Using automotive products when tumbling brass

Walkalong said:

Like a lot of folks I started off just wiping cases clean so they would not damage dies or weapons. Then I got a little Lyman tumbler in a trade and have been tumbling brass ever since. Any of the brass polishes form Dillon, Midway, Berrys, or NuFinish etc will work. Yes, the brass gets shiny, but, as pointed out, the best benefit is the light wax coating that keeps it protected and postpones the tarnish for a long time.

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This is pretty much me. I only bought a tumbler after I had bought all of the other basic tools. Brass needs to be clean before it goes into your sizing die or chamber but it does not have to be shiny to be clean. But there is something about shiny brass!

When dry tumbling I have used several different polishes. Dillon, Lyman, Frankfort Arsenal, Midway, Berrys, and some others. The automotive polishes give the same results at less cost. NuFinish is a favorite but I've seen little or no difference with any of the others, including the cheaper store brands.

When wet tumbling I use ArmorAll Wash and Wax and LemiShine. Dawn gets the brass just as clean but the Wash and Wax leaves a protective coating that retards tarnish. Probably any other brand of Wash and Wax would work just as well.

Rule3 said:

You can clean your brass with Dr Pepper (or Cola) it has Phosphoric acid and works very well, just rinse well.

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Before I discovered citric acid for un-tarnishing(?) cases, I discovered and used phosphoric acid periodically.

I found that citric was much easier (and cheaper) for me because all I had to do was add a tiny bit to the wash solution, no separate phosphoric immersion + rinse step required.

Is the wax /polish effective diluted into a wet tumbler?

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I tried adding a bit of car paste wax to a wet tumble once.
Major mess, brass came out with grey slime all over it. Grey slime on the pins, inside the drum,
Lots of 409 and some time later I had everything cleaned up.
You could try it, (But I wouldn't recommend it).
It did not work out well for me AT ALL!, major PITA.

For wet tumbling
I use auto wash and wax (whatever the car is getting, car gets whats on sale, usually Turtle and a dab of citric acid from the canning section at the supermarket.
Gives me nice shiney brass

There was a time when I wanted the prettiest reloads at my gun club. I've tried just about ever way there is to clean brass and I used to even dry tumble my loaded bullets so they would look like new. I found over the years that shiny reloads don't shoot any better than just clean ones. Now days, I'm more concerned about the inside of the cases being clean, I have gone back to the basic dry tumbling with corn cob media. Every so often I might put in a teaspoon or so of polish, but most of the time I just tumble without anything. When the case is clean enough to see the primer good with normal light, that's good enough for me. My tumbler does seem to clean the outside better when it is full instead of just a 100 or so. I guess it is the cases rubbing each other along with the corn cob. I pick up very few cases at public ranges because most I see are 9mm and 223 and I can buy them as cheap as I can load. 99% of my shooting these days is .38s in revolvers, so I just take a gallon jug to the range and dump them in. When its full, I dump them in the tumbler and leave it on 3-4 hours, separate the media and load em up again.

Rule3 said:

PS; Lack of Dr Pepper will kill you!

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Fixed it for ya. Dr Pepper is the nectar of the Gods.

I didn't read the whole thread but I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. I use wet and dry tumbling on range brass. For dry only I start the tumbler and add a capfull of paint thinner and a capfull of Nu Finish car wax and let it tumble for 30 minutes. Then I add my brass, put the top on and start it and run it for 3 hours. Usually comes out shiny clean.

I use a Midway dry tumbler and had an old bottle of Amway car polish that I wasn't ever planning on using, so I put in a couple teaspoons of that, then spray down the top of the mixture with Windex w/ vinegar and am very happy with the results. BUT... it does add labor in that clumps of wax/cob get stuck in the casings and I have to inspect every one and use a Q-tip to make sure they are cleaned out and the primer holes aren't clogged.

If you add ANY liquid (polish, windex, vinegar, mineral spirits . . . etc, etc)
run the tumbler at least 15 minutes to distribute/dry out the additive before
dumping in the brass.

rdnktrkr said:

I do the nu-finish and dryer sheets but also add a capful of mineral spirits to my walnut hull, I like the polish to help lubricate pistol cases before sizing. I have some old 30-06 cases that have lost their shine but still shoots well.

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I do the same thing, and while it works, I don't know if it's the paint thinner or what, but something warped my bowl and now the lid wont fit on.
berrys tumbler.

I'm a little different, I use Soft Scrub in my walnut, it really comes out shiny.

Soft-Scrub . . . hmmm ...another nifty idea that most of us wouldn't
have thought of (even heard of) from the peanut gallery.

Nu-Finish, a capful every half-dozen batches of brass, or so.
Two fresh drier sheets every batch, each torn into four strips, because I generate more drier sheets than I use for reload cleaning. Maybe I'll start using three. (I either need to reload more or wash fewer clothes, in order to strike a balance). The more crap trapped by the drier sheets (and subsequently discarded) the less deposited on the bowl.

Media, 50/50 walnut and corn.
I change the media once a year if I go through a "normal" amount of brass, or more frequently if that seems appropriate. It's not rocket science.

Why Nu-Finish?
1. It works. I have brass I tumbled ten years ago that is still shiny.
2. It is cheap and available at Wal-Mart. A bottle lasts forever.