My Pickled Brass Has a Pink Hue

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DanK3Pos said:
But, uh, if you have a FART, why not just use it? I wash 223 all the time with hot, soapy water. Just leave it to run for about 20 minutes. After I finish resizing, trimming, etc., I run it through with pins, Lemi, etc.
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Don't have one, don't need one, don't want one. Cranking a handle isn't too much work. Fill a bucket, fill the basket, crank for a couple of minutes, dump the bucket and spin to dry. Dump in a stainless mixing bowl and bake at 215 for five minutes to evaporate all of the water (boiling point of water is 212F). Let cool, tumble to polish. I only do that for BP loads and badly stained brass, not everything.

EDIT: should have noted, DRY TUMBLE to polish. I do not use a motorized wet tumbler and only use water and detergent to clean black powder cases, not smokeless.
 
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The pink sploches you see are copper instead of brass, which should be there instead. Those cases are scrap metal now.
 
I have noticed that any brass coated steel cases come out a funny pink/orangeish color. If all of them are pink that is one thing (way to much acid)if just a few are in a batch, most likely brass coated steel. (I have seen this in 9mm)
Check the pink ones with a magnet.....

If they are bras coated steel please let us know.
 
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GeoDudeFlorida said:
I haven't tried that NuFinish thing yet. Is it really all that and a bag of chips compared to Flitz? I've used Kleen King before, too and it does wonders on stained brass in walnut media. Ask your wife before stealing her kitchen cleaning supplies. :(
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Any space age synthetic polymer, ceramic, nano particle car polish will work.. Just like any dish soap but people think Dawn is extra special. What happens now that Dawn has ULTRA!!!???:what:
 
tightgroup tiger said:
Actually we are. The acid does not soften the water, alkaline does. Acid hardens it.
The citric acid does clean and pacify the brass so it is not active any more to react with dissimilar metals like pure copper or some other homogenies metal bullet.
This helps to stop any cold welding that can take place between the bullet and the case over a long period of time due to the brass still being left active.
It also chelates the lead in the primer residue to make a new compound our bodies can't absorb.
Some of us use citric acid because it's what all the others say to use, some of us use it because it is chemically, the right thing to do for all the right reasons.
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Most people are tumbling for an hour and using the acid to lower ph for better soap effects. A few people are performing an acid bath. Combining the two as a singular idea is obviously causing problems.
 
I’m using the booster. It’s just citric acid and fragrance. This wasn’t limited to the 9mm. It’s the 308 too. If I’m not willing to try the 9mm I certainly won’t the 308
 
DMW1116 said:
I’m using the booster. It’s just citric acid and fragrance. This wasn’t limited to the 9mm. It’s the 308 too. If I’m not willing to try the 9mm I certainly won’t the 308
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Is your water very hard with lime deposits? If not, the "booster" may be counterproductive. That's based on a simple background in water chem and machining, not case tumbling. Adding acid as a booster for detergent is really only effective if you're trying to counteract lime in the water. Otherwise, you're just making a light acid bath. It may oxidize the outer layer of copper and copper-oxide is harder, and more brittle, than the base copper-zinc alloy; a.k.a. brass. But, you can really only change the outer skin of the metal - a few microns of an an inch, at most. Alloys are defined by a metallic bonding character and won't simply "un-bond" by emersion. Getting two elemental metals back from an alloy is not an easy process. If the acid is strong enough you may end up dissolving some of the brass metal but, it won't revert to pure copper. An acid bath won't eat away only the zing molecules within the alloy's molecular structure. Unless you've learned the secret of alchemy? ;)
 
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Fortunately there isn’t really a reason to try to save just a few cases. I’ll shorten my soak time a lot, and try fewer cases next time until I get it right. I have about 10 pounds of empty 9mm brass and a gallon bag of 308. I’ll cut back to a teaspoon and 10 or 15 minutes and try again. I’m testing some SD bullets and need to replenish my FMJ range ammo supply for 9mm so ultimately I need to clean about 200 cases. I have a dozen 308 cases already cleaned and need about 10 more for load confirmation.
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
Is your water very hard with lime deposits? If not, the "booster" may be counterproductive. That's based on a simple background in water chem and machining, not case tumbling. Adding acid as a booster for detergent is really only effective if you're trying to counteract lime in the water. Otherwise, you're just making a light acid bath. It may oxidize the outer layer of copper and copper-oxide is harder, and more brittle, than the base copper-zinc alloy; a.k.a. brass. But, you can really only change the outer skin of the metal - a few microns of an an inch, at most. Alloys are defined by a metallic bonding character and won't simply "un-bond" by emersion. Getting two elemental metals back from an alloy is not an easy process. If the acid is strong enough you may end up dissolving some of the brass metal but, it won't revert to pure copper. An acid bath won't eat away only the zing molecules within the alloy's molecular structure. Unless you've learned the secret of alchemy? ;)
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I’m far more familiar with steels and cast irons than brasses, but I have seen graphitization of cast irons, where only the graphite is left. I imagine the same is possible with brass but have only guesses at the circumstances needed. I’m relatively certain I didn’t create them on my front porch. Still, even with things the way they are now it’s not worth a chance especially on a case that takes 9x the powder of a 9mm. No thanks. I’ll just not fill that mag up all the way.
 
I ran a batch of 223 brass through the improved formula. It was about a teaspoon of Lemishine and a squirt of Dawn in heated water, but not boiling. It’s hot enough to put my hands in without getting burned. I swished them around a few minutes, rubbed off some soot around a few necks, and they came out nice and clean. I rinsed them and they’re in the dryer now for an hour at 225 F. This was some pretty crusty range brass and came out great. FWIW it was all Frontier 5.56. I did decap them with the Lee Universal Decapping Die before washing.
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
I'm gonna give away a secret here. You know that plastic basket with the crank handle that comes with a FA tumbler kit? Well, that basket works great in a 5-gallon bucket filled with warm, soapy water for BP shells. Fill the bucket to just under where the slots are cut for the axles and crank away - slowly. It will splash and will soak you if you go too fast. So don't go too fast. I may have read that on another forum... :feet: or... it may even be my own brilliant idea. I ain't sayin' which. ;)
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Actually this is the method I use to get the SS pins out of my brass after wet tumbling it works well. Never find any pins that are left behind. Then do it a second time with a tub of clean water to rinse completely.
 
DocRock said:
Citric acid and dish soap is a safe and effective way to clean brass. The pink spots are not a sign of catastrophic failure. Use 2 table spoons and some dish soap in a quart of hot water (maintain ratio to size up). Give it 5 to 10 mins. Swish the brass around. Rinse well in cold water.
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Works for me. Listen to DocRock.
 
I had slightly pink brass once, after leaving some in the tumbler drum for a few days. :oops:
I am using 'about' a teaspoon of citric acid powder, 3 squirts of Simple Green Concentrate in about 2/3 gallon of distilled water. I preheat about 1 coffee pot full of the water in an old electric percolator, pour that over the pins and brass in the drum, then add the acid and SG. Tumble for 1 to 3 hours, depending on when I get back to it.

The only problem is, now that I have a wet pin tumbler, I have to go back and clean a bunch of brass that did not get as clean as I (now) like from just the vibratory tumbler.
 
I was able to get the rest of my Frontier brass cleaned in one batch last night. I found my faucet hot water is hot enough to do the job. I also continued to move the brass around in the water for the whole soak, about 10 minutes. That seemed to clean the case necks so I don’t have to wipe them off individually when I get them out. Final test will be with some mixed brand range brass tonight in an even bigger batch. If it works, that will be all my once-fired 223, so I’ll have to start on something else.
 
The only problem is, now that I have a wet pin tumbler, I have to go back and clean a bunch of brass that did not get as clean as I (now) like from just the vibratory tumbler.
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:rofl:

Had that same issue when I first got my wet tumbler......
I felt I just "had" to do it.
Having said that when I started reloading 9mm I didn't have any tumbler at all, I just tossed the cases in a bucket of water with dish soap, let them soak for a couple of days stirring every now and then.
While they were not spotless or super shiny, all the ammo worked just fine.
 
Some of the crustier of the range brass was this Lake City from 2020. Came out pretty good I’d say. Clean enough to use for sure, considering how my previous hand cleaned brass was. 8C6C9B30-17AB-4250-8AD9-64C90F5FA2D6.jpeg
 
Joe, is that you?

They look a bit tarnished/darker than if they were polished, but they’re for sure cleaner than all the ones I’ve reloaded so far after cleaning with mineral spirits on a 12 gage patch with each case chucked into the Lee trimmer cartridge holder.
 
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