Tumbling brass in Ceramic Porcelain media.

[john boy]

I'll take before and after photos and post them.

Yo Dick, beat ya to it!  Like to see your pictures also.  These are BPCR reloads ...
http://www.theopenrange.net/forum/index.php?topic=7652.0

I also did a batch today with TSP and ran the tumbler for 2.5 hours ... same results!

[john boy]

Gents, might want to read some follow up tests that I did and posted over on Shiloh Rifle with an additional test done by Dan Theodore ... http://www.shilohrifle.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15417&highlight=

[South Devon Cattleman]

I have been following this thread with some interest. I do have the DD ceramic media and I get the dull gray looking cases with some regularity. I just had a batch today with the scummy grayish looking brass. I was wondering if anybody has tried powdered lemonade mix? It is mostly citric acid and might be as effective as lemon juice.

[john boy]

Cattleman ... Rio Grande Strat-O-Sheen, Burnishing Compound, 339-017/5 ... 3oz of powder concentrate to 1 gal of water leaves no dull gray or scummy brass.  Question is:  how often do you change your solution.  When the solution is black, that means it is saturated with bicarbonate and sulfide from the BP fouling on the cases.  Analogy is like trying to wash white cloth with dirty water

In lieu of using a commercial burnishing solution, just buy a bottle of lemon juice.  I don't use it but have proved that it works.  Look at the results on my last post on the Shiloh Rifle link.  Would believe that a squirt of Dawn with the lemon juice in the rotary tumbler would work much better to remove the bicarbonate and sulfide from the foul in and on the cases

[Howdy Doody]

I dump spent brass in soapy water at the range. Then I soak it at home in water with Kaboom added for about an hour. Then rinse and dry in the sun. I eventually get to putting it in my vibrator and run it for a few hours. Not perfect, but really clean enough for what I use it for. Currently I am using treated walnut media. Treated with what I do not know, but I got the stuff from Midway.

A pard had an obsevation. He mentioned that a cowboy action shooter can leave a guncart full of guns and ammo and walk away. No one will touch his stuff. He also noted that leave one piece of brass on the ground and they will all make a grab for it. 

[Blackpowder Burn]

I put my brass in a mixture of water and Simple Green at the range.  Upon arriving home I rinse it until the water is clear, then allow it to dry.  At that point I put it in my old Lyman tumbler with walnut media.  I use a little Iosso brass polish, adding some to the media maybe every three or four times I use it.  I tumble the cases a couple of hours and they always come out bright and shiny.

[Fairshake]

AS I have posted before if you are worried about using TSP then there is another way. Soak your brass on the way home in abucket of water that contains the following
2 oz of Lemon juice concentrate
2oz of Pine Sol
2oz of Dawn or Palmolive with "OXY"
1 gal of water
After about a hour or so rinse the brass very well and put in tumbler with just enough water to cover brass and media. To this add a good squirt of that Dawn with OXY . Your brass will be very clean even the primer pockets. I had the same dirty brass and media after my purchase of the kit from DD. This is not speaking bad of him as I consider him a friend. I had to wash my media in paint thinner and it came out black (the paint thinner) Since I started this soaking on the way home and using the products stated I have never had another bad batch and that is over 18 months now. The Lemon juice concentrate can be store brand. Later David 

[Dick Dastardly]

For reasons I can't explain, heathen smokeyless fad brass seems to be harder to get really clean than bp brass.  I've seen it over and over.  The TSP solved that problem for me.  It also cleaned up my dingy media.

DD-DLoS

[john boy]

The Lemon juice concentrate can be store brand

David, so as not to have the gents prowling the aisles for 'concentrate' juice ... on the bottles will say, " made from concentrated lemon juice with water added" - not Lemon Juice Concentrate

[john boy]

My experience with TSP is limited, but encouraging.  I'll now tumbling a batch of smokeyless powder range brass as a control.  I'll take before and after photos and post them.  I'll also post the procedure that I've nailed down so others can duplicate my results.

Dick, how did you make out doing the batch - procedure and pictures for posting?  I'm always looking for a better way, if there is one

[Dick Dastardly]

They came out sparkling clean John Boy.  Problem is, I erased the before photos.  I'll post the after photo soon as I take it.  The brass was just ordinary range brass, 38 Spl & .357 Magnum.

DD-DLoS

P.S.  Only one piece had media left in it and it dumped right out with a tap on the basket.

[Dick Dastardly]

Here's the after photo.  Shame on me, I didn't keep the "before" photo.  Regardless, you get the idea.  This brass is sparkling clean and fun to reload into bright sparkling ammo.

I'll get a before and after photo both, I promise.  Sorry about that.

DD-DLoS

[john boy]

Thanks Dick for the picture.  Look good to me.  Next set of pictures, how about the 'befores' and also the 'afters' looking inside the case down to the flash hole.  These pictures are going to be black powder fouled, correct?

[Short Knife Johnson]

A pard had an obsevation. He mentioned that a cowboy action shooter can leave a guncart full of guns and ammo and walk away. No one will touch his stuff. He also noted that leave one piece of brass on the ground and they will all make a grab for it. 

Not me, any brass I pick up or wind up with by accident goes to the rightul owner as best I can figure out.  Some things should remain sacred.     Not long ago, Steve Garbe told me I was "honest to the point of being painful."  Still trying to figure out if that was a compliment or what.   

So, great thread on tumbling in ceramic.  Going to try the lemon juice thing soon.  I also find the proper proportions are in order to get a good clean as well.  I put the cases in to an empty drum, add media until the cases are not quite covered, then water until the media is covered, then a bloop of the soap.  Too much media and it gets jammed in the cases.  Too much water and it seems to interfere with cleaning action.  Both situations leave dirty cases.   And yes, after years of looking down dark, cruddy case mouths, it restores the joy of handloading to have shiny new looking cases to greet you at the loading table.

[Noz]

I tried the TSP on my last batch and I like it.

[Dick Dastardly]

I thought it was dry.  I'd tumbled my brass from Saturday's match, rinsed it and put it out on the south deck to dry.  Bright warm sunny day Sunday.  It should have been dry.  But, it wasn't.  I'd left the primers in and there was moisture in the primer pockets.  It was dry today, but I'd loaded some yesterday.  So, I may have inadvertently loaded up some stealth boolits. . . . .

So, if you are tumbling your brass wet, like I do, please make sure the primer pockets are completely dry when you punch out the spent primers.  Otherwise, expect some poofy piffy downright embarrassing loads. .

Ok, I should know better.  But it's the only brass I have left that isn't loaded.  That and the press was calling to me to load that pretty brass.  Would that I could, but I can't resist a flashy golden piece . . . of brass.  I just HAD to load it.  Please forgive. .

DD-DLoS

[Dr. Bob]

DD,

Ya might want to get a decapper!  I got one and usually deprime at the range while sitting around camp.  Nice US made tool from

  Colin Mullins
  124 Meredith Circle
  Gray, TN  37615-2883

  Phone 423-477-8860
  Cell     423-737-4663

  email - Decapper@centurylink.net

This way you don't have to worry about drying as the extra water drains right out the primer hole!!        Must be real simple since I can do it! 

[Dick Dastardly]

Thanks Dr. Bob,

Got a photo or a web site for the decapper?  I'd like to see one.  Could be just the ticket.

DD-DLoS

[john boy]

Fastest - Smallest - Cheapest Decapper - Lee Load All:


So small, get's 'lost' in ones range box

Total Investment - $7.50, plus Shipping .. Of course, every good reloader already has a brass hammer! 

[Fox Creek Kid]

Second most cheapest John Boy. I have a board with a stepped hole drilled.