teaspoon for 50, tablespoon for 250. + a few drops of dawn dishwashing soap. Boiling water enough to cover the brass.

Swirl, walk by 5 min later swirl again, come back after half hour and give it 3-4 more good swirls. Use large collander to strain. Rinse well with hot water. Dump back into the bucket, fill with hot water from the tap. Swirl well, drain. I dump mine into a towel and take it into the living room.

Run a small brush into each primer pocket, then roll the cartridge on a cotton towel laying on my leg.

Any splits, seperations will grab the towel making them easy to remove.

Once I've processed them all I pour them into a clean towel set in a warm dry spot for half an hour to dry.

I use a FA hand depriming unit. Will often start with a mixed bag of 2-3 types of pistol and maybe 25-30 rifle rounds. They get sorted in the process.

After they are dry they are ready for resizing die, primers, powder through die or flaring, M-die. Get a charge and get loaded.

No they don't look new, but I don't have to be ashamed of them either. Requires minimal tools, supply's, time.

There is something very relaxing about just reading how you do this. THIS is how reloading is supposed to be done, not trying to find ways to do it bigger and faster.

[Rapier]

Get a brass cleaner, tumbler or vibratory style.

You folks that use gasoline, to clean brass, write me down in your will. Sooner or later you will find out what happens when gasoline detonates and you are at arms length from it. I have seen the results, it ain’t pretty.

[imashooter2]

Get a brass cleaner, tumbler or vibratory style.

You folks that use gasoline, to clean brass, write me down in your will. Sooner or later you will find out what happens when gasoline detonates and you are at arms length from it. I have seen the results, it ain’t pretty.

That seems pretty far fetched. How do you support this claim?

[Baltimoreed]

You ‘COOKED’ off a round in the oven, love it but I bet the Mrs was not amused. I did get my ss AMT Hardballer washed one day with a load of clothes accidentally. I had been shooting and the Mrs’ decided ‘we’ were going to town. As this was before I had a gunsafe I wrapped my .45 up in a towel and sat it in the washer. Of course forgetting it was there until my wife ran the washer that evening. It survived the wash and the rounds in the magazine all fired the next day after drying out. My Mrs was not amused either but we hung in there for 42 years so I must not have been too much of an idiot. Falls under the category of ‘it seemed like a good idea at the time’.

[Winger Ed.]

I wrapped my .45 up in a towel and sat it in the washer. .

I'd bet it clunked around in the dryer louder than any tennis shoe.:bigsmyl2:

[Winger Ed.]

You folks that use gasoline, to clean brass, write me down in your will. .

Gasoline was marketed and sold as a cleaning solvent long before cars came along.
It isn't any more flammable than most other petroleum based thinners and solvents.
Oh, and it's a great weed killer too.

[M-Tecs]

Gasoline was marketed and sold as a cleaning solvent long before cars came along.


Do you have a historical reference for that?

I was aware it was discarded as a useless byproduct of making kerosene and discarded before the internal combustion engines created a demand. During the 60's and 70's gas was widely used as a cleaning solvent. I remember the PSA's stating not to do it. Todays gas is much different than the gas for the 60's and 70's. That had a sweet smell and kids would sniff it. I saved a young girl that was sniffing her dads tank and had passed out That was about 1970. Also during that time if you stuck your hand in gas is was almost soothing. Today it burns.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/gasoline/history-of-gasoline.php

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-gasoline-1991845

https://www.softschools.com/inventions/history/gasoline_history/198/

[Baltimoreed]

My Hardballer thankfully never made it to the dryer. It was ‘found’ when my wife went to move the clothes. It did clean up nice. I don’t remember the grips getting wrecked so it probably had wraparound pachmyers on it.

[45DUDE]

I was in the fuel repair business for 46 years without a claim. Riding a motorbike without head gear is a lot more dangerous. I am 78 and still wash my hands with it when greasy. My dad hauled gasoline for a living and lived to be 96. Some people are afraid of bench grinders. You got to know you limits. :violin:

[imashooter2]

My Hardballer thankfully never made it to the dryer. It was ‘found’ when my wife went to move the clothes. It did clean up nice. I don’t remember the grips getting wrecked so it probably had wraparound pachmyers on it.

My EDC is a S&W Model 38 Airweight that I bought for my Father. He put it through the washer once as well. It was winter and I told him to just lay it on top of his cast iron radiators and I would be over the next day to pop off the side plate. There was zero rust or moisture when I did. I lubed it and closed it back up.

[gunrunner5.56]

why not try Lemi-Shine bath in a bucket also i use an old food dehydrator as a case dryer works for me.. although I still throw in a vibrator lyman for polish.

[Winger Ed.]

Do you have a historical reference for that?

Best I can do is from a biography of Henry Ford.

When he was experimenting and building his first horseless carriage-
He bothered his neighbors so much with the engine noise they took up a petition for the local
general store to stop selling him cleaning solvent to run the engine on.

[derek45]

No it is not safe it will line your dishwasher with lead residue from the fired primes and then wash the dishes you eat off? DON"T DO IT

Besides your wife or mother will KILL you.

this

[super6]

Its impossible for gasoline to detonate, However it can deflagurate.

[1hole]

Gasoline is an effective cleaner for greasy stuff but it's not much on anything soluble in water and few fired cases are greasy. Mineral spirits (odorless paint thinner) works just as well and it's far less volatile/dangerous than gasoline. For cleaning cases I can't think of anything that works as well as soapy water.

The fear of "lead" in spent primers is vastly overrated even if you have old primers that had lead in it's formula. Primer pellets are quite small, the amount of lead in them is very small and, like everything else inside a case, it gets blown out. Any micro traces of lead left in a fired case would be absorbed and drained away in a soapy water wash so there would be no serious harmful residuals possible in a dishwasher.

Tarnish is not dirt and it does no harm, don't sweat it. But actual dirt should be removed, inside and out, before any reloading begins. That said, no external washing machine can do much to the insides of most cases, especially so if they are a contained mass held inside a sack.

[Green Frog]

An old friend taught me his technique for cleaning brass from BPCS. As soon as it was fired he threw the case into a jug of soapy water (Dawn dish detergent) which, after he finished shooting, he would agitate well. When he got home he would place the jug in his laundry sink and run hot water into it until the suds stopped. He would then shake the excess water off and throw the slightly damp cases into a vibratory tumbler with walnut hulls. A couple hours later the cases looked new. :mrgreen:

With smokeless I simply polish in the vibratory timber with ground walnut hulls or corn cob media until the cases are as well cleaned as desired. As a general rule I do not mix cases of different calibers as the smaller ones tend to nest inside the larger ones and neither is cleaned properly. :groner: I used to clean really nasty stuff with the wet ceramic tumbler method, but my tumbler is worn out so now I try not to let it get so bad. :wink:

Froggie

[ebb]

Yea gasoline was used for years even in my garage to clean with. I used to clean the dirt bike chain after an enduro or hare scrambles. But that was long before it had ethanol added to it. The fumes spread way easier and further than 100% petroleum. It is much easy to get burned in a flash than it used to be.

[sniper]

No. If bag opens, dish washer may eat brass. They grind up small food particals. Maybe brass too?

:mrgreen: oopsie!

[DAVIDMAGNUM]

That seems pretty far fetched. How do you support this claim?
Gasoline vapors are explosive. The vapor will find an ignition source and the flame will travel back to the source of the vapor much faster than you can run.

[imashooter2]

Gasoline vapors are explosive. The vapor will find an ignition source and the flame will travel back to the source of the vapor much faster than you can run.

And how will this occur in brass cleaned in gasoline? You rinse the cases, the gasoline evaporates, you load.

[jsizemore]

it appears most folks on here don't clean the screens and strainers in their dishwashers. I have not seen the openings big enough to even let a piece of 22lr brass to the pump as long as the screens are installed properly. A bunch of pumps intakes have a screen like the drain in your shower with a spring wiper across the front to keep debris from entering the pump. If you read the owners manual for your dishwasher, it says to remove and clean the screens/strainers once a week on most models. Found a Viking with the strainer welded to its threaded base with powdered Calgon wash soap. That Viking cost as much as used car.

Dishwasher has a hard enough time washing eating utensils and glassware. Imagine trying to hit the hole on brass to rinse the soap out of the cartridge case. Wash nozzles spray upward. Not many spray sideways. A cement mixer would be the best for large amounts of brass.

[super6]

https://www.interfire.org/res_file/def_det.asp

[Geezer in NH]

I have been to several fire explosions in laundromats over the years. The reason why was cleaning greasy rags with gasoline mixed into the washer to help.

For those who say it won't you are not in your right mind and are dangerous to others. In each case I made arrests on DA's advice on criminal negligence. Convictions obtained

[Multra]

Don't mix shooting/reloading stuff with anything that touches food.