Drying cases that were cleaned with an ultrasonic cleaner

[ChillyDog]

I put mine in a big towel and tumble them around in that to get the most of water out of them, then, In the summer I set them in the sun in a large pan, winter in the pan with a fan blowing on them in the room with the wood burner.

 

[9mmPatriot]

I bought a used food dehydrator for a whopping $10 on facebook marketplace. Works perfectly.

 

[len917]

DO NOT USE THE MICROWAVE!!!!!!!!!

 

[oldvette]

Tarnished brass cleaning

I use lots of range brass. If I collect 200 rounds, perhaps 30 will be less shiny and tarnished somewhat because they experienced a rainfall(s). When I run these through my vibrator, the shiny brass gets really shiny, but the tarnished brass seems to look more tarnished.

What is the preferred liquid or chemical treatment to clean up the tarnished brass to look as good as the freshly dropped brass? I'd like to use these, but want them to be nice and clean before reloading. I would decap this brass prior to any cleanup process.

Jack

 

[9mmPatriot]

Wet tumbler with stainless steel media.

 

[Engineer1911]

It is brass, like diaper it will get dirty, nothing else to add.

 

[Krogen]

I use lots of range brass. If I collect 200 rounds, perhaps 30 will be less shiny and tarnished somewhat because they experienced a rainfall(s). When I run these through my vibrator, the shiny brass gets really shiny, but the tarnished brass seems to look more tarnished.

What is the preferred liquid or chemical treatment to clean up the tarnished brass to look as good as the freshly dropped brass? I'd like to use these, but want them to be nice and clean before reloading. I would decap this brass prior to any cleanup process.

Jack

Like 9mmPatriot said: Stainless pins in a tumbler with water, Dawn and Lemishine. I scarf up range brass for use in "lost brass" matches. Doesn't bug me to shoot it and leave it on the ground. The stainless pin method cleans the worst of it so well that it looks new. Cleans the inside and the primer pockets too. It actually gets the cases squeaky clean - literally. Unless I use some One Shot, they drag and squawk on the expander plug.

 

[Troystat]

I put them on a towel out in the sun, even in mild bayarea temps they dry quickly if the sun hits them, brass conducts heat very well so that has always worked for me. Good luck.

 

[len917]

I use lots of range brass. If I collect 200 rounds, perhaps 30 will be less shiny and tarnished somewhat because they experienced a rainfall(s). When I run these through my vibrator, the shiny brass gets really shiny, but the tarnished brass seems to look more tarnished.

What is the preferred liquid or chemical treatment to clean up the tarnished brass to look as good as the freshly dropped brass? I'd like to use these, but want them to be nice and clean before reloading. I would decap this brass prior to any cleanup process.

Jack

lemi-shine, add to your dawn liquid

 

[9mmPatriot]

FWIW,
Instead of LemiShine I use Ball Citric Acid. Ball, as in canning jars. I paid a lot less for it compated to LemiShine.

You can also buy citric acid at any hobby store that sells candle-making supplies.

A word to the wise, if you lube and decap before you tumble your brass make sure you rinse off or even wash with Dawn ans some orange cleaner first. Failure do do so will yeild clean but very dingy/dull brass....I learned the hard way and had to re-tumble two batches of 9mm and .223 before the brass was shiny again.

 

[serger]

I also use citric acid. I buy it at the grocery store.
Here you can find it in the canning supplies.

 

[gwpercle]

Old Food Dehydrator ... the plastic one with round trays that stack one on top of the other . If you don't have an old one from your Jerky making days , check thrift stores , estate sales and flea markets .

The gun companies quickly branded them as "Case Dryers " and tripled the price on a new one ... the latest over priced "You Gotta Have Gadget" ... Don't let them fool you ...it's nothing but a cheap food dehydrator ... if you made beef jerky in it , you can dry wet brass cases .
You probably need a nice clean new one for Jerky making anyway.
I don't wet clean cases ...water is messy and now you have all these wet cases to deal with .
Gary ,
Making Jerky in mine

 

[Skeet 028]

In my area...thr sun is brutal...even in the winter brass will dry in a few hours on the tailgate of the P/U even at 10 below. I have some shot sizing sieves that will hold 1000 45s at a time. Put them in them...shake a couple times and in an hour or two...voila' dry and very warm....and into coffee cans...but then I only load 45 twice a year...on a Dillon 1050

 

[oldvette]

I use lots of range brass. If I collect 200 rounds, perhaps 30 will be less shiny and tarnished somewhat because they experienced a rainfall(s). When I run these through my vibrator, the shiny brass gets really shiny, but the tarnished brass seems to look more tarnished.

What is the preferred liquid or chemical treatment to clean up the tarnished brass to look as good as the freshly dropped brass? I'd like to use these, but want them to be nice and clean before reloading. I would decap this brass prior to any cleanup process.

Jack

I decided to clean up my culls using various bits of information obtained from this thread.

First, I did a test by soaking 4 .40 cases in a citric acid solution overnight. The tarnish disappeared and was replaced by a reddish-brown coating which could easily be removed using 0000 steel wool - cases actually looked new. Not wanting to do this tedious chore for all the cases, I deprimed the cases using my .45ACP carbide sizing die and proceeded to soak the rest of the .40's overnight.

Next morning, these were rinsed and put out to dry.



I then placed the small quantity shown above in my Dillon cleaner with untreated corn cob media and ran for 3 hours.



I believe the cases would be cleaner had they been part of a larger lot to fill the cleaner and not rely only upon just the media abrasion to do the polishing. I anticipate that when these cases are cleaned next time, they will look the same as cases which were previously untarninshed.

The pockets were perfectly cleaned, as well as the interiors of the cases.

I plan to repeat this process on a large batch of tarnished .223's I have to demonstrate repeatability.

Comments welcome.

Jack

 

[9mmPatriot]

The red-ish/brown color is from too much citric acid. I use a 9mm case worth of citric acid in my Franklin Armory Rotary Tumbler (F.A.R.T)-Lite.


45 minutes to clean 300 .223 or 500 9mm cases.

 

[mosquito]

Wet Tumbling Brass: Start to finish! - YouTube

This video shows how to dry brass after it is wet tumbled!

 

[Dragonwing]

I have a Lyman case dryer with several stackable trays. You can dry several hundred cases at a time, if you like.. I use a RCBS sonic case cleaner and once cleaned and rinsed, I put them in the dryer. The amount of brass I clean will fill a couple of trays on the heater. By the time I clean another batch, the first batch is dry and ready to start the process over again. In the mean time I'm getting rounds loaded, so l can kill 3 birds at a time. Works good for me.

 

[BillBro]

Heat gun and a plastic colander. Done in about 3-4 minutes.

Oh, and I hope you're not spending $ on one of those case cleaning solutions, I just use very hot water, lemishine, some lime+vinegar dish soap and a pile of sea salt and 15 minutes in the US cleaner they look like new Starline brass and I'm not exaggerating too awful much. HOT water.

 

[duman444]

Dark blanket

Did (300) 30-30 and .270's mixed. Spread them on Dark green blanket in 93 outdoor temp with 68% Humidity (normal Houston summer) in direct sun. They were too hot to hold in less than an hour. Any water baked right off. Use blanket instead of towel to give room between cases.

 

[vinn]

dry wet brass

acetone followed by alcohol