How much lemishine?

[stubert]

Just got a rotary tumbler, read that lemishine is good to clean the brass with. It is a Frankford arsenal that uses about 1 gal. of water. So, how much lemishine should I use? Thanks, Stu

[hollywood63]

I use a couple teaspoons

[NyFirefighter357]

Depending on your water, not much at all. I Have the same set up, I use 1/8th tsp and 2-3 drops of Dawn liquid soap. That will clean anything you put in it. Some guys are using car wash with wax instead of dawn. My cousin has been tumble cleaning high end jewelry for years & I was taught by him the cleaner the water the better the results but also too much soap will gum up the works. If your brass is really dirty run it for about a half hour & change the water & reapply lemi-shine and soap. You should only need to tumble for about 1-1.5 hrs. This is my method: I have found the smaller rifle cases hold water. I de-prime my cases first, this prevents water from holding in the brass & allows cleaning of the primer pocket. I use Dawn & Lemi Shine. When clean I drain the water & pins into a 3 gal. bucket, fill it again & add a strong magnet, this catches any stray pins, tumble for a few minutes to rinse. Drain again and "dry" tumble for a minute with a couple of strips of chamois cloth drying towel, tumble for a few minutes and it removes most of the water from the brass. Then I air dry on a towel with the ceiling fan on. I lube the cases for sizing or protection from tarnish in storage by adding synthetic wire pulling lube. It's water based and won't effect the powder. This is done after the "dry" tumble, before air drying. Then store in sealed bags. I then pour off most of the water in the bucket and either leave the pins wet or remove them with the Frankford magnet and place them in a container for storage & let the dry naturally.

[runfiverun]

your gonna get all kinds of numbers.
I Mark =I eyeball a tsp of lemishine in my palm and put in some polymer car wash by the glop method.
it seems to be close enough.
I also use hot water.
for really grungy bras I will run the machine for about 1.5hrs then dump the water off and re-fill and go again.

don't try to remove case lube in your wet tumbler you'll play havoc getting the thing uncoated again.

[matrixcs]

I use 1 full 40sw case per franklin drum..
I have discovered that too much lemishine will shorten the time till the brass becomes more orange in color. ( weeks instead of months )
The brass still looks good after 2 years..

[Mauser48]

The most common thing I see is 1/4 teaspoon per 1 gallon of water. I use a tiny little lee 5 cc powder dipper that came with my 40 s&w die set for each if the drums in my harbor freight tumbler. I tried more and didn't notice a difference.

[oteroman]

NYFIREFIGHTER357 how do you apply the wire pulling lube? I am curious if that lube would stand up to a 9mm U-Die...

[AbluquerqueBullet,LLC]

i use 1 40 S&W case with pistol brass and a 45acp with 223 in the FA tumbler
4-5 2 liter bottle caps full for the cement mixer with ~6k 9mm brass or equivalent amount of other cases

Drying the brass in a FOOD DEHYDRATOR it the best way to finish. forget the oven.

[Walter Laich]

The most common thing I see is 1/4 teaspoon per 1 gallon of water. I use a tiny little lee 5 cc powder dipper that came with my 40 s&w die set for each if the drums in my harbor freight tumbler. I tried more and didn't notice a difference.

+1
I use Armor All Wash and Wax instead of Dawn--leaves a thin coating of wax that keeps cases from tarnishing. Have some that are two years since they were cleaned and still shiny though they have darken just a bit

[Mauser48]

+1
I use Armor All Wash and Wax instead of Dawn--leaves a thin coating of wax that keeps cases from tarnishing. Have some that are two years since they were cleaned and still shiny though they have darken just a bit

Same here. I also noticed that if you dry the brass with a towel first then throw it in the dehydrator it reduces water spots and stays shinyer.

[Hick]

I dry my brass in the clothes dryer (on that little flat 'no tumble' tray). 45 minutes on 'high'

[NyFirefighter357]

Oteroman, yes it works for sizing lube as well and is water based so no issues with powder if it's in the case. A little bit goes a long way. You can put some in a tumbler, I'm making a tumbler from a 5gal bucket, wiper motor and a set of rollers just for this purpose.

[fast ronnie]

My tumbler holds about a gallon and a half of water plus the brass. I use 1/2 teaspoon citric acid and one teaspoon of Armor-all premium wash and wax. 10 lbs of pins, and about 250-300 30-06 brass. It has cleaned some pretty nasty-looking brass in an hour and a half.

[MGnoob]

Each of my two tumblers drums hold approx 3 gallons of water... i use way more lemishine then you guys. Like 2-3 tablespoons or more per drum..i think it reduces tumbling time. My brass is always clean because i use brass catchers, if its new pickup that been on the ground in the elements for who knows how long.. i use more lemshine and tumble for 3 hours min.

Lemishine doesnt hurt your brass you could use the whole container..its just wasteful.
I tumble before anything else, then after processing i tumble again to remove case lube and polish off the annealing marks.....it also removes and burrs or shavings from trimming.

The only time i get discoloration is when i fail to sort a steel case or a miss a steel link while sorting the links from brass

[MGnoob]

I also use hot water.........

don't try to remove case lube in your wet tumbler you'll play havoc getting the thing uncoated again.

If you dump it while the hot water is still hot case lube is no issue..

[KYCaster]

NYFIREFIGHTER357 how do you apply the wire pulling lube? I am curious if that lube would stand up to a 9mm U-Die...

Oteroman, yes it works for sizing lube as well and is water based so no issues with powder if it's in the case. A little bit goes a long way. You can put some in a tumbler, I'm making a tumbler from a 5gal bucket, wiper motor and a set of rollers just for this purpose.

I squirt a little bit into a zip lock bag, add about 50 cases and knead by hand till they're evenly covered. Doesn't take much.

Jerry

[R.Ph. 380]

I go along with a 1/8 to 1/4 the teaspoon. Too much and you will change the chemical make up of the brass and it's strength

Sent from here to there by me using smoke signals

[blikseme300]

The ratio of LemiShine/water and Dawn depends on how dirty the brass is and the quality of the water. It took me a while to get the ratio right and it is now a squirt of Dawn and a shot of LemiShine. Works every time!