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What happened to my brass?

2K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  DIAMOND MOUNTAIN 
#1 ·
Uhh [emoji849], What happened to my brass?

Threw a load of SSA brass in the vibrator like always... added a little extra Frankford arsenal brass polish.

This time I did not wait too long for the brass polish to absorb, as I've never seen a problem before.

A few hours later, the brass looks great but some of it is covered in what looks like a dried dirty powder slurry residue.

See image, my brass almost always comes out looking like the piece on the left. Nice and clean. But this time some pieces have a lot of that black crap stuck to them. You can rub it off with your finger or finger nail. You can feel it, because it's built up a little bit on the brass.

But never had that problem before. What is it?

I'm assuming something to do with the brass polish I put in there. I also noticed some of the media was a little bit sticky. It did not always pour easily out of the inside of the cases. Had to tap a little bit extra to get it to come out.

The Hornady Corn Cobb media was also pretty dirty. So I changed all of the media, this time did not add any brass polish, and am attempting to re-clean.

But anyone had this before? Know what happened???

I could wipe the outside down with my hands and a rag, but then am worried about the extra residue on the inside of the cases.

 
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#2 ·
Can't say for sure, but I'd guess the polish goop mixed with fine particles of the polishing media and attached itself to your brass. I recommend ditching the walnut/corn and the vibe and go to stainless pins with water and soar in a tumbler. Way less messy and the brass comes out like new, inside and out, including the primer pockets.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Can't say for sure, but I'd guess the polish goop mixed with fine particles of the polishing media and attached itself to your brass. I recommend ditching the walnut/corn and the vibe and go to stainless pins with water and soar in a tumbler. Way less messy and the brass comes out like new, inside and out, including the primer pockets.
Thanks, I'm guessing the same.

So I may need to upgrade to a better brass cleaning device.

Will look at options
 
#6 ·
Try here


and here


I've used mine for years with no problems. Soap, Lemishine, and hot water. 2 pounds done in 2 hours
 
#9 ·
The Polish and dirt in the media came together, time for fresh media.

This is the main reason I changed up my cleaning process to....
1) Decap not resize
2) Wet tumble with SS chips, lemi shine and Dawn
3) Dry and resize
4) Tumble with corncob

I wet tumble without resizing to extend the life of my sizing die and get the pockets clean. The final corn tumble gets the sizing wax off and final polish. Works very week been doing it for several years and the brass dosent tarnish as quickly when stored.
 
#10 ·
Exactly my process, almost. I have ditched the dry media entirely. I wet tumble a second time (about 20 minutes) to clean up the sizing lube.
 
#13 ·
I clean my brass with the stainless pins and soap & Lemishine and then rinse after done with warm water and a couple teaspoons of baking soda to neutralize the acid in the Lemishine. After all the resizing and trimming is done I clean again and then after it is dried it goes into the vibratory tumbler with a splash of NuFinish & corncob and my brass stays shiny new like production ammo. If you don't neutralize the Lemishine it will begin to oxidize and turn darker in color.
 
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