less health-hazardous brass cleaning method?

I use citric acid in warm water with drop or two of dawn. I then rinse them and put them on an old cookie sheet to dry. Buy the citric acid at wally world in the food canning section.

Works for me.

Have a blessed day,

Leon
 
JagmanFL said:
I bought a tumbler from Harbor Freight. It's small, but works great. It gets my brass really clean. I can tumble roughly 100 cases of .45 a.c.p. or 200 rounds of 9mm. using stainless steal media. I put in my dirty cases, the stainless steal media, a pinch of Lemi Shine and a few drops of Dawn dish soap and fill it with water. Seal it and tumble it for around 4 hours. When finished, I separate the cases from the media and put the cases on a towel out on my porch overnight. 100% dust free.
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I just got that same one after my Dillon blew a motor. With the 20% coupon, it was less than 43 bucks. So far, after about 5 batches of mixed shells, it seems to be well built. I wash my brass in a solution of simple green and hot water, then rinse them well and dry them on a cookie sheet in the oven set at 150. Then tumble them in walnut media with a cap of nu-finish poured in. I deprime after tumbling, since I have a Lee classic turret press.
I don’t see dust as an issue, but I think tumbling after washing keeps more stuff out of the air.
How often do you change media? And how often do you add the nu-finish? I’ve been running about 8 batches (maybe 500-600 shells) before dumping and refilling media. And I just add a capful in the beginning.
 
Interesting to see the elaborate methods folks have come up with. I zip dirty brass in to a mesh bag designed to hold "ladies' delicates" , throw it in to the washer and run it through a cycle.

They don't come out shiny, but they come out clean.
 
I have the same setup as the op except I do use a tumbler type separator from RCBS after tumbling. NuFinish car polish and used dryer sheets keep the dust down. Also changing the media more often helps. Never felt the need to wash my clothes after tumbling brass.
 
Most of the op's problems come from their selection in tumbling media. Corn cob media itself is dusty and it does little to absorb the dust that comes from tumbling cases.

Save your old drier sheets and add them (2 pieces) to your tumbler when doing a batch of brass. They will come out black from collecting the dust & will keep your media clean longer.

Myself, I use this product as media when I use a traditional tumbler to clean my brass.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Arm-Hamm...mmerCatLitter&wpa_tax=5440_202073&wpa_bucket=

I'm actually tumbling 400 38spl cases in it right now. It does an excellent job of cleaning cases and their is no dust with this product.

As others have already stated critic acid & dish soap works. Wet tumbling with and without pins also works.

I like to use the product above and dry tumble or wet tumble with or without pins. Either way, there's no dust.
 
joeintexas said:
I have the same setup as the op except I do use a tumbler type separator from RCBS after tumbling. NuFinish car polish and used dryer sheets keep the dust down. Also changing the media more often helps. Never felt the need to wash my clothes after tumbling brass.
Click to expand...

I do have a RCBS separator, with the inner slotted basket. I pour it into the basket, close the lid, crank the handle. It does a pretty good job of separating the media.

The problem is pouring from the tumbler to the separator, then the separator back into the tumbler, and digging the brass out of the basket. I keep my brass in ziplock bags. Some always spills, dust gets in the air and all over me and the clothes. Then it gets tracked inside and can contaminate the kitchen. The brass, even if supposedly clean, is still covered with a thin film of dust.

I have had a blood test, my lead levels are normal. I don't consider it to be silly to take precautions to avoid preventable chronic conditions. I also don't shoot indoors.
 
Beemer-mark said:
You need to wear a bio-hazard suit with respirator.

Honestly, if you're worried about the used corn cob material you should not be shooting any gun, let alone reloading.
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I wonder if the threads I see posted all of the time complaining about their many preventable, chronic diseases wish they weren't so flippant about their health in the past.
 
It's not lead in the tumbling residue that is harmful - instead, it's the mess left over from the spent primers...something "styphenate".
 
A Citric Acid comment. I usually buy it 10 pounds at a time off eBay, much cheaper that way. Of course I use only a minuscule amount of that for case cleaning. My wife uses most of it in her dishwasher - it prevents mineral scum on dishes and glassware, and that is what Lemi-Shine is sold for at about triple the price of bulk Citric Acid. 10 pounds of Citric Acid will last a couple of years, and I am about ready to buy another 10 pounds as I am down to about a half-pound.
 
No offence intended, but I'm thinking this is a "joke" thread, that the OP is pulling our leg. Tumble outside then immediately change clothes? (Sheldon Cooper ain't that paranoid). I don't know any reloaders that are this frightened of some dust exposure once or twice per month (if it was several times per day, maybe). The amount of lead in the dust is infinitesimal, too little to be considered. But there are several methods mentioned above to stay "safe" when tumbling brass .

There are many household chores that are more "toxic/dangerous" than tumbling brass, and stay away from bullet casting. Most city air is more dangerous than tumbling dust and in rural areas do the farms spray toxic materials (or any chemicals) from airplanes?

If the OP is offended by my observation, I apologize.
 
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If you are worried about the dust, then look into the Frankford Arsenal wet tumbler system. Mine came with 5 lbs of stainless steel pins. Deprime your cases first with a depriming die, then chunk the cases in the tumbler, add pins, about a teaspoon of Lemishine and a little shot of Dawn and tumble about an hour. I use my Dillon case separator to separate brass from pins and also rinse them with clean water at that time, then put them on an aluminum tray and place in the oven at around 200-210 degree and dry them for about 30-45 minutes. They will come out nice and clean and shiny, but the cleaning process strips every bit of oil and such off the cases so you might need to give them a little lube when resizing. You can also resize and deprime before wet tumbling, but I don't like to run dirty brass through my dies.

With that said, I use the wet tumbling process much less than using my Turbo 1200. I just use nitrile gloves when handling the cases and media and if you are really worried, wear a respirator.
 
I have to agree, it has to be the media he is using if he is tumbling outside and there is so much dust in the air he has to change clothes and take a shower. I tumble in the reloading shed and there is no sign of dust. The used dryer sheets do come out black but that is what they are put in there for.
 
muddocktor said:
...then put them on an aluminum tray and place in the oven at around 200-210 degree and dry them for about 30-45 minutes...
Click to expand...

The drying is the main reason I hadn't tried wet methods in the past. I don't want to contaminate my oven though...

I've heard of people putting their brass in one of those mesh bags the grapefruit come in and using the dish washer. I'm not going to do that either!
 
johngalt asked:
...less health-hazardous brass cleaning method?
Click to expand...

What health-hazard are you concerned about?

If it is lead, then please understand that I have been reloading (and processing the brass to do so) for 40 years. I have dry tumbled with walnut shells, wet tumbled with metal pins, soaked in weak acid solutions, as well as both dry and/or wet tumbled in mica, ball bearings, and rice. Regardless of the method, I have never taken any specific precautions to mitigate exposure to the tumbling media or any contaminants that might be in it, including lead.

Also, for the last 30 years, I have lived within sight of what was once one of the largest lead smelters in Texas. Because I live so close to a source of lead "contamination", I am regularly tested for lead both in my blood and in my hair.

Even with all that lead exposure, the lab tests continue to come back showing no detectable levels of lead. Based on my experience, you should choose a method for tumbling that produces the results you find pleasing with a level of effort that you find acceptable without worrying about exposure to lead or other toxins.
 
hdwhit said:
What health-hazard are you concerned about?
Click to expand...

I'm less concerned with the immediate exposure while handling the media, it is more about the contaminated dust getting on me, then getting it inside, in the kitchen, on the dishes, etc., and then ingesting it over the long term.

For example, I load lead bullets and have no concerns about handling them. I know that lead has to be ingested to be harmful, handling lead bullets is no danger.

The lead styphnate from the primers gets in the dust, then the air, and can be ingested. I've been doing this for 10 years with no ill effects, but I am tired of the mess and am looking for a better method. If it helps alleviate potential health risks, all the better.
 
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