Brass polishing...I am confused

[sniper]

What to use? I see recommendations for Mother's Mag Polishing potion, and Amazon has a 10 oz. tin listed. Walmart is the second most recommended source. The recommendations all seem to advise a couple of caps full into the tumbling media. So, is the Walmart product a liquid? I have some Turtle Wax liquid Chrome polish and rust remover, and wonder if that would be a good alternative for polishing brass, if it doesn't have ammonia in it?
What say, reloading gurus?

 

[Sevens]

I've always used Nu Finish car polish, just a smidge, with corn media in a vibratory tumbler. Time is passing me by as others are using steel pins and liquid tumbling and sonic cleaning.

Their brass looks nicer than mine, I can admit that. The issue I have is I cannot deal with anything wet. I need to have the option to forget I've left it in there for a week and you cannot do that with wet. I also don't want to deal with drying anything.

I might change my mind if I lived in an incredibly hot/sunny locale like Florida, where I could put brass outside to dry almost any day.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

All 3 of the products have been used for years with great success!! Untreated Corn Cob or Walnut shell media works fine too. (but gets dirty sooner)

I load for several type of shooting. How clean you want your brass depends on what you expect out of your ammo!

I seldom clean handgun brass any longer. Only if it is muddy or contaminated. Powder fouling is a type of carbon lubricant.

I liquid & steel pin clean my target rifle, Contender, and 1000 yard brass. Also my Black Powder brass. Those come out clean as factory new! (and can be "sticky" in progressive presses!)

Opinions on what you need are like belly buttons (mine included), everybody has one, but you have no need to pay any attention to it!


Ivan

 

[rhodesengr]

Can be too clean

When I gear up for metallic reloading, I decided to go the wet tumbling route. I have since learned that wet tumbling can make the brass "too clean". By "too clean" I mean that the brass can gall and seize particularly in the expander die. I was feeling this effect in my single stage die sets but it became a big issue with my Dillon SDB, especially with 45ACP. Dillon said to polish the expander die and use case lube both inside and outside the case. After doing these things, the seizing dodes in fact go away but its likely that you wouldn't see it on dry tumbled brass due to the residual carbon as mentioned above. It is a problem for new brass as well. I went a little overboard with the polishing because it was fun and I learned a lot. My trials and tribulations are in this thread here:
Brass deposit form vertical lines on Dillon powder funnel

I think either wet or dry tumbling can be made to work but wet tumbled brass (or new brass) benefits greatly from some case lube: Hornady One Shot, Dillon Synthetic, DIY Lanolin at 10% in Red HEET fuel treatment. I've tried them all and they seem to work about the same.

 

[dave1918a2]

I use a Dillon 1000 a with walnut media. I put in 3 oz's of Brasso. Also put a dryer sheet in from time to time. Keeps the dust down.

 

[BE Mike]

What to use? I see recommendations for Mother's Mag Polishing potion, and Amazon has a 10 oz. tin listed. Walmart is the second most recommended source. The recommendations all seem to advise a couple of caps full into the tumbling media. So, is the Walmart product a liquid? I have some Turtle Wax liquid Chrome polish and rust remover, and wonder if that would be a good alternative for polishing brass, if it doesn't have ammonia in it?
What say, reloading gurus?

I use liquid Flitz with ground walnut shell media. There are other cheaper options, like NuFinish, as has always been mentioned. A very little goes a long way with polish. I don't like Brasso or Simichrome for polishing brass. I also use liquid Flitz to polish my wife's silver plate tea and coffee service. About the only benefit to polishing brass is it makes it easier to see when retrieving and to see flaws like cracks. Wet cleaning with pins seems to have more drawbacks than pluses.

 

[rhodesengr]

What to use?

Maybe Dillon's stuff rather than repurposing a household product
Dillon Case Lube and Rapid Polish

What I learned in my brass polishing endeavor is that household products are poorly specified. Flitz is popular in the gun world for a number of things. After some digging, I found a reference that claimed Flitz uses 5 micron grit. Blue Magic is said to be 40micro (about 400 grit). I'd rather just use industrial products that actually tell you the grit size but I imagine Dillon's product does the job in dry media.

 

[SGT ROCK 11B]

What to use?

What say, reloading gurus?

For handgun and rifle brass I just Dry Tumble. It has worked well for 40+ years for me. It is something not to over think. Just follow your favorite Reloading Manual.

 

[GypsmJim]

I've used several of the "chemicals" listed above. Not worth my effort.

Put them in a dry tumbler with dry media and let them go for an hour. Clean and shiny as could be.

Of course, I do this after every shoot, so they have not been shot without cleaning for many times.

I tried NuFinsh but it didn't do a better job. Just cost more.

 

[ShowMePro]

My brass gets dry tumbled in walnut media and Nu-finish. Its not 'mirror' bright, just good enough bright. After all, you shoot it and its dirty again and you go through the whole process yet again....

 

[max]

My tumbler is vibrating away as we speak. It is filled with corncobs and a bit of Nu-Finish. Just a small bit of Nu-finish is added every 3 or 4 months.

 

[Model19man]

What to use? I see recommendations for Mother's Mag Polishing potion, and Amazon has a 10 oz. tin listed. Walmart is the second most recommended source. The recommendations all seem to advise a couple of caps full into the tumbling media. So, is the Walmart product a liquid? I have some Turtle Wax liquid Chrome polish and rust remover, and wonder if that would be a good alternative for polishing brass, if it doesn't have ammonia in it?
What say, reloading gurus?

Worth a try.

 

[LostintheOzone]

I use a Dillon 1000 a with walnut media. I put in 3 oz's of Brasso. Also put a dryer sheet in from time to time. Keeps the dust down.

I've used NuFinish and Brasso with walnut medium. They both costs about the same. Brasso doesn't clump up in the medium like NuFinish so that's my new brass polisher.

I'm not sure if anything is actually needed except the walnut medium if one wants to run the tumbler awhile longer.

 

[Racer X]

I'm in the walnut shell/vibratory tumbler/NuFinish camp. I think the NuFinish leaves a slickness to the brass that makes it just a tiny bit easier to reload, and seals the brass from oxidizing to a degree.

Citric acid wash will strip the brass clean, but leave the brass uncoated with anything. I suspect it will tarnish faster, and drag a bit more while reloading the brass and extracting from the chamber.

my partner and I collect rocks and minerals, and she makes jewelry. I literally have 5 rotary tumblers, one a triple barrel 15# monster, but I use my industrial vibratory tumbler for brass cleaning. If I have some nasty muddy range pick-up stuff, I will rotary tumbler clean them with soap and water though.

 

[rwsmith]

Vibrator.......

Vibrator/polish, still do it the old way. My ammo doesn't have to gleem as long as it's clean.

 

[twodog max]

I use both methods wet and dry tumbling. When using dry I add nothing as it has always worked for me without any additive.
I got a wet tumbler for black powder cartridges and it comes through there and now use it on anything I think needs a more than regular cleaning. Drying is no big deal in the warm months put the brass in a dark baking pan in the sun and it is bone dry in a couple hours. In the winter close to the wood stove same result.
My biggest problem with wet is getting the pins out of some brass. I am going to chips soon.

 

[BE Mike]

Vibrator/polish, still do it the old way. My ammo doesn't have to gleem as long as it's clean.

I beg to differ. I do it the "real" old way. I use a Lortone QT12 rotary lapidary tumbler!

 

[Skeet 028]

I use wet and dry both. Prefer the looks of wet better. Some say it's "too much work" but it's truly not. I do a double batch at a time. Rinse and dry 'em on the tailgate even in winter. Just bought a Large Dillon tumbler at a recent auction for 40 bucks I'm going to use for corncob media for first firing after wet cleaning. I also got a Dillon decapping die with a Herter's Super Model 3 Boat anchor press with 8 shellholders for 2.50 so I can decap first. The tumbler had a half a bottle of Dillon polish with it. Kinda purple stuff.

 

[flyfishinjunkee]

Corn cob media and a squirt of turtle wax from Walmart.. Run for minimum of 12 hours...

 

[Model19man]

If the brass has black spots I tend to do both wet tumbling with the FART juice, then polish it after it dries in the walnut shell vibratory cleaner with a dab of Simichrome. If the brass is simply a little dirty I use only the vibratory cleaner with walnut shell media and Simichrome.

I have never used the stainless pins, that seems like an unnecessary hardship.