i have a question about brass. do i polish with or without primer in? also does anyone put any additives with there media? i have heard you can add a little brasso with it. or is it better without it?
A little case polish makes them come out nice and shiny. Do it without the primer out, that way you can clean out the flash hole and primer pocket. It also is easier to clean out the brass when it comes out.
I run my pistol cases through the tumbler with the primer in, that way when I deprime them they are clean and do not have the possibility of screwing up my carbide dies. Same goes for my rifle cases since dirt, etc. has the possibility of scratching the inside of the dies.
I use walnut shell media that I buy at Harbor Freight Tools. It's pretty fine grain and does a good job. You need to add something to the media if you want clean, shiny cases.
Definately run the pistol cases with the primer in, you do not want to have to pick media out of the flash holes. When you are cleaning 400 or 500 cases at a time, that can be a real pain in the.....I run my rifle cases in smaller batches, after resizing, so the primer is out to make sure i get all of the case lube off of them. Its a lot easier to look through 20-30 cases to make sure the flash holes are clear.
I don't have a brass tumbler or room for it. So I deprime and full size with my Lee die, set up to trim with a cordless drill and the chuck from a Lee trimming tool, trim is a rifle case, don't trim the pistolcases, then spin with a piece of OOOO steel wool against the case. Comes out shiney as a diamond in a goat's "whatever".....
Reason for no room for a tumbler...I reload at my desk in the living room,
My reloading bench in the barn is hot in the summer and cold in the winter.
Rifle brass - tumble once for 3-8 hours with primer in to get clean, then for about an hour or so after everything is done prior to priming to clean the case lube off. Primer holes must be inspected and picked clean.
Pistol brass - tumble once for 3-8 hours with primer in prior to any other operation.
I am cleaning 1950's LC 30-06 brass that has been laying around for that long. I first soaked in hot water with muriatic acid and a dash of dish soap. Let sit for about an hour and used a vibrator case cleaner with lizard litter and Brasso cleaner. This cuts the time in the vibratory cleaner to about 2 hours. Most brass is not this dirty. Mine were almost totally black. Now they look new.
Muriatic Acid? That's a new one to me. Is it to remove (or turn) the black tarnish? I have seen many blackened cases because of the alkaline soil here in CenTex. Interesting.
The muriatic acid is to remove the tarnish. You can actually see it happen. after a good rinse the cases are left a little reddish in color which is removed when ran through the tumbler for about 2 hours. It also cleans the insides of the case.
Be careful with the muriatic acid. It dissolves the zinc out of the brass leaving the copper color showing. I think this might have an effect on the durability of the brass. Likewise don't use Brasso to polish since it contains ammonia which will very definitely embrittle the brass.
I use corncob with a couple of good squirts of Nufinish polish, and every other batch I add a couple of capfuls of mineral spirits to rejuvenate the Nufinish. Works great and doesn't hurt the brass at all.
I would definitely de-prime your brass and then polish it. I always cleaned out the primer pockets 1st & then polished with walnut in dillon tumbler. I used a polish compund from Lyman back then. Nowadays I understand they use NUfinish and throw in a dryer sheet. Thats how old I am ..LOL. Haven't been keeping up with the Smiths's and Jones's for several years now ... Good luck