citric acid cleaning question

[Giggles]

had some brass laying around, and decided to use dish soap and lemi shine to clean them with.

well things happened and i ended up leaving them in solution for 12 hours...

when i got home and remembered them after work... they had changed color. nice and bright pink, some spots are like a brand new us penny, some are still the original "brass color".

as i was rinsing them, i found an outers 9mm pistol brush wrapped in chore boy in the bottom that i hadnt seen when i started.

As this represents MOSt if not all of my 762x54r brass, im wondering how badly have i bungled the pooch with them?

[GregLaROCHE]

They should be fine. You just removed some of the zinc from the surface. However, you shouldn’t make a habit of doing it.

[kbstenberg]

LIKe you I had a batch of brass that was left much longer in frozen soap/ lemishine. I saw no affect on the brass.

[Wayne Smith]

Wipe them down with steel wool. If the pink extends into the case it is weakened. If it is only surface you are OK.

[recumbent]

It's OK, a few hours in a tumbler and they should really shine.

[MrWolf]

Been there, done that. You are OK. Think I left a steel case in one batch as everything turned black but hat was a long time ago.

[Giggles]

i left a few 38 specials in with them,,,hence that jag..

however i had them soaking in plain tap water over night, and something strange happened again.

the parts that were the bright pink of a new US penny... are now either dark green or a light black color

[farmbif]

have you loaded and tried any of these discolored shells? they might be perfectly good. if they were mine and the only brass I had in that caliber I'd give them a try starting with light loads and if they didn't show signs of distress or cracking put them in a old fashioned tumbler with corn cob and flitz and reload them again. but if I had plenty of brass in that caliber I'd bag em up and put them in the rainy day box.

[TyGuy]

I have made this mistake myself. My wife calls them my “rose gold brass”. I have intentionally done some for my mom’s Makarov and it makes them much easier to distinguish from standard 9mm Lugers. I haven’t had any issues with them yet. I recently did it again with some .22lr brass that I’m swaging into .224s. While it was unintentional, I’m interested to see how they turn out.

[Giggles]

well i got home tonight, and dumped the plain tap water off, after half an hour of showering and shaving... they had developed beautiful colors..

blues, greens, even some purple. Rather pretty coloring though, im debating as to the 54r, i had been in the process of a bullseye load for 150 fmj and i dont think id be willing to trust them with 8+ grains of BE now..

And my x57 well its an annoyance but i have unused cases. But i was thinking of a round ball load for the caliber.

[Milsurp Junkie]

12 hours in a strong acid, I wouldn't trust, but citric acid is weak. You will be fine. How many cases? How many reloads on them?

[Giggles]

54r, factory load, then lead load, then fmj load

8x57 factory load, then 1 lead load

[notenoughguns]

Just a reaction of two or more dissimilar metals introduced to acid !

[farmbif]

I'll say this again as ive said on other threads about cleaning brass, this is just my opinion but here it goes. sure its nice to have bright shiny brass but its really not necessary. somewhere through the years I think the reloading supply companies realized they could make lots of money selling all sorts of equipment and consumables to clean brass and this has led us shooters to clean brass and make is shine like new way beyond what is really necessary.
I remember back and just picking up our used brass, wiping it clean and cleaning out the primer pocket was all we did reloading it as many times as possible till it cracked, split or looked like the base was no longer stable. and that ammo was as accurate as any factory ammo you could get. when I really started to shoot a lot and was picking up all the used brass I could at public range I got into throwing it in a tumbler with corn cob and flitz. so yeah, I like clean brass but have no need to go to extremes to make it look like new.

[Giggles]

I'll say this again as ive said on other threads about cleaning brass, this is just my opinion but here it goes. sure its nice to have bright shiny brass but its really not necessary. somewhere through the years I think the reloading supply companies realized they could make lots of money selling all sorts of equipment and consumables to clean brass and this has led us shooters to clean brass and make is shine like new way beyond what is really necessary.
I remember back and just picking up our used brass, wiping it clean and cleaning out the primer pocket was all we did reloading it as many times as possible till it cracked, split or looked like the base was no longer stable. and that ammo was as accurate as any factory ammo you could get. when I really started to shoot a lot and was picking up all the used brass I could at public range I got into throwing it in a tumbler with corn cob and flitz. so yeah, I like clean brass but have no need to go to extremes to make it look like new.

i try to get the insides cleaned as much as possible. cant really do that well without chemicals.. dont have a tumbler as i dont have the time needed to devote to it

[todd9.3x57]

I'll say this again as ive said on other threads about cleaning brass, this is just my opinion but here it goes. sure its nice to have bright shiny brass but its really not necessary. somewhere through the years I think the reloading supply companies realized they could make lots of money selling all sorts of equipment and consumables to clean brass and this has led us shooters to clean brass and make is shine like new way beyond what is really necessary.
I remember back and just picking up our used brass, wiping it clean and cleaning out the primer pocket was all we did reloading it as many times as possible till it cracked, split or looked like the base was no longer stable. and that ammo was as accurate as any factory ammo you could get. when I really started to shoot a lot and was picking up all the used brass I could at public range I got into throwing it in a tumbler with corn cob and flitz. so yeah, I like clean brass but have no need to go to extremes to make it look like new.

i got tired of buying new media and cleaning out the flash hole from media when i decided to wet tumble. now, being a cheap basturd, i ain't goin pay over $150 to wet tumble. i went to HF and a dual rock tumbler for $50 and i got some ss pins. i bought lemi-shine and when that's gone, i'm going try citric powder. i have dawn liquid soap for dishes. since i use rifle cartridges 90% of the time, i have a piece of 4" plastic sewer pipe (i used to do water/sewer mains), 4" cap, 1/2" pvc and a 4" plug. i've been doing this for about 5 or 6 years and i broke two rubber belts on the tumbler. i got 20 pcs of rubber belt at $10-15 locally.

now i don't have to clean the flash holes!!!! dumping out the ss pins is better than poking media out!!!

i'll let them tumble for 45 min to a hour and they come out cleaner than the media did. there is no dust and i let them tumble in the house. before, i had to put dry tumbler outside on the porch because it was too noisy and the dust.

HF dual tumbler and 4" pvc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtTxBqOwtnA

[porthos]

thanks farmbif: my thoughts exactly

[wmitty]

farmbif; you nailed it. If rifle brass needs cleaning, I’ll chuck it up in the battery drill chuck and spin it in 0000 steel wool. I don’t shoot auto pistol much and revolver brass stays clean enough for my taste.

[super6]

Clean brass at least shows you give a hoot. I'll be picky and eliminate the trouble. SS pins and some limi shine + dawn= easy No more than 45 min.

[6mm win lee]

The only thing I use is generic liquid dish detergent and steel pins. I clean all of my brass before I deprime. I have bought a lot of dirty brass in the past and in the beginning I scratched a die because I did not do a first cleaning. Now it is clean, dry, deprime, clean again (just because I have time on my hands), dry, prime, load, and shoot. And the brass looks fine without me using any kind of citric acid or other aid.