Cleaning brass

[lkothe]

Wash my brass in HOT water and Dawn, agitating with a thick rubber glove for 15 minutes, drop in a bit of Lemashine, agitate another few minutes, lay them out to dry on a towel after rinsing. Deprime and size, bell the mouth if applicable, tumble in walnut hull and finish with adding some nufinish. 2 half sheets of used Bounce in each batch. Shiny and no dust.

 

[gfercaks33]

Alright I'll dist them off with an old towel and call it good. Reloading room is the garage, every thing I did like sifting I wore a dust mask, maybe over kill but I felt safe.

 

[Buzzdraw]

If my brass is really dirty I will give it a water rinse then let it sun/air dry. Usually though its a matter of sort by caliber, load it in the vibrator and run it for a couple hours or until clean shiny. I use commercially crushed walnut hulls with a mix of Dillon liquid brass cleaner and a bit of Mother's Chrome and Mag Wheel cleaner. I toss in 3-4 used clothes dryer sheets to control dust. I do not deprime prior to polishing. Works fine. I do wear a nuisance dust mask when loading/unloading the vibratory cleaner. Also I wash hands thoroughly with automotive pumice hand cleaner after unloading/reloading the vibrator. My vibrator lives either on the back porch or in the garage; it does not come into the house.

 

[swampratt]

When I used the vibratory method I used my air compressor to remove the dust.
That dust can be inside the cases and scratch up the dies.
As I found out later when I ended up with an expander stem with scratches all over it and scratches inside the rifle case necks.

For best accuracy and die life I would brush the necks before and after sizing and blow each case clean.

 

[Buzzdraw]

The grit is rough on loading dies. I can see the benefit of the blast of air from an air compressor. That dust has some lead particles in it so a really good dust mask would be part of the needed equipment. Maybe even a cabinet of some sort to trap most of the airborne dust as it settles down.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

That stainless pin tumbler eliminates the dust and does a really good job.

 

[DRC458]

I re-size and decap, then run them through the sonic cleaner with Hornady One Shot solution for twenty-four minutes. Rinse them well, shake off excess water, and blow them out with the air compressor. Then into the vibratory tumbler for thirty to forty minutes. Blow them off good with the air compressor and they come out looking like new.

 

[gregb21]

After I my last tumbler quit, I bought a rock tumbler from harbor freight for about $50 and some stainless steel media and run the brass in hot water with a few drops of liquid soap and a pinch of lemon shine. Run them for about an hour and they come out very shiny. Cleaner than I ever could with a dry media tumbler. I can clean about a 100 .223 in an hour. I decapp first so they clean the primer pocket also. Havent had any problems and have done it for about a year.

 

[turkeyrun]

I have used a rock tumbler with walnut media for 30 yrs.

Tumbled is tumbled, just in how the machine is marketed.

 

[Sam Upton]

I use lizard litter, in a Harbor Freight rock tumbler add chrome polish every few batches. I have had a bag in the garage for 3 years. When adding the polish I tumble without shells while I decap, the Polish will clod up primer pockets if you don't.