Aw dang…turned my brass olive drab again.

[tlawler]

I’ve had this happen a couple of times when I used too much lemishine, so I’m careful not to do that anymore. This time I tumbled a bunch of 10mm, setting it for 3 hours when I went to bed last night. Got up around 0430 this morning and rinsed it off. Beautiful shiny new looking brass! I couldn’t leave well enough alone, so after filling and rinsing a couple of times, I filled the tub back up with water and put it back on the rotary tumbler and went back to sleep. When I went to dump the water out, expecting clean water, I had a nasty oily sludge in there. I rinsed it out well again, but my previously shiny brass is now tarnished. No big deal, but I was expecting clean, shiny, well rinsed brass. My guess is that the chlorine content of the tap water reacted and tarnished it. And another thing I noticed is that it seems slicker than the squeaky clean super shiny brass, so maybe that’s a plus.

 

[kamloops67]

It’s new tactical camouflaged 10mm
You could charge a premium …

 

[Mike in Reedley]

Makes your empties conceal better in the grass. I have a dozen camouflage arrows in my backyard somewhere.

 

[lihpster]

My brother gave my dad a camo Maglite once. He had it for one day of the first trip.

 

[tlawler]

I ran another batch through today and just used my regular method…warm water, dawn, and a pinch of lemishine. Big difference! Oh, well. Live and learn. So my PSA on wet tumbling is: Don’t tumble rinse after you tumble wash.

 

[Sevens]

Can you turn it back to looking good or is it stuck ugly forever?

 

[tlawler]

Can you turn it back to looking good or is it stuck ugly forever?

I’m not sure. I’m going to load it as is, then hoping when I tumble it again, it’ll clean up. It’s just paper punching brass, so I’m not upset about it. Glad it wasn’t my Starline

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I had a few hundred 30-06 I left in the barn for years. The mud-dauber wasps climbed in, built nests and laid eggs. Most wasps hatched and flew away. Several larvae died and left a purple corps inside the case! When I wet tumbled these, it turned the brass and the stainless-steel pins purple. Did a quick rinse with water from my well (no chlorine) that got rid of any mud residue, but everything was still purple! I cleaned the pins by themselves 3 times still purple! After about a dozen uses the pins cleaned up. The 30-06 brass was WWII military brass, I couldn't get clean after 5 cycles, so I sold it as scrap!

Ivan

 

[socal s&w]

Ivan the Butcher --=--
At least you could tell your empties from the rest of the rifle range brass.
That'd be pretty handy for picking up semi-auto brass at any range!
mike

 

[Mike0251]

Dawn and just a tad of lemishine as you found out! This was range brass and its amazing what wet tumbling does. I also use a food dehydrator for drying after a good towel tumble.

 

[tlawler]

Dawn and just a tad of lemishine as you found out! This was range brass and its amazing what wet tumbling does. I also use a food dehydrator for drying after a good towel tumble.

But this was just plain tap water that turned it.

 

[Mike0251]

Ah ok, roger that. I've had to much lemishine discolor mine once. Lesson learned lol.

 

[rosewood]

It’s new tactical camouflaged 10mm
You could charge a premium …

A cheap metal detector will help you find them.

 

[tlawler]

Ah ok, roger that. I've had to much lemishine discolor mine once. Lesson learned lol.

Yeah, I’ve done that one also.

 

[gwpercle]

But this was just plain tap water that turned it.

You might want to Test that water before drinking it ...
Plain water and pins in a tumbler shouldn't tarnish brass dark OD green/brown ...
Gary

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I have a 1/4 teaspoon I left in the Lemishine jar. It has been there about 10-11 years and is getting ate up. For some reason I chose Palmolive detergent, maybe because of the old Madge commercials!

My polishing ratio calls for 2 pounds of brass, 1/4 teaspoon of limishine, 1/2 tablespoon of detergent and 4 quarts of hot tap water. I usually use one pint less of water to give room for the suds to expand. Almost every batch the water comes out looking like 15000 mile used motor oil! I also rinse the pins twice after every use.

Ivan

 

[Greenjoytj]

I use low sudsing Cascade brand dishwasher machine detergent.
Thick suds from car washing detergent or liquid Dawn or that new spray on Dawn make suds, suds so thick it can support the weight of SS pins within the suds.
When I rinse I want all the fouling to go down the drain fast and not leave a great blanket of suds in the bottom of the laundry tub.

I tumble for 1 hour then rinse, this remove well over 90 percent of all fouling and bullet. Recharge the tumbler with clean tap water and more detergent and tumble 1 more hour. After 2 hours tumbling in SS pins any fouling staining remaining stays a those case get processed into cartridges.
Too long in the RCBS tumbler peens the case mouths too much which require case mouth de-burring again.

 

[racoonbeast]

I wet pin tumble in the large size Frankford Arsenal tumbler. I toss in what looks like just short of too much brass. I give it a good blast of Dawn dish soap, and a good dollop of Real Lemon Juice out of the jug. Those are as precise as my measurements ever get. Never had a problem. Brass always looks great.

My buddy bought the same equipment and started following my lead. His first few batches came out fantastic. Then they started coming out stained dark and nasty. So far he has been unable to figure out why or get it to come out bright and shiny again.

There is some evil dark force at work here. Just can't figure out what.

 

[SMSgt]

Wipe them off with a rag and refill them.

 

[ajgunner]

Sounds like a whole bunch of work and expense compared to good old walnut media followed by corncob media. Usually about an hour of each and it goes back into a jar ready to load again. Real simple--no washing, no rinsing, no drying, no chemicals to shorten the integrity of the brass.