cleaning a mix of brass using homemade recipe part 1 of 2. 9mm luger, 380 auto, 40 smith and Wesson, 45acp, rcbs, tumbler, brasso. folks please leave comments, I would love suggestions
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this great cost saving advise as well as the solution to my project issues. First, I'm not a reloader. The brass I want to polish is a Tool Check brass coin used for checking tools out at work. You give the check to hang on the pin for the spot where the tool hangs in storage. When you bring the tool back, you get your tool check returned. Each employee has several numbered checks with their ID number on them. I'll go get the materials tomorrow. 👍 ✌
I just bought a can of Brasso at my local WalMart yesterday. The price is about the same as what you paid for yours. I bought it to add to my corncab media to help shine and clean my brass. I love your tip on saving money for our reloading case cleaning. Thank you.
I like your cost saving approach, I do the same! I use both of those media's, the only problems I have had is; 1. crushed walnut is so small that it tends to stick into small places/crevices of the cases and comes out on the press and shell holder. I have to be aware of buildup and remove with toothbrush. 2. Crushed corncob in 223 cases actually filled up some cases and got lodged into it hard. Major pain in the butt removing it. Add just a capful of NuFinish car polish (at any parts store or Walmart) BEFORE you add the brass, let it run for 5-15 mins THEN add brass as normal, works very well. Also, add 1/2 of a USED dryer sheet to help cut down on dust! Cmax
Ammonia age hardens brass and this will eventually cause splits in brass walls and even case head separation. The British army discovered this during the 18th century when they stored their ammunition in stables with horses and the ammonium fumes from the horse waste over time caused the brass to become age hardened and split during firing. The ammonium gas also fumed the stable oak timber frames to turn black by causing tannin acid in wood to react.
Great video. Liked hearing about the places in Rhode Island. I used to belong to Wallum Lake Rod and Gun Club for a short time, but moved to Arizona in 2009. Now I shoot at Ben Avery Shooting Facility.
I only use corn cob for cases that haven't been de-primed yet. Corn cob and rice can lodge in the primer flash hole but the walnut I use is small enough to flow through the flash hole.
Two other things - I have a plastic carry basket like the ones supermarkets and convenience stores offer for their customers - the openings in the basket are small enough to prevent anything from .380/9mm on up from falling through and it makes a great strainer. 2nd - I use a 1 inch collar on my vibrator shaft so I don't have to spin the wing nut down a full inch when securing the lid!
got ya beat i use a plastic container from the dollar tree, vinigar salt soap and water. let it soak a few and shake it good by hand for a few minutes and they're clean. i then do it again with soap and hot water to be safe but after a good flushing, it's clean. not as shiny but certainly clean. i'll get a tumbler eventually though. walmart still carries brasso
You should not mix calibers of cases in your tumbler. It takes longer to clean and some never do get clean because they sit inside each other. The instructions should have mentioned that. I have a Berry's tumbler and use the Berry's Brass Bright additive. It has been working very well for the last 30 years 👍
I just wanted to say thank you Livelarge86, . . . I was pretty discouraged with my brass cleaning, . . . my old first class petty officer in the Navy would have had my gizzard if I had offered him the results I was getting at first. Then I saw this and honestly I kinda chuckled, . . . "Rice??? Rice???". Absolutely made a 200% difference. I was about to give up on the dry process and maybe go to stainless pins and the wet way. Thankfully, . . . this was here, . . . I'm in business, . . . and have a second batch doing it's thing even right now.
I've tried the corn cob from the pet store and what I found is that it breaks down way to fast and cakes up, stick with the stuff packaged for tumbling, just buy in bulk. Brasso can be found at homedepot. I run walnut shells with rouge in a lyman 1200 pro and then transfer to the dillon 2001 which has the corncob treated with Brasso. brass comes out looking better than new. I do use a modified kitty litter scoop for sifting the brass out of the big tumber.
NEVER EVER tumble brass that can go inside other brass. 9mm mixed with 45 acp will leave you 9mm brass jammed into 45 ACP brass..which can be a real PIA to get apart...This is particularly bad with dry media, though with wet cleaning it will do the same. 9mm mixed with 308 (etc) will do the same thing...the case will go over the mouth of the 308 (etc) case and jam there. ALWAYS tumble brass of the same mouth size within reason. Ive been reloading for 45 yrs..didnt take me long to figure this out...chuckle...
After cleaning some mixed range brass, I've had a .45 that ate a .40 which ate a 9mm. They can be difficult to separate, and would need to be tumbled again. It is best to separate mixed brass before tumbling.
I have given up on dry tumbling all together after 45 years of reloading. Wet tumbling after sizing and removing the primers leaves the cases looking "BETTER" than new cases. The Frankford Arsenal wet tumblers and stainless steel media with a half teaspoon of Lemi-Shine and an ounce or two of Armor-All Car Wash soap with Carnauba Wax, run for 90 minutes will give you the best looking brass you've ever seen. I sold all three of my dry tumblers in a yard sale just to get rid of them. Besides soap and Lemi-Shine are a lot cheaper than are those crappy expensive polishes that don't work worth a darn. Good luck and have a good one buddy.
Ronald Dolfay I have just purchased a Frankford this week. But the pins were a disaster and the water spots crazy.. had to dry tumble for 20 minutes. Boy do I need to figure the out! New video coming once I get it right.
I remember back when ammo was hard to get and some of the online outlets were charging terrible prices. I vowed that I would never buy from these people and haven't. That's when I started reloading and haven't looked back.
Ammonia weakens brass, that is a proven fact, could that be a problem in an item that needs to contain as much as 50,000 psi a few inches from your face and eyes? There are lots of good brass polishes that don't contain ammonia, there is absolutely no need to use Brasso or some other polish that contains ammonia. I like Flitz, Flitz liquid or Flitz makes a specific product made for use as a media additive for cleaning shell casings, and it works great. Walnut is the most aggressive, corn cob is less aggressive than walnut shell, in general walnut shell cleans faster but doesn't polish as well, corn cob can give a nice polish, either one works better with some Flitz in it. I've been reloading for 50 years and bought my first Dillon 550 in 1985, well over 100,000 rounds on that 550, love it, now have a 550 and a 650 both, love them!
Do a little testing or research 🤔 The Walnut shell is by far harder than rice and corncob. They used it in the production of winter tires for automobiles. They also use it for blasting like sand for surface cleaning. I have been reloading for almost 30 years and I use WALNUT for cleaning. If you use a polish additive it is more than sufficient. If you want a super high shine polish use corncob with the additive. It will come out looking like jewelry!! Lol
ammonia breaks up carbon. thats why it works so well. we used to soak cylinder heads from car engines in straight ammonia bought from the cleaning aisle in the grocery store. it can be very harsh though and not eco friendly. be careful not to have or add any other cleaners. the fumes can and will kill you. just my 2 cents. have fun but be safe.
Just stick to corn cob media, walnut media and the rice will leave residue. The course corn cob media will NOT get into the rims, flash holes and flash holes as well as a finer grade of media. It's worth spending a little more for a finer grade of corn cob media.
This is not opinion nor do i have a dog in the fight. Many years ago i was told never use Brasso’s on your Casings. I It is told that it weaken the brass under pressure. I am just passing this on. Each reloader needs to decide for themselves. I for one do’t buy into the Brasso’s warnings. I have used this blend of media my self
+Aplus Victory Products, never tried it. this works fine for me. but ive seen that they have walnut polishing media, don't get me wrong, all my dies are Dillon and I love them. but why pay more. for almost the same thing? I go to Petco anyway for my pets and Walmart as well for the corn cob, brasso and rice. what I may tray is a friend of mine is using stainless shot with walnut and he says he loves it but how does he recycle the shot when the walnut is dirty? well more an acquaintance at the club than friend, still talk to folks, most will be VERY helpful.
Great job flushing out the gouger. There should be a whole lot more of this being done on youtube and people selling crap and gouging would be starved out as they should be. Fair is fair guys We are your customers and you need us more than We need you. Shooters should have a long memory for these low life when they see these types of things and a picture is worth a thousand words.
And for those really dirty tough-to-clean brass cases, I use the following mixture: 1 cup of sand, 1 cup of broken class, 1 cup of steel shavings, one cup of rock salt, and 1 cup of ammonia. The cases come out really clean. How clean? So clean that you cannot even see them.
Hey man i've been using corn cobb for tumbling without anything else and been finding the media to get stuck in the casing (223) Is there a way to get this stuff out easily or should I switch my media to just ground english walnut shells?
When I tried Brasso, the cases started to discolour after a couple of days and the insides started to turn green, I've been trying several products and had the shiniest brass with an old tube of ScratchX I had on hand, Barkeepers Friend was kind of OK, clean but not bright and shiny, Nu Finish car polish next on the list.
Will if your friend bought that junk ammo he should stop as far as brasso you can still buy it in grocery stores or at walmart i am in fl i can find it all the time have been useing brasso for over 40yrs no problem you must be in RI or mass
I have been reloading for 25 years Better not use brass o... it will weaken your brass.. anything with ammonia or vinegar will weaken it... use liquid car polish like the orange bottle once year.. forget the name
agreed at the time a commercial loader was using brass-o and still swears by it. kind of a non-point now, i have been wet tumbling for the last 2 years and will not go back to this type of tumbling
