Brass Shining Made Easy!

[Josh Smith]

Hello,

I was playing with different methods of shining brass.

Wet tumbling, I used 2 cups water and added one tablespoon lime juice.

This is the result:



I hope this helps someone!

Regards,

Josh

 

[Pokinfun]

I use about a teaspoon lemi shine and squirt of blue dawn. I also use a teaspoon of lemi shine when I rinse the brass.

 

[MikieG7174]

Why the citrus products?

 

[swampratt]

Basically citric acid makes them clean up easier and protects the brass.. Chelates the brass.

I have just recently quit using dish soap and am using Armorall wash and wax with my Lemishine which is 98 or99% citric acid.
Just about 1/16 teaspoon Lemishine and 1 teaspoon of wash and wax to 2 Quarts of warm water to clean about 1 quart of cases in my tumbler.

Try Blue coral wash and wax or Armorall wash and wax.. You might be amazed.

I have been pin tumbling for a few years and learned many things ,,one is the fact that too much Citric acid will remove the copper from the brass and redeposit it onto the case and leave you with pink cases..It is fine and cleans up.

I see it much more pronounced since I use Copper pins instead of steel.

I tried steel and it peened the cases..not enough to really see right off the bat but during sizing and feeling of the case neck ID with a tool you can tell the ID is much rougher.. my accuracy suffered just a smidgen vs using copper pins.

The bullet seating forces were just ever so slightly uneven.
You can use a mini valve spring tester to test bullet seating forces.. Well with a little craftiness anyway.

 

[aviator41]

I've been using SS pins now for several years with great success. I can clean up to 400 38 cases in my thumblers tumbler. I use 1/4 tsp lemishine and a good squirt of dawn then let them tumble for a couple hours. the cases all come out as new. I've had the same results with everything from 45-70 to 32hr and everything in between. the trick to so not overload the tumbler and figure out how much lemishine you need to counteract your hard water level.

I have, by accident, left a load of 223/5.56 running overnight only to discover than the brass had turned an interesting olive drab color, almost like a steel case color and the water was full of the nastiest black silt I'd ever experienced. it stained everything it touched! The brass shoots fine it just looks funny, but it's clean and loads just fine. I got a big chuckle out of my absent minded mistake!

 

[MikieG7174]

I am told that the pins get turned sideways in .223 cases and get stuck in there.
Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[swampratt]

You may get a few stuck .. just inspect all cases before loading.
The pins that get stuck toss them in the trash.
I hear .041" diameter pins can double up in the flash holes and some people like the .047" diameter.

I made my own copper pins and I tossed the stuck pins.
It really is not biggie.. maybe 2 out of 200 cases i will find a stuck pin.

The more you clean the less you end up finding as you toss the culprits.