Simple Green instead of Hornady One Shot Cleaner?

K

kbm6893

SWCA Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
6,772
Reaction score
7,198
Location
Pennsylvania
I tumble my Brass after depriving, then sonic clean with Hornady One shkt brass cleaning. The One Shot looks and smells like Simple Green. But way cheaper. Kind of like non chlorinated brake cleaner is cheaper than gun scrubber. I thoroughly rinse the brass after done and let dry for a few days.
 
Only problem testing out cleaners that are not stated to be for brass cases...........

is that they may have a chemical that might react with the case in the long run,
unknown to you.
One reason I stopped using Brasso on my cases.
 
Ammonia is the common "not for cases" chemical in cleaners (Brasso). Personally I have no need to go through all the steps you do, but I see no reason not to try the Simple Green. When I worked for a large city water and power dept. we bought Simple Green in 55 gallon drums. As a heavy equipment electrician Ii used it on everything that could be cleaned. No adverse reactions on brass, copper, or solder...
 
GREEN

Well I use orange Kool-Aid, non sugar old fashion in my sonic cleaner- BEFORE tumbling. :) Not sure why one would tumble before cleaning. Have heard of the Green before, but why bother?? JMHO :)
 
For years, before I bought a tumbler, I would soak and clean my brass in a solution of water and simple green. Be sure to rinse and dry thoroughly.

But if you own a tumbler, why bother with the sonic clean?
 
CITRIC ACID

DWalt said:
Citric acid works well. Cheap in bulk, but many supermarkets sell it as Lemi Shine, used in dishwashers
Click to expand...

----------------

Much cheaper than Lemi Shine is just plain citric acid, which I also use. I find it at our local 'Sharp Shopper' and also in a Menoite store in the valley at Denton VA just south of Harrisburg. Looks for all the world like old fashion washing detergent before they started putting all that stuff in it. :(
Why? Well several reasons but the main one is it will clean better than tumbling, INCLUDING the INSIDE, and PRIMER POCKETS. Good enough for me, and cheap to boot. A small fan dries the brass on a tray while laying on a towel. Then a quick polish --
After doing this for some time I located and bought a first NRA reloading manual that at one point talked about using citric acid to clean brass. By then, for once, I was ahead of the curve.:D We are talking, at the time, of cleaning, after depriming, several 41/2 gallon buckets of brass. :)
 
cadmike said:
For years, before I bought a tumbler, I would soak and clean my brass in a solution of water and simple green. Be sure to rinse and dry thoroughly.

But if you own a tumbler, why bother with the sonic clean?
Click to expand...

Because the tumbler does a good job of cleaning the outside of brass, but not as well as the inside or the primer pockets. I know it's overkill, but I like clean brass, and there's something about a workbench full of shiny brass that I just like.
 
kbm6893 said:
Because the tumbler does a good job of cleaning the outside of brass, but not as well as the inside or the primer pockets. I know it's overkill, but I like clean brass, and there's something about a workbench full of shiny brass that I just like.
Click to expand...

There’s no wrong way to clean brass, but if you like a bench full of shiny brass, then stainless pins are your friend. I haven’t used my tumbler since I started using them.
 
Simple Green should not be used on aluminum that has no protective coating......for example..... some bike rims, parts etc etc..... aluminum airplanes.
The pro riders advised me to rinse it off quickly if it must be used.
If I want real shiny brass I call Starline. ;)

Lotsa sonic cleaning recipes on the better gun sites.
We use Hornady and a drop of dishwashing soap if I need to clean them but there ain’t no shine.
I was advised by the ROs at a large chain store/range to bring shiny reloads as only factory ammo is now allowed...... just in case uneducated management is annoying us. ;)
 
Last edited:
J. R. WEEMS said:
----------------

Much cheaper than Lemi Shine is just plain citric acid, which I also use. I find it at our local 'Sharp Shopper' and also in a Menoite store in the valley at Denton VA just south of Harrisburg. Looks for all the world like old fashion washing detergent before they started putting all that stuff in it. :(
Why? Well several reasons but the main one is it will clean better than tumbling, INCLUDING the INSIDE, and PRIMER POCKETS. Good enough for me, and cheap to boot. A small fan dries the brass on a tray while laying on a towel. Then a quick polish --
After doing this for some time I located and bought a first NRA reloading manual that at one point talked about using citric acid to clean brass. By then, for once, I was ahead of the curve.:D We are talking, at the time, of cleaning, after depriming, several 41/2 gallon buckets of brass. :)
Click to expand...

Lemishine is about 4 bucks for years and years of use and find it anywhere. I like to use a cheap dehydrator to dry my brass. Takes about 20 minutes or less.
 
Last edited:
I buy Citric Acid off eBay, usually 10 pounds at a time. Very little goes to cleaning brass, most goes into the dishwasher. It prevents water spotting on dishes and glasses. 10 pounds will last us several years, much cheaper than buying Lemi-Shine at the supermarket. I think Lemi-Shine also contains an anti-caking agent, that's the only difference. For cleaning brass, a teaspoon or two of Citric Acid in a quart of water is OK. And you can re-use the solution indefinitely if you want. It will eventually turn green.

The CA I get from eBay usually comes in a sealed plastic bag. After opening it I pour it into a plastic gallon jug with a screw lid for storage. Else it will clump.
 
If you don't want to buy citric acid in bulk most grocery stores have it in small containers in the home canning supplies dept. I use a tablespoon of CA per gallon of distilled water with a healthy shot or two of dish washing soap in my sonic cleaner and have good results. A gallon of solution lasts about a year for me.
 
Last edited:
I get my CR at the Armish store.It is not much there ,then if you get it at a health store that higher price I use it if my brass is really dirty other wise I just use walnut ground up for the first tumbler then size and deprime and then use ground corn cobs finish and the brass come out shine enough for me.Why i use the ground walnut first to take all the dirt or what ever is on the brass and not mess up my dies.
 
I tried simple green in my RCBS ultra sonic cleaner for cleaning my brass and while it did clean the brass it did darken it quite a bit. I use Hornady one shot case cleaner now, works better and is not expensive.
 
Hmmm. A member asks about Simple Green and gets 7 replies about citric acid, and 5 about SG???.

Case cleaning/polishing is prolly the most talked about but least important part of reloading...
 
I have used a light solution of Simple Green to clean cases manually, (between pin tumbling's) in a dishpan for quite a while now. No issues have come up. I use about 1/4 cup to 1 gal. of very warm water in the dishpan, dump a few hundred (or less) cases in the pan and just use my hands to swirl them around for a minute or so, let them soak for a bit and rinse thoroughly. I shake them out on a old towel to get most of the water off, then into the oven on 175 for about 8 min. This is before they ever get near a sizing die, but I de-prime with a de-priming die first. When the cases are really grungy I pin tumble.

Almost takes longer to type it than to do it.
 
Last edited:
When you wet tumble with stainless steel media you use dish washing soap and Lemishine which contains citric acid. Simply put the soap cleans the brass and the citric acid adds bling. And the wet tumbling with stainless steel media scrubs the cases. And a sonic cleaner only vibrates with no scrubbing action.

Suggestion, try using Dawn dish washing soap and Lemishine (citric acid) in your sonic cleaner. I say this because some people wet tumble without the SS pins just using dish washing soap and Lemishine.


Simple Green | All Purpose Cleaner
Simple Green Ingredients
Water 84.8%
C9-11 Alcohols Ethoxylated 5%
Sodium Citrate 5%
Sodium Carbonate 1%
Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate 1%
Citric Acid 1%
Methylchloroisothiazolinone 0.002%
Methylisothiazolinone 0.001%
Fragrance Proprietary Mixture < 1%
Liquitint Colorant Proprietary Mixture < 1%
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T
Cleaning and Lubricating Dies
2
Replies
30
Views
1K
chief38
chief38
W
Action Cleaning Without Disassembly Question
2
Replies
20
Views
1K
chief38
chief38
K
Old S&W’s in Sonic Cleaner?
Replies
8
Views
843
kbm6893
K
scruffy
One More New BG 2.0 Review
Replies
5
Views
790
Granddad
Granddad
C
Brutal barrel-cleaning session with the Bodyguard
Replies
7
Views
1K
minconrevo
M

Latest posts

Back
Top