I consider this to be a very important step in the process when it comes to prepping your once fired brass. Clean brass will not only cycle great in your equipment but, it will make it last longer when you work with clean components.
There are a thousand and one ways, tips and tricks to clean your brass. Majority of them have one thing in common; Dawn dish Soap. I've been using the same cleaning solution for years, so long that I forgot where I initially got the recipe. I cannot take credit for the combination of cleaning solutions I use, all I can remember is that I read it on a forum or, maybe watched a youtube video. Anyway, I use 3 ingredients; Dawn dish soap, Armorall Ultra Shine Wash & Wax and Lemi Shine. About a table spoon of Dawn and Armorall and a teaspoon of Lemi Shine can easily clean 1,000+ brass cases.
To keep things in perspective, I will use the Frankford Arsenal Rotary Tumbler as an example. I will tumble my dirty brass with hot water and the cleaning solution mentioned before for an hour. That is more than enough to remove any dirt and grime. Make sure you throughly rinse the brass to remove any soap, under cold water and let it dry. In the Spring or Summer, a good hour under the sun will do the trick. During the winter I use a dehydrator or, I let the brass sit around spread over a home made tray for at least a day or two. After that, you're ready to process. For final clean, only thing I add are Stainless Steel pins and I wet tumble for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. That is it!
Here you can see the "AS IS" condition of the range brass I ordered.
This is after an hour on the tumbler. Makes a heck of a difference.
Comments