Laundry.

[BulletFactory]

I wanted to clean up some brass, and since my rock tumbler only holds 50 at a time, I decided to toss some of them in with the laundry just to see how they came out. I added 3 or 4 cups of vinegar to the wash, and then tossed them into the dryer. I used all of the smaller articles of clothing, hand towels, socks, that sort of thing to help scrub the brass. To my great suprise and delight, the brass came out just like brand new. Seriously, they looked like you had hand polished them with brasso!

Toss them in the dryer as you are leaving the house, 1,000 brass casings in the dryer is LOUD!

[BABore]

I imagine the primer residue is a welcome addition to the laundry items.

[cbrick]

A bachelor no doubt.

Rick

[M-Tecs]

A friend of mine is a national level skeet shooter. He has an old washing machine and drier in the garage dedicated to washing shotgun hulls. For the all plastic with brass rims it worked great. A drier full of shotgun hulls is one noisy SOB.

For a non dedicated machine I would be very concerned with lead and other bad things from the primers.

[sirgknight]

I hate to think what my wife would say to me, much less do to me, if I were to use "her" washer or dryer for ANY part of my reloading operation. I have heard of using an old dryer for cleaning brass. A small amount of tumbling media would be placed into the dryer, add the brass and tumble away. Just not my idea of being "thrifty"........HOWEVER.....it can be done. My brother is a taxidermist and he acquired a bad clothes dryer for his taxidermy business, free for just hauling it off. As many of us probably know a dryer operates on 220-240V. The motor runs on 110 and the drying element runs on 110. My brother discarded the bad elecrical element and changed the wiring harness to run just the motor to turn the drum. He then sealed off the vent to keep the media inside the drum (I think he used duct tape for this). The mess you see on the floor is not a result of the dryer transformation; it is a result of my brother pulling hides out of the dryer and dumping the media on the floor. So, if you had a lot of brass to tumble, this would actually make a wonderful tumbler.

http://s66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...ent=photo1.jpg

[Jim]

I didn't see it, but I heard about the drier thing being tried. The guy told me the media ran out of the vent holes, made one helluva mess in the air system and beat the brass to a useless condition. If that wasn't bad enough, he had to hire an appliance repairman to come out and fix the drier.

[longarm85]

i put brass in a butter bowl, add about a cup of lemon juice(cheap stuff from wal-mart) a squirt of dish washing liquid then enough hot water to cover brass...shake the bowl ever 15 min or so. wash with clean water and dry.....works great inside and primer pockets clean...

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I use citric acid , a large mason jar and water put lid on agitate then let sit for 15 minutes then rinse and put out on a towel , i like to stand them up in trays and let them dry

i use the lee universal deprime first

i don't do large batches however , i just don't have that much brass

[Lizard333]

I'm pretty sure I'd be looking for a new place to sleep if I did this. I didn't pay 2000$ for my washer and dryer to clean brass. I think my wife would kill me.

[Jim]

Yeah, Lizard, you'd look kinda' funny crawling out of that drier with all those lumps on your head!

[gray wolf]

I still use a tumbler and corn cob, still happy, still married.

[ItZaLLgooD]

Maybe throw the brass in an old pair of panty hose and dunk in a bucket with your laundry detergent instead.

[treadhead1952]

This is one of the reasons I come here. I can almost see Red Greene trying this one out.

[BulletFactory]

Yup, bachelor.

Media sounds messy, but if you put the brass and media in a coffee can, and taped the lid on, it would keep the media in place, and the lead hazard contained.

[crazy mark]

I've used the washing machine to clean brass. Not a Bachelor either. I have my washer and dryer and she has hers. About 220 miles apart. I don't use the dryer for brass however. It's nice having hers and mine appliances. Mark

[Rangefinder]

Geez, if you would have asked, I could have told you ahead of time how loud brass is rattling around in a dryer--my wife reminds me every time she does laundry and I forgot to clean out the pockets of my jeans first.

[Moonie]

I did this with old towels and I put the brass in an old pillow case. It worked VERY well, brass looked brand new, came out dry (yes I did the washer AND dryer). SWMBO was NOT happy with the procedure and I now have a vibratory case cleaner.

[mdi]

OK, this is related to cleaning brass in washing machines. Often (like every time this comes up) someone posts about "dangerous primer residue" being left in the washer. So, how much residue is in 1,000 fired primers? Out of that amount, how much is considered toxic/poisonous/bad gu-gu (lead)? Out of that amount, mixed with 2 cycles of say, 5 gallons of water(I stand corrected, thnx Mk42. 30 gal. of water ) and solvent (soap) how much really stays in a washer? Fill, agitate, drain, spin, fill, agitate/rinse, drain, spin. Solvent/soap will suspend particles of residue, break down any solids, and enable the solids to to flushed out of the washer, once with the wash water and once with the rinse. I'm not advocating using a washer for cleaning brass, I just don't think there would be enough left over to have any affect, even over time, on any further use of the washer and residual bad stuff getting on clothing that is being washed (more water, more soap, more agitation, etc.). And even less chance of wearing that clothing having any transfer of toxic residue. It isn't Risin poison and it ain't radioactive, so mebbe these warnings are a bit over reactive?

Hey, jes .02 from a common sence old guy...

[Mk42gunner]

Actually, your average top loading washing machine uses closer to thirty gallons of water per cycle for a large load. At least they did when I was working on them in the 80's.

Robert

[JRR]

Here is a good alternative to the washer and dryer.

I use a plastic bucket with a vinegar/detergent solution. An old waterbed vibrator motor is duck taped to the outside. A colander is suspended into the solution filled with de-primed brass. Turn it on and come back an hour later. The gunk is in the bottom of the bucket. I use this same method with a different solution for grimy bicycle parts.

Jeff