Stained Brass

[wiersy111]

Here's a question foe all you brass rat's out there.
Is there some way to get the nasty dark brown stained brass clean again????

[d_hoffman]

First off, did you put it in a tumbler. Run them for about 4 hours. If you did tumble them and it's still there then there is a case cleaner liquid you could try.

[gelandangan]

a spoon of vinegar in a liter of water then put them with the cases in an ultrasonic cleaner.

[Bushmaster]

Why yes there is, as a matter of fact...

1 cup of water
1 cup of white vinegar
1 tablespoon of dishwashing detergent
1 tablespoon of salt

Mix in a suitable container that you can seal and is big enough to contain the mixture and the guilty cases (I use an old large Tupperware bowl). Agitate ever few minutes for about 15 to 20 minutes. Rinse well with clear water and dry. Make sure they are absolutely dry before you reload them.

This will remove the corrosion and stain and can damage the cases by leaching the zinc out of them if they stay in the solution too long or you do it too many times. I will do it only once on cases that I wish to save for whatever reason. You will note that there is a pink color spotted on the case. This is the leaching going on. Just tumble them for a time after drying and all will be just fine. After they have been tumbled. Inspect them for pitting...

[wiersy111]

I figured Bushy would have a secret receipt.

I first tumbled a bunch of nasty brown cases with Flitz added to the media but it just made them a shiny brown. I washed some in Lime Away and the brown turned pink, after tumbling again for about 6 to 7 hours some are shiny again but some are brass color just not shiny.

How good are these cases?

[Bushmaster]

Without having a couple in my hands I couldn't tell you. You have a photo of them?

[wiersy111]

The pic aren't great but will have to do.

My wife and kids helped scavenge brass atbthe range yesterday, there isn't anything left at that range.

[Pumpkinslinger]

Personally I don't pick up brass at the range for the simple reasons that I don't know how many times its been fired, how hot the loads were, etc. IMO the savings aren't worth the risk. Now if I see someone open a factory box and they don't want the brass I will be happy to take it!

I also don't worry about the appearance too much as long as I'm sure the brass is still good.

If I can find some really discolored stuff I'm going to try Bushy's recipe and leave it in too long on purpose to see the effects. When I get a chance to try it I'll take pics to post here.

[chambered221]

Pumpkinslinger wrote:

Personally I don't pick up brass at the range for the simple reasons that I don't know how many times its been fired, how hot the loads were, etc. IMO the savings aren't worth the risk. Now if I see someone open a factory box and they don't want the brass I will be happy to take it!

Yea!!! What pumpkin said!!! Although I do like making mine nice and shiny!!!

[Bushmaster]

And I can tell if a round is once fired or has been reloaded. Not 100%, but I bet it's at least 99% correct.

The one on the left has fired only once (factory). The one on the right has been reloaded once. Making it loaded and fired twice.

Federal is probably my 1%. Federal seems to use a rather dirty powder, but with practice you can still tell the difference.

[SingleShotLover]

Pink cases, huh? Maybe you can start a trend.

[wncchester]

We can turn the worst dark, tarnished brass sorta pinkish with a few hours soak in plain vinegar, no need to put the whole old NRA formula together. The pink color tells us the dark tarnish (oxide) has been converted by the mild (harmless) acid in the vinegar. Then a couple hours in a tumbler will make it indestingushable from any other cases.

[stovepipe]

Soak in orange or lemon juice (pulp free).

Rinse then dry on cookie sheet (ooo- cookies! *buuurp* ) in oven.

Then tumble with your favorite shiner-upper additive.

[stovepipe]

wiersy111 wrote:

The pic aren't great but will have to do. .

Next time.....try the Focus, Shakey Jake!

[Bushmaster]

Yeh...Hold still when hitting the shutter. It's like pulling the trigger. You take a deep breath and exhale half of it and hold...Then push the shutter...