Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Question about polishing brass ??

I have never re-loaded a cartridge in my life, but I have been saving brass for 25 years. I got into my stash the other day and began the 4 hour process of sorting brass from the various calibers I've saved over the years. Im currently in the planning stages of a reloading setup. Anyway, I noticed that lots of my brass is tarnished with some very light "corrosion". Would it be best for me to go ahead and purchase a tumbler and polish this brass for long term storage? I have included a picture of a .222Rem casing that is pretty chararistic of what many of mine look like. Is this common? Does this fowling pattern mean that my rifle is doing something it should not be doing?

Brass starts to tarnish immediately after you polish it. If your intention is long term storage of shiny brass, you're wasting your time.

Not certain, but I believe what you have is either carbon fouling or heat scale from firing. Whatever it is, I find it impossible to completely remove.

If you have that much, you might consider selling it and when (and if) you get into reloading you can start fresh.

I've never tumbled a piece of brass. Ever.



Travis

pharmvet:

Given that much age, on average, your brass will benefit from annealing, as it hardens with age. Otherwise, you MAY get cracked necks...it depends also on how consistently it was annealed when it was first manufactured.

A good way to keep brass shiny once cleaned is to place in zip-lock bags and purge (suck) the air out before sealing. Not perfect, but as good as it gets for long term storage.

You may want to just buy new brass and load from there; buy 20-40 cases per caliber to give yourself time to learn the process, and then buy more when your skills can do justice to more new cases.

Deflave: Do you reload?
I have noticed this factoid regarding brass corrosion - since I moved to Montana 14+ years ago (from the Puget Sound area of Washington state) my brass no longer needs to be tumbled!
A few years before I moved out of that moist and saline climate I also started using Imperial sizing die wax - I wonder if that new wax lubricant OR the much drier and way less saline atmosphere here in Montana keeps my two tumblers inactive?
My tumblers were running every month while in the Puget Sound area - again I have as yet to start up a tumbler for brass cleaning here on the dry east slope of the Rocky Mountains.
In other words deflave, if you do reload, are your cases tarnished and you just don't worry about them or are your cases free of tarnish?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Since you're going to start Reloading and you have a ton of old Brass , buy a high capacity vibratory Tumbler and get started . Buy some Commercial Tumbling Media , add some Commercial Cleaner devoid of any Ammonia like Midways and/or something like Soft Scrub from your local Grocery Store and in 1-2 hours ...maybe a little longer , and I think you will have nice shiny Brass . The previous Post about annealing old Brass was good , but that's a whole nuther story .

Yes, I reload. This is the reloading forum LOL!

I have lived in the midwest, south Texas, the east coast and MT. Never tumbled or polished brass. It just stays dirty. Never had an issue.


Travis

Will the tumbler and media clean the inside of the brass as well? Regarding the brass, does it ever get "too old" to use. I realize that it can be re-used too many times and become useless, but does "age" cause it to become useless? I thought about buying new brass, but quite frankly, one of the main reasons I want to re-load is to take advantage of the brass Ive saved for the past 20 years. mb

Age by itself will not be a problem.

Loads that are too hot and/or overworking the brass by excessive resizing will kill it, not age. See the post by Dr. Ken Oehler (of Oehler chronographs) about his ancient .30-06 brass in the Ask The Gunwriters section.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...s/5895447/SAAMI_PSI_maximums#Post5895447

If you drop a capful of NuFinish polish into your tumbler media, your brass will stay shiny for a looooong time.

I mostly just want mine clean. Shiny is just a bonus.

Will the tumbler / media get the inside of the cases clean?

Also, is there any one brand of tumbler that out-shines (no pun intended) the others?

The inside of the Brass will be cleaner , but the only way I've seen to get the insides really clean is to use Ultrasonics or the tiny metal pieces as the polishing medium . Depends on how much clean & shiny .....floats your boat .

There is nothing wrong with your brass. If you don't mind investing in a Thumbler's tumbler or similar rotary tumbler and using water, stainless steel media with dawn or ivory soap, and a little lemishine powder I guarantee you that you can bring that brass back to better than it looked new with all the carbon removed inside and outside as well as the primer pockets.

I've been using this method for almost two years and nothing compares to it. I've included a couple of links with long threads where you can read about the process and see some of the brass that has been cleaned.

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1513345&nt=43&page=1

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_42/3...lots_of_pics__New_info_second_post_.html

Looks like way too much time and work. The brass does look great, but 3 days instead of 3 hours seems a bit much. Tumble,pocket brush and load. But if it floats your boat, then its all good.

Swifty

"Will the tumbler and media clean the inside of the brass as well?"

No surgically but certainly well enough.


"Regarding the brass, does it ever get "too old" to use."

No. Any brass that 'hardens' with age does so either from faulty manufactoring (rare) or it was exposed to chemical fumes in storeage, most commonly ammonia (also rare).

Three days? A four hour tumble, and a couple of hours in a dryer during the winter or just sit them in the sun for a couple of hours in warm weather.

I have used the vibratory, the ultrasonic, and the orbital tumbler with ss media is the best by far, but to each his own.

4 to 8 hours tumbling depending on model of thumbler Per your link w/pics
Rinse, dump and seperation of media, per link
3 rinses to get rid of soap. Per link
In my unheated workshop, brass dries in 2 days. I use old roasting pans for drying. Per same link.
Total time guesstimate 6 to 10 hours or, 2.5 days maybe. If wife wont let ya use the oven, or if its a cold cloudy snowy winters day maybe longer

Treated walnut media in tumbler for cleaning after sizing and pocket brush 1.5 hours
Seperate media from brass 5 minutes max.
Tumble in CornCob media(untreated) to polish 1 hour
Seperate media from brass 5 min
Total time 2 hrs 40 min. maybe 3 hours if I am lazy. works 365 days a year, any weather.

As I said whatever floats your boat.

Swifty

1. I have brass that's around 30 years old and still good.

2. As others noted, if you want the brass clean inside and out including primer pockets, a Thumler's Tumbler with stainless steel media is the way to go. If you want the cases really shiny, in addition to Dawn dishwasher detergent use Lemishine but don't go too heavy on the Lemishine or it will discolor your brass. About 1/2 teaspoon of the Lemishine in the largest Thumler's Tumbler is all you need.

I run a load with 1/2 teaspoon of Lemishine and a couple tablespoons of Dawn for 2 hours, change the water and run for another 2 hours with just Dawn.

3. I'll admit, there is really no need to have shiny brass but I like bling. I also think it better to get all lube off inside and out.

4. How many times you can use brass depends on things like how well the brass fits the chamber, how hot the load is, brass quality, etc. In some applications, brass will go 20+ reloadings without failure while in other applicatons you may only get 1 or 2 reloadings. Straight walled cases tend to be much longer lived than bottle necked cases.