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Many mechanical ways to clean brass. This we all know but, has anyone than I tried deprimed brass in a 10-20% solution of muriatic acid? Works beautifully and takes so little time. This mild solution works quicker than your hands can introduce and extract a piece of brass. Am taking comments at this time. Stephen | ||
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I would never do that; muriatic acid is very caustic. I use it to clean steel and it eats it. | |||
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Many have used citric acid with good results. Used with stainless pins in a tumbler brass looks as good as new. | |||
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Plain old soap and hot water works well I like Dawn dish soap. | |||
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I would not use any of this. We are using steel pins in liquid soap and it works absolutely great. | |||
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we pour it on old clogged up metal files that won't "file" again to make em clean and usable again. it is nasty stuff for sure. hose em off and they are ready to go. | |||
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FWIW - Cartridge brass is alloy of zinc and copper. In the commercial world, acid is used to convert brass back to copper by dissolving the zinc out of the brass. Furthermore, muriatic acid is somewhat stubborn to clean off a surface so another wash in a soapy solution is needed. So at the end of the day probably not the best solution for cleaning brass cases. Some folks use vinegar, however as others have said, mild Dawn soap and steel pins in a rotary cleaner is the quickest and "safest" way to clean brass. Walnut and a vibratory cleaner also works but is slower. No real need to reinvent the wheel. ___________________ Just Remember, We ALL Told You So. | |||
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I did not feel the necessity of spreading minutiae over everything, but I guess I will now. Muriatic acid is available in a less than battleship-eating solution. It is a homeowner-friendly product used to clean masonry and concrete in a diluted form. This is not in any way full-strength muriatic acid I am using. Caution should be exercised when using. The process is quick; the chemical reaction easily and quickly arrested by water immersion. I use hot water to kill the muriatic and accelerate the drying. Less than a minute and 500 cases are clean and dry -- no on-going chemical reactions to ruin sleep, no pins occupying primer holes, no pins bridging necks, no pins at all, no noise, no soap. I did say a 10-20% solution of the muriatic one can buy at ---mart. On another note. Phillip Pilkington uses muriatic and nitric to rust blue. How are we going to handle that one, eh? Almost forgot. Since no one answered my question I am assuming a no. Any continuing to fear the dangers of using muriatic may consider their experiences and sloppiness while transferring gasoline. Be honest with yourselves and revisit, please. Stephen | |||
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Dear Lord: Dear Lord! Although the weak solution isn't particularly hazardous, I agree with Opus that if it is strong enough to dissolve the oxidized coat on the surface of the brass then it may well be capable of changing the very nature of the brass case itself, and not in a positive way. You have to remember that it is working on the inside surfaces of the case as well as the outside, and it may not be as easy to arrest its action on the inside with rinsing as it is on the outside. I let corn cobs do my work while I sleep (sleep being something I do almost every night), so the time it takes is somewhat irrelevant. Yes, I have to inspect each case and punch grit out of the flash holes, but I like to visually inspect each case anyway, so this isn't really an extra step and consumes little time. But I will stipulate that your method of case cleaning, although on its face dubious, may work well for you and may not result in any of the hobgoblin results that I and others may fear. By the way, I can see the acid fairly instantly removing the dull, oxidized brass, but is it also effective on the carbon which accumulates on the necks and sometimes the shoulders of the cases? | |||
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For the record, I don't believe this is a huge issue if done correctly. However, there are several other safer ways to clean brass. I switched from Walnut to a wet rotary with pins and Dawn several years ago as I really don't want to babysit cleaning brass plus it's goof proof and does the job in spades. Not sure why you would go out of your way to make it more difficult. ___________________ Just Remember, We ALL Told You So. | |||
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I shoot dirty brass. Mike  What I have learned on AR, since 2001: 1. The proper answer to: Where is the best place in town to get a steak dinner? is…You should go to Mel's Diner and get the fried chicken. 2. Big game animals can tell the difference between .015 of an inch in diameter, 15 grains of bullet weight, and 150 fps. 3. There is a difference in the performance of two identical projectiles launched at the same velocity if they came from different cartridges. 4. While a double rifle is the perfect DGR, every 375HH bolt gun needs to be modified to carry at least 5 down. 5. While a floor plate and detachable box magazine both use a mechanical latch, only the floor plate latch is reliable. Disregard the fact that every modern military rifle uses a detachable box magazine. 6. The Remington 700 is unreliable regardless of the fact it is the basis of the USMC M40 sniper rifle for 40+ years with no changes to the receiver or extractor and is the choice of more military and law enforcement sniper units than any other rifle. 7. PF actions are not suitable for a DGR and it is irrelevant that the M1, M14, M16, & AK47 which were designed for hunting men that can shoot back are all PF actions. 8. 95 deg F in Africa is different than 95 deg F in TX or CA and that is why you must worry about ammunition temperature in Africa (even though most safaris take place in winter) but not in TX or in CA. 9. The size of a ding in a gun's finish doesn't matter, what matters is whether it’s a safe ding or not. 10. 1 in a row is a trend, 2 in a row is statistically significant, and 3 in a row is an irrefutable fact. 11. Never buy a WSM or RCM cartridge for a safari rifle or your go to rifle in the USA because if they lose your ammo you can't find replacement ammo but don't worry 280 Rem, 338-06, 35 Whelen, and all Weatherby cartridges abound in Africa and back country stores. 12. A well hit animal can run 75 yds. in the open and suddenly drop with no initial blood trail, but the one I shot from 200 yds. away that ran 10 yds. and disappeared into a thicket and was not found was lost because the bullet penciled thru. I am 100% certain of this even though I have no physical evidence. 13. A 300 Win Mag is a 500 yard elk cartridge but a 308 Win is not a 300 yard elk cartridge even though the same bullet is travelling at the same velocity at those respective distances. | |||
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I shoot semi-dirty brass. A few drops of dish soap and an ounce or so of vinegar in a gallon of hot water. Leave it for 20 - 30 minutes, rinse several times in warm water, dry and resize. | |||
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Here is your answer: NO, do not use muriatic acid in any form or strength, on cartridge brass. | |||
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I'm not sure if you are replying to me. But if you are, vinegar is acetic acid not HCL (muriatic acid). Dish soap is a base. A base and an acid tend to neutralize one another, and if diluted, it's hard to imagine the one ounce or so of acetic acid diluted by dish soap in 1 gallon of water could damage brass, if the brass is left in the solution for only ½ hour and rinsed clean. But I'm not a chemist. If I'm wrong, if what I'm doing and have done for 10 years or is wrong and dangerous, I would welcome being corrected. The last thing I want to do be endanger myself or suggest methods which might endanger others. | |||
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You said no one answered your question; I just did. I would not try to experiment with it; but you can do as you like. Muriatic acid is not vinegar which I use for eating black powder fouling out of cases. And you mentioned rust bluing; has nothing to do with cleaning brass. True, if you dilute fuming nitric acid enough you can drink it; as I said, I am not going to do it. (Muriatic acid is really Hydrochloric acid and they do use it for cleaning bricks and swimming pools) You do seem determined however, to use it though. Not sure why. | |||
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Who are you replying to, if not me? I'm lost (as I am all to frequently  ). | |||
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OMG! I'm responding to the OP; not you. He is the one who said no one answered his question: "Since no one answered my question...." So I answered it. | |||
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Thank you!! I thought I was having a senior moment! My self-esteem soars. (And I know you care about my self esteem!  ) | |||
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Just spent some time checking how strong commercial muriatic acid is. Apparently Lord F is using quite strong muriatic acid [ wikipedia sez it is available in 10% --> 30% concentrations ] There are a lot of ways to clean brass clean enough for most of us. My experience with HCl is enough that probably using a strong acid presents too many problems [ weakening cases, rinsing issues, disposal issue, and especially safety issues] to make it an attractive choice. The options we usually use avoid all of the above. A quick n messy method for cleaning a few cases would be ketchup. [contains acetic acid and salt...an ancient and decent combination for cleaning non ferrous metals. ] You have to rinse right away. :-) lets clean safely. | |||
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Tabasco Sauce. | |||
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Black powder sometimes use a little vinegar (or glass cleaner with vinegar) in their soaking solution, as dpcd mentioned. Some use a small amount of lemishine (citric acid) buffered with a soap so the pH is barely acidic. Both far safer to use than muriatic acid. I agree entirely with the advice to NOT use any strong acid for cleaning cases. | |||
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/too much emphasis on shiny brass, clean brass and shiny brass are equally good, and no need to clean brass every reload..many bench resters never clean brass..I clean maybe ever time I trim, well sorta... I use corncob, pecan shells, very little goo goes in the pot and brass comes clean but not very shiny.. Question: Would those SS pins work in a viberator cleaner such as my RCBS oldie. Ray Atkinson Atkinson Hunting Adventures 10 Ward Lane, Filer, Idaho, 83328 208-731-4120 rayatkinsonhunting@gmail.com | |||
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If you put HCl in the right buffered solution in the right concentration, it would cause no harm to the brass... but it would also work no better (faster or cleaner) than anything else. If it is working in seconds to minutes, it is way too concentrated to not be leaching metal out of the brass. Not a good choice. | |||
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Using Muriatic for brass cleaning is a really stupid idea. I use it in my business daily. It is a dilution of 28% hydrochloric baume. When applied to galvanized steel it eats away the zinc immediately + allows lead to bond to steel by creating its own flux. I use Nitric + Sulphuric as well on occasion as they are a really good etching agent on copper. While on the subject of stupid chemical uses; do NOT use sal- ammoniac in your lead pot as a fluxing agent. It WILL work + quite well but unless one has an adequate ventilation system + knowledge of what he's working with, it will kill you. It is ammonia-chloride. I use it to tin my soldering irons but NEVER breathe it. Never mistake motion for action. | |||
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Norman: That NH4Cl is so dangerous that it is the main component of smoke grenades used to create smoke screen for century or so. Of course it is not healthy to breathe, but it will not kill you. Jiri | |||
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