Hey guys, on older, much older maybe, brass that is really tarnished and has those dark spots on it, how do you polish that out? I usually take some brasso on a rag and shine my brass up real nice and pretty (anybody noticed federal being worse for this than other brands?) but I got some yesterday that this wasn't enough on, there are still some dark spots. what if I poured brasso in my tumbler?

Red

I was told that brasso will cause the brass to get brittle.
The dark spots will not hurt anything when reloading them.

do you know why brasso makes it brittle? that's weird, but something good to know. Yes, I know the spots don't affect function, this was purely a cosmetic question. I don't even usually polish brass unless it looks like a 50yo belt buckle.

Red

Check out Woods posting on polishing Brass ; I don't know of anyone who does it better .

http://forums.accuratereloadin...=109101612#109101612

I'm not that fussy about having cases which resemble jewelery . Accurate and clean YES !!!.

I'll post pictures of a couple of my expended 7 mag case ,which have 5 re loads on them without any

polishing what so ever.



After I initially prep cases which includes neck turning , with a media polishing of no more than 30

Minutes TOPS in my case;

I then lube with boeshield T-9 and proceed to load . Yes I do wipe with a clean soft cloth

after loading and then place in plastic ammo containers . Now after firing they go into an empty ammo case

when I've got a sufficient number ,I wipe the necks only as they have soot on then . Rest of the case just

gets a clean rag wiping . I'm good for X number of reloads until annealing becomes necessary .

Then vibratory media polishing case trimming and lube re load , through the sequences again .

* Necks are turned only Once .



You can see there are small spots here and there . I never initially polished them out !.

quote:

Originally posted by Dago Red:
do you know why brasso makes it brittle? that's weird, but something good to know. Yes, I know the spots don't affect function, this was purely a cosmetic question. I don't even usually polish brass unless it looks like a 50yo belt buckle.

Red

Supposedly the ammonia cause the brass to become brittle. Many guys tumble twice; once in wlanut for faster cleaning of tarnished brass then in corn cob w/ Nufinish polish for final high gloss finish. If it's clean, I am fine w/ that.

Brasso does have ammonia in it. i've heard of people letting the brasso dry out in the walnut or corn cob media first. I'm hooked on my ultra sonic cleaner using vinegar and dish soap. then rinse in baking soda. inside and out it's unbelievable

Hey Dago, Doc has me pegged, I do like clean cases


I use Flitz now

Take a trip over to the "Cast Boolits" casting site and take a look at the "Sticky" on using citric acid in the "shooters" section you will be amazed!

Ammonia and brass don't mix and makes the brass unsafe to use.

If you look at any of the better copper-fouling bore cleaners like Sweet's 7.62, they contain ammonia along with a warning not to leave the cleaner inside the bore >15-minutes; then clean with a non-ammonia based cleaner.

De-prime then give your very dirty cases a 5 minute bath in IOSSO case cleaner then rinse in water. THIS IS THE KEY!!!!!

Iosso case cleaning kit

This stuff is great and re-usable over and over for years. It also cleans the inside some but the de-prime is to better drain water and prevent trapped air and allow the cleaner to go through and through.

Drain and shake them out dry then use a hair dryer or heat gun or air blast....whatever you got handy to dry the water.

Then tumble overnight in corncob and a stout dose of Nu-Finish car wax......SUPERB!!! And last a very long time.

Awesome guys! It's only a few that really need help, most of the brass is fine, I don't care about it being jewelry either, but don't want the loads to look like they've been left out in the weather for 10 years either.

so how worried should I be about some federal 375 h&h brass that I cleaned with brasso once? not safe to use it now? frickin ammonia.

Red

To me, pretty brass is the best and my method is perhaps way over-board but it looks better than factory new (maybe a stretch). Here we go..

1. After being shot the brass goes in tumbler # 1 for about 5 to 7 hours. This tumbler is filled with walnut shells and about 10% molding sand (about 3000 grit).

2. Prep brass: trim, resize etc.

3. Into the ultra-sonic washer (50/50 water/vinegar) for 20 minutes, rinse in hot water, blow inside dry with compressor.

4. Into tumbler #2 (filled with plastic beads and 3"X3" cotton pads) for 4 to 5 hours.

5. Into tumbler # 3 (filled with super fine walnut shells and 1"X1" cotton pads) for 8 to 10 hours.

I have timers on all my tumblers and the process usually takes 2 days.

I anneal every other load. And BTW, the inside looks as good as the outside!

quote:

Originally posted by woods:
Hey Dago, Doc has me pegged, I do like clean cases


I use Flitz now

Damn! I think you won the beauty contest!

Thanks WT but don't do it for pretty. They chamber better with noticeably less drag. Also the Flitz leaves a protective coating on to retard tarnish. Great for inspecting the cases for splits also. Usually don't have to Flitz them but every 3rd loading or so.

I can trim, chamfer, clean the outside, clean the necks and mica 50 cases in about an hour

Hey Woods, The ones you "do want" to be PRETTY, don't you paint them Pink???

quote:

Originally posted by Hot Core:
Hey Woods, The ones you "do want" to be PRETTY, don't you paint them Pink???

I got the color right but just can't get the application down right



works on steel fish hooks but the brass gets too hot and then it melts the bullet tips!!

And it gets too red after melting it on



Send me some of your pink nail polish and I'll try it!

Woods,
Do you use the green pads with the Flitz?

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
Woods,
Do you use the green pads with the Flitz?

No Rusty, the Scotchbrite pads were to show the 2 different methods of cleaning the cases. The pic was taken for another thread where we were talking about polished finishes and rough finishes. The Scotchbrite cleans well but the cases are noticeably harder to chamber, they seem to drag more and they don't hold up against tarnish as well.

To Flitz I use a Zip Trim and one of those foam pads that come in the top of the Barnes bullets boxes



hold a rag against it and spin it

quote:

Originally posted by woods:
Send me some of your pink nail polish and I'll try it!

You apparently have me totally confused with someone who was a Swab Jockey(onefunee) or someone who wears a skirt(teenScumee).

Thank you, sir!