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Load Data

View Poll Results: How Much Lemi, How Long to Tumble?

Voters
154. You may not vote on this poll
  • 1/4 tsp Lemi

    69 44.81%
  • 1/2 tsp Lemi

    32 20.78%
  • 1 tsp Lemi

    32 20.78%
  • 1-1/2 tsp Lemi

    6 3.90%
  • 1 Tbsp Lemi

    13 8.44%
  • More Lemi

    2 1.30%
  • 30 Min Tumble

    8 5.19%
  • 60 Min Tumble

    13 8.44%
  • 90 Min Tumble

    16 10.39%
  • 120 Min Tumble

    50 32.47%
  • 180 Min Tumble

    30 19.48%
  • Longer Tumble

    15 9.74%
Multiple Choice Poll.
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Results 81 to 92 of 92

Thread: Lemi Shine - How Much, How Long

  1. #81
    Boolit Bub
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
    Posts
    32
    DO NOT RUN YOUR BRASS, AND FORGET IT OVERNIGHT!!! You will have camouflaged brass. Mine turned a nasty green. I ran my tumbler, way late into the evening, watched some TV, and went to bed. In the morning, I realized I had forgotten about my brass. The water looked really dirty, and when I rinsed my brass, it looked pretty ugly. Really clean, but ug-lee. I cannabalized my vibratory tumbler, to use as a brass sorter, so it was loaded ug-lee. Good thing my AR drops spent cases in a pile. They are tough to see in grass.

  2. #82
    Boolit Mold
    Join Date
    Oct 2020
    Posts
    19
    F.A.R.T. ... Figuring out the acronyms around here can be challenging, but I narrowed this down to the franklin tumbler. I bought the franklin tumbler, bigger of the two. Ran a load of 9mm using the included sample of polish. Ran ~400 223 through today using a little dawn and a ~1/4 tsp of lemme shine. Let it run for two hours with the included 5lb SS media. Here it is after drying it in the oven. Probably won't be going back to my corn cobb media..
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails IMG-20201112-185107827.jpg  

  3. #83
    Banned
    Join Date
    Dec 2018
    Posts
    3,409
    Nice, I gave up on vibratory cleaning years ago.

    wet with pins gets brass cleaner (including primer pockets) and there is no dust

    I use my 2 Gallon DIY wet tumbler, 7# pins, 1/2 tsp citric acid, and 1 squirt dawn dish soap. Rinse well immediately after done tumbling, I Dunk them in a tub of water and car wash/wax, rinse lightly, towel dry the brass, and dry the brass in an old food dehydrator.


    Last edited by Conditor22; 11-20-2020 at 05:49 PM.

  4. #84
    Boolit Master MOA's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Location
    Concho, Arizona. At home in the White Mountains at last. Formerly living in Mobile Alabama.
    Posts
    1,603
    F.A.R.T and S/S pins (5lbs.), filled with warm water, 1/4 teaspoon of lemi shine and a good squirt of dawn. All load runtime depends on how dirty. I never let cases sit in solution when tumbling is done. BAD FOR BRASS.





    I find this new process of cleaning brass just awesome. I had been tumbling in corncob for 34 years and I'm never going back by choice. THIS brass had been sitting in boxes for 25 years before it was put in the tumbler with pins, Dawn, and lemi shine.

  5. #85
    Boolit Buddy

    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    344

    Lemi Shine - How Much, How Long

    I’ve tumbled 2000 9mm and 2000 5.56 milsurp brass (1000 pieces per batch) in the last couple of weeks with my new Franklin Arsenal (large one).

    Hottest tap water I have, 2 squirts of Dawn, 1/4 teaspoon Lemishine and NO steel pins, run for 90 minutes as my first test.

    It’s been so dang hot here (I know - all relative but high 90s is too hot for me. Low teens for humidity makes it tolerable) After rinsing, I just dump the brass out on a towel in the driveway. Drys up without spots really quickly.

    Results are satisfactory for me to probably never need to try the pins, but we will see. So far I’m happy.

    Before:


    After
    Last edited by gkainz; 07-31-2021 at 07:43 PM.

  6. #86
    Banned


    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    West Central Illinois
    Posts
    742
    I like to use 1/4 teaspoon and a good squirt of dawn dish soap and very hot tap water in a HF rock tumbler container and tumble them for 30 minutes. Then I dry tumble in a Lyman rotary tumbler in walnut shell media with a capful each of mineral spirits and nufinish car wax. They all come out clean and shiny like those pictured above.

  7. #87
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    754
    Over the last few weeks I tested everything. I used Lemi Shine, Simple Green, Wax and Wash and many others.

    We have a clear winner folks! Toss out your Lemi Shine and pick up some Lemon Juice!

    A few cap fulls with some dawn and it works like magic. Sometimes I get good results with Lemi Shine and other times not. Lemon Juice seems to be much less finicky with how much you use or how long you tumble.

    My camera sucks and this is a bad picture but trust me. This is what you want. It's cheap and works the best.


  8. #88
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    754
    Here's some extra interesting information. The media I used was 5/32 chrome steel balls. And they reacted differently.

    The Lemi Shine made them a dull grey and with some rust spots.

    The Simple Green made them look like new with a high luster.

    The Lemon Juice kept them shiny but turned some of them a rose color.

    So there's different chemistry going on here. The Simple Green is a little bit basic around pH 9. If you want to clean and restore your media try tumbling your steel with one cup per gallon of SG. It should also cut any lanolin that has built up. It did get my brass pretty clean too, but it wasn't as good as the Lemon Juice.

  9. #89
    Boolit Buddy 2A-Jay's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2019
    Location
    Long Beach WA
    Posts
    293
    I use a 3.4 CC lee Dipper of Lemishine per gallon of hot water in my rotory tumblerwith 1/2 pound of SS-Pins and tumble for1 hour.\.

  10. #90
    Moderator Emeritus


    georgerkahn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    South of the (Canada) border
    Posts
    3,051
    In communicating with friends made on this forum residing in other parts of the continent, it seems to me a "number one" factor in effectiveness of Lem'n Shine, Dawn, Wash 'n Wax, etc...-- is the WATER which it is added to! Waaay back, for kicks and giggles, I bought and tried a 99-cent gallon of distilled water from Wally-world. It made a significant difference in the results of my wet tumbling, and I have never changed! A friend residing about 20 miles distance has "sulfur water" in his well. Albeit it really smells bad, they drink the stuff -- and using it to tumble brass colours it all rose-ish.
    Just a thought re another factor in determining "best" to tumble brass...
    geo

  11. #91
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    754
    Quote Originally Posted by georgerkahn View Post
    In communicating with friends made on this forum residing in other parts of the continent, it seems to me a "number one" factor in effectiveness of Lem'n Shine, Dawn, Wash 'n Wax, etc...-- is the WATER which it is added to! Waaay back, for kicks and giggles, I bought and tried a 99-cent gallon of distilled water from Wally-world. It made a significant difference in the results of my wet tumbling, and I have never changed! A friend residing about 20 miles distance has "sulfur water" in his well. Albeit it really smells bad, they drink the stuff -- and using it to tumble brass colours it all rose-ish.
    Just a thought re another factor in determining "best" to tumble brass...
    geo
    This is a great point. A lot of us grumble about buying water. But it's $0.89 at Meijer right now. If you took a look in any of our basements or sheds you'd find thousands and thousands of dollars worth of dies, moulds, tools and equipment, yet we complain about something that costs less than a senior coffee at McDonalds.

  12. #92
    Boolit Bub
    Join Date
    Jan 2021
    Posts
    45
    a 45 acp case of lemishine will do it. Too much no good.

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