How clean are the insides of your cases?

[The Bushmaster]

And you think I'm rich...That's why I live in a tin box in California and work for a living and look forward to retirement so I can shoot more and be even poorer. Nobody was lookin' in your wallet. Just made an observation as to what I see everyday at work. Sloppy mechanic's usually have a messy work bench.

The formula works. Especially on really dirty brass. If there is some corrosion on the case, it will turn pink and can be removed with a little rubbing with steel wool. And it doesn't cost much either. You can steal all of the ingrediance from your wife or girl friend.

 

[Fumbler]

I didn't mean to say you were calling me cheap or anything, just giving a reason why I don't have a tumbler. It is because I can't afford one yet, not because I don't care how clean my reloads are.

Mixing up some cleaner now for 357.

 

[The Bushmaster]

No Problem Fumbler...Everything that I own and probably, for the most part, most of the rest of us was gotten over time as we could afford it. Keep savin'...

Let me know what you think of that recipe.

 

[Fumbler]

I mixed sa little up in an empty water bottle and put a few .308 and .357 cases in.
A little shaking and to my surprise the fouling just flaked off.
After about an hour (I forgot about it for a lil while) I took it all out and the great majority of the fouling came off of the inside and all of it came off the outside leaving a shinier surface.
I rinsed well with hot water and shook the water off by putting the brass in a towel and jiggling it. It was dry pretty quickly because I used really hot water.
It worked very well.
After I did it I looked it up online and wondered why I never ran into the formula before.
Some people say it weakens the brass, others say they've loaded brass over 20 times with that cleaning method and the brass is still good. I'll find out for myself in due time.

Thanks again.

 

[The Bushmaster]

I'm curious...Just how in hell is a little water, vinigar (white), soap and salt going to weaken brass? Any metalergists out there?

Fumbler...I had no doubt that it wouldn't work. Like I said I have been using that recipe for years to clean my dirtiest cases before tumbling. Hell. It's not new. It's been used for many years to clean copper, brass, silverware and other metals. Now, all you need to do is save up for a tumbler ($45 to as much as you want to pay). I have a Lyman 1200 that cost me around $65 fourteen years ago. And it's still going. And I am glad you can use it. I have a friend who uses non-other then this recipe (he doesn't have a tumbler either and he is not poor, just cheap).

 

[sumpnz]

Not a metalurgist, but a mech engineer (with a chemist dad, and chem eng wife). The only way I could see that cleaning technique shorten the life of brass is by the acids in it stripping away corroded brass (even that you can't see) which would eventually reduce the thickness of the case to a noticable amount.

I know when I worked as an intern at a computer disk plant, we would bathe the aluminum blanks in an acid bath prior to grinding them to proper thickness. That would reduce the layer of aluminum oxide, which is MUCH harder than raw aluminum and therefore speed the grinding process. That bath would reduce the thickness of the disks buy about 1 or 2 microns.

 

[BluesBear]

Vinegar doesn't get along well with brass. It's a molecular thing.


Yes tumblers/vibrators clean the insides too.
While it may not be as shiney it's still cleaned.
Walnut hulls clean MUCH better (especially the insides) than corn cob.


Cranks, splits and bulges show up much clearer on clean, bright brass.

Clean brass doesn't carry dirt into your sizing dies.
Clean brass doesn't spread dirt all over your expander die.
Clean brass holds the bullet tighter.

There is no residue inside a factory fresh cartridge.
No residue to mingle with the powder, No residue to get blown out of the muzzle with all of the other noxious gases.
Why would you want that residue inside your reloads?

 

[Fumbler]

Clean brass doesn't carry dirt into your sizing dies.
Clean brass doesn't spread dirt all over your expander die.
Clean brass holds the bullet tighter.

There is no residue inside a factory fresh cartridge.
No residue to mingle with the powder, No residue to get blown out of the muzzle with all of the other noxious gases.
Why would you want that residue inside your reloads?

Thanks, those are the kinds of things I wanted to know in my original post.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Well...Why didn't you say so in the first place??

 

[Fumbler]

What I want to know is how clean must a case be at minimum?
How much carbon must build up before it affects accuracy and safety?

I did ask. I guess it wasn't explicit enough because I didn't know all the ways in qhich unclean brass affects every aspect of shooting.

 

[Art Eatman]

I generally take dies apart and clean them halfway regularly, keeping out any buildup of grunge. The seating dies for pistol cartridges when lead bullets are used get the most effort, what with all that wax...

Cases get wiped down; I just said I don't tumble polish them. I've some '06 dies, Pacific, that weren't new fifty+ years ago, and any scratching is not really noticeable.

The workbench gets cleaned off from time to time even during a work session. The biggest mess comes from decapping, from the bits of primer residue. That's why God invented old-used toothbrushes and vacuum cleaners, not to mention whiskbrooms and all that Ms Choregirl stuff.

I do a lot of car work. I've always used the commercial "red rag" shop rags, and have found they do well when messing around on the loading bench. They're coarse enough in the weave to help in cleaning stuff, and they're relatively lint-free. They're the best thing I've found for wiping down a bunch of newly-loaded, lead-bullet .45ACP.

Art

"Too much stuff, too few shelves."