Cleaning rimfire cases?

[Specialed O]

I have boiled rimfire cases for 30 plus minutes, with a little laundry detergent and an ounce of vinegar per quart of water. I rinsed them in hot and cold water. They are still a little dirty inside when I run a Q-tip through them. Is this normal? Do I need to clean them out with a Q-tip or something else or is this dirt of no consequence? Thank you.

[ANeat]

An Ultrasonic cleaner is what I use, they come out really clean

As fired on the left, cleaned on the right

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=153&pictureid=1706

[hardcase54]

Plus one for the Ultrasonic. I use an Ultrasonic with weak citric acid then plain water. Works like a champ.

[Ammosmith]

Does it help with preventing cases from sticking to RF making post? I have a tool I made to get stuck cases off w/o damaging them.

[freddyp]

I too use the ultrasonic cleaner with a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and warm water. I clean them shortly after shooting them. Almost all of them come out as though they had never been primed and fired.

[DLCTEX]

Check out the thread in shooting section on citric acid for brass cleaning. Works better than vinegar, etc.

[trevj]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=83572&highlight=citric+acid

Cheers
Trev

[Sarg]

I have an Ultrasonic heated cleaner that I got from Harbor Freight when they were on sale for $59. I am impressed with how well it cleans and the amount of oscillation that it creates in the water ... if you put it on a table that wiggles a little it will start making waves HA!!! It also heats the water extremely fast and gets it too hot to touch if you let it heat for more than 15 minutes. I didn't figure it had the power to do that.

On a side note I used the Bearchwood Casey case cleaner that contains glycolic/phosphoric acid to clean some swaged 5.7x28mm bullets. I accidentally left them overnight and the next morning they were as copper looking as a penny. I haven't figured out how this solution turns a brass piece into what looks like solid copper. If they didn't have the head stamp you wouldn't know they were brass cases. Anyone a chemist and know what happened to them? I will post some pictures laters.

[martin]

Sarg,

Brass has a compositionof about 71.5 percent copper, 27 percent zinc and the remander lead. The zinc in this case is far more reactive than the copper or lead. Wth this being said, my inclination would be that the phosphoric acid is eating away the zinc on the surface leaving the copper thus the copper color.

I also think that you would find that if you took a piece of sandpaper or steel wool and polished the copper looking bullet you would find that the surface is copper but once you broke through the first thousands or so you would see brass.

Martin

[sagacious]

On a side note I used the Bearchwood Casey case cleaner that contains glycolic/phosphoric acid to clean some swaged 5.7x28mm bullets. I accidentally left them overnight and the next morning they were as copper looking as a penny. I haven't figured out how this solution turns a brass piece into what looks like solid copper.
The phosphoric/glycolic acid will eventually dissolve the zinc from the surface of the brass, leaving only copper.

Brass is only supposed to soak in the BC solution for 3 minutes. Overnight is a long time.