jmmitc06
Member
Not so much a question but just an interesting thing I noticed after cleaning brass.
So prepping for my all day reloading session tomorrow I sonicated a mixture of nickel coated and brass cartridges of mixed calibers for 480 seconds in heated water in a dilute solution of phosphoric and sulfuric acid (from birchwood casey brass cleaner concentrate). After sonicating I washed the brass for 10 minutes in a colander using tap water, allowed to air dry for 30 minutes, and then heated the brass in a 200F oven for 15 minutes.
After removing it from the oven the outer surface of the brass had a brownish tint, which I like more than shiny brass for some reason, but there is a beautiful blue tint on the inside of cartidges. My hypothesis is that this is from remaining phosphoric/sulfuric acid on the inside of the cartridges that was not washed off during the heating process but I'm not sure what exactly the chemical nature of the product inside the cartridge is yet. My guess is copper phosphate or copper sulfate as both are blue but I'm not sure how to test this hypothesis save with what I have on hand. Secondly, nickel cases do not show this discoloration although nickel phosphate is green and nickel sulfate is blue.
Additionally, there are regions on the outside that are more orange than brown. Microscopic examination at 100x was unremarkable. Brass integrity is unaffected.
I just thought this was interesting so I thought I would write up. I'm really curious to determine what exactly happened, more curious to see if I can get the blue color on the outside of the cartridges consistently. It would make finding my brass at the indoor range alot easier.
So prepping for my all day reloading session tomorrow I sonicated a mixture of nickel coated and brass cartridges of mixed calibers for 480 seconds in heated water in a dilute solution of phosphoric and sulfuric acid (from birchwood casey brass cleaner concentrate). After sonicating I washed the brass for 10 minutes in a colander using tap water, allowed to air dry for 30 minutes, and then heated the brass in a 200F oven for 15 minutes.
After removing it from the oven the outer surface of the brass had a brownish tint, which I like more than shiny brass for some reason, but there is a beautiful blue tint on the inside of cartidges. My hypothesis is that this is from remaining phosphoric/sulfuric acid on the inside of the cartridges that was not washed off during the heating process but I'm not sure what exactly the chemical nature of the product inside the cartridge is yet. My guess is copper phosphate or copper sulfate as both are blue but I'm not sure how to test this hypothesis save with what I have on hand. Secondly, nickel cases do not show this discoloration although nickel phosphate is green and nickel sulfate is blue.
Additionally, there are regions on the outside that are more orange than brown. Microscopic examination at 100x was unremarkable. Brass integrity is unaffected.
I just thought this was interesting so I thought I would write up. I'm really curious to determine what exactly happened, more curious to see if I can get the blue color on the outside of the cartridges consistently. It would make finding my brass at the indoor range alot easier.
. Now about this exhaust fan and the air conditioning?
