contaminated brass

[PowderMeasure]

SS media in thumblers tumbler, 1/2 of a 45 casing of Lima Shine and a spot of Dawn liquid detergent. My household uses soft water. The brass is absolutely clean and shiney. I rinse very thoroughly and never let the brass sit in the tumbler after the run is over. I immediatly put rinsed out brass into a box to spread it out then put a fan on it with the heat of a light bulb for fast drying. After a few weeks, the brass looks like crap. Looks like water spots all over it. The spots are discolored. A burnt discolored. I'm confused as to where the contamination is coming from? Considering it is weeks later?

Thanks.

 

[Mojo Daddy]

Rinse your brass in a bucket of water with Lima Shine in the rinse water. Take brass out of water and the roll on a towel to pat dry. I then put in oven at 175 for 1/2 hour to dry.

 

[sharpshooterbr]

Rinse your brass in a bucket of water with Lima Shine in the rinse water. Take brass out of water and the roll on a towel to pat dry. I then put in oven at 175 for 1/2 hour to dry.

I agree with this tip. I have also heard of guys rinsing in denatured alcohol also, but I haven't tried this yet.

 

[timelinex]

My brass is always super discolored and works just fine...

 

[waste_knot]

The lima shine is an acid. The brass is so clean it has all the oxidation removed with no protective coating to keep it from oxidizing and turning dark. I get the same thing when I ultrasonic clean in a phosphoric acid mix. I throw mine in the walnut shell vibrtory for 30 min with some brass polish or nu finish which has wax in it and it coats everthing and keeps it protected.

 

[PowderMeasure]

Hmm. Just another step added to the process. Well, guess I better get some nu finish. So what's the ratio of nu finish to walnut media?

 

[waste_knot]

About a 1/2 teaspoon. You could just size your brass directly after SS tunbling and the sizing wax/lube will coat them.

 

[PowderMeasure]

Appreciate the replies.

 

[Mutt]

Try cold water in the tumble and cold in the rinse too.

I had the same problem when I used hot water to tumble and US clean my cases. I think hot water cleaned better (faster, more efficiently) but I noticed the hotter my water was the more discolored my brass got after it set and aired for a while, no matter what I did to avoid it...Flitz became my final step and I HATED life on cleaning days because of it. More than my Ex Prostitute. It's more tolerable now...brass cleaning, that is, the prostitute is still a b!tch.
Worth mention. If you don't already use cold water, give it a shot. Can't hurt!

 

[zuke]

I've done the tumble in straight hot water out of the tap and I've used cold out of the garden hose.
It happen's when it feel's like it.
I've run 5 load's thru my model "B" yesterday and had a batch do that. The next 3 were OK.
I'll be running another 5-6 batch's today of mixed 30-06/300WM/300WSSM/303/30-30/243/ just about anycaliber you can think of except 22 cal and no pistol caliber's.
I'm doing a buddy a favour, he recently bought a couple 15 gallon drum's of mixed brass for $2.50/lb.
He's got it figured out to about $0.08-$0.10 each is what it cost him.

 

[PowderMeasure]

I have resorted to vibrating my cleaned brass in Walnut media with NuFinish. Brass is Very shiney and has protected coating on it now. The brass that looked horrible, I put in the Walnut and the NuFinish took it all away. Another step, but worth the hastle to add protective finish to brass and shine it up even better. Already clean so media last a long long time.

 

[workinman]

I agree with MUTT on this issue. only use cold tap water for tumbling and rinsing. The water here has a lot of dissolved minerals in it. Using only cold water my brass is clean and shiny even after a couple of weeks lying around. just my 0.02