Cleaning brass

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gfercaks33

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What's some tips or process to clean them?

Here's what I did so far in order.

De capped, put in tumbler for 3 to maybe 4 hours with walnut and some meguires Polish ( it's what I had) They have came out with a satin sheen and look clean but very dusty (the insides have some black at the bottom still but I'm not too worried about that). My next step I was going to swish them around in water with a tiny bit of dawn to get the dust off (is that a good idea?).

Going forward I was planning on doing it this way
Rinse in water with dawn, de-cap, tumble, get dust off.

I saw some people run it through walnut and then run it through corn cob to polish is that a good practice or not.

Any other tips would be appreciated.
 

swampratt

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Yes the dust sucks.
I built a pin tumbler and have mothballed the vibrator for a couple years.

I tried all kinds of stuff in the Lizzard litter to keep dust down.
An old sock ran through it every so often picked up a lot of the dust.
My best was no polish.. just the lizzard litter with 2 of the cutie oranges in it.

Well the orange peelings in it,
I let the orange peelings sit on the counter overnight then tore them into 1" pieces and tossed them into the vibratory with the brass cases..
Clean and shiny..well for a vibratory anyway.

If you have a car battery i can loan my pin tumbler to you.
Or drop off some spent cases and i will clean some for you to see if that is the way you like them cleaned.
It takes 1/3 the time to clean them in a pin tumbler.

In fact i need to do a batch of 45acp
 

rickm

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Add some USED dryer sheets ( I use 2) to your walnut and and it will help with the dust.
I prefer corn cob myself the walnut is to course for me some like it so it is a personal preference.
 

jc5420

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Use a mesh laundry bag to hold your brass in and use an air compressor to blow off all the dust. I do this, only so I do not track the dust into the house. If I still loaded in the garage I would just leave the dust, I have never had any issues with it.
 

Blitzfike

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A couple of capfulls of odorless mineral spirits added to the media will reduce dust dramatically. Before I started pin tumbling wet, I was able to extend the life of my dry media tremendously by adding the mineral spirits every time it started getting dusty.
 

dennishoddy

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So I shouldn't bother rinsing it off right now?

I don't rinse anything. I have the RCBS tumbler that separates the media from the brass. Its sealed so the dust doesn't get into the reloading room. Once it settles, remove the brass and start loading.

Be sure to not eat or drink anything around the loading bench and wash your hands afterward to remove any residual lead contamination.
 

DFX

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Procure an older bath towel, lay it on the reloading room floor, spread tumbled brass on it, roll 'em around a little to remove dust.
 

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