Thread: Best time to clean brass

Just curious about when exactly in the normal 'reloading process' are you guys cleaning?
Personally I clean first thing. Before any die work, to minimise the dreaded runout issue.

I mean that makes sense doesn't it? Putting brass with crud on it into an FL or body die can't be good for concentricity right?

Half the YouTube video I saw clean their brass very late in the game imo.

I don't have a tumbler or ultrasonic cleaner and haven't cleaned any yet.
Latest batch after trimming I polished with steel wool but the inside will still have powder residue.
Most people I talk to don't clean very regularly other than a wipe down of the external surfaces.

I also don't have a tumbler or ultra sonic - but its on the list.

I've been very lucky that a mate from my Sporting rifle club will run my brass when he is running his own. Thanks Mike S!
I had however picked up a lyman brush set which you put your necks into graphite with as well and it was only a couple of dollars so at a push and if I have a more urgent need I'll brush the insides, deprime and brush again.

After that I check the brass lengths and trim and chamfer before sizing neck or full length. Seems to work for me and I don't get a lot of variance or crap on my dies (even though I regularly give them a once over with wet an dry) after having a new Redding 300 Blk sizing die get stuck on the 5th one. - Not falling for that again!!!

Don't know if this is what every one else does but it works nicely for me.

CD

Rifle brass is deprime, tumble, size then trim and chamfer if needed.

Pistol brass just gets deprimed/sized, tumbled then loaded.

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If they are dirty a wash with hot water dish washing liquid and a table spoon of vinegar does a great job, Get a big plastic container with a screw top put in the cases and hot water mix and give a good shake
for a few minutes tip the cases into a sieve and run the hot tap over them to rinse off the crude lay them in the sun to dry or oven set at 100c, you could deprime them first if you have a decaping die,
A tumbler is a better idea than a sonic cleaner cheaper to run you don't have to buy expensive liquid cleaning fluid and they don't polish the cases, with a tumbler if you wash the cases first the media lasts
longer and there are a few ways of cleaning up the media,
Anybody using Lee or any other water soluble case lube biff it, it will rust your dies if not cleaned out, Imperial die wax is it best case lube hands down.

I resize, chamfer then tumble , prime and reload

Brass out of a suppressed AR is filthy so I clean (stainless steel pin tumbler), resize, then clean again to get the lube off.

Originally Posted by Pongo12

I resize, chamfer then tumble , prime and reload

Ah the looks. A good tumble does make them nice and shiny. I went to the trouble of building a wet tumbler but i'm trying a batch of 100 just doing the practical steps. The inside of my brass is putrid but it is consistent so its staying.
Im just chucking on a dab of autosol on the necks and that takes the carbon off instantly. The heads don't get much love.

Mine goes like this
Remove carbon around neck and shoulder - anneal - then body size alone (with tiny amount of lube) - clear the flashhole - trim the necks - debur in/out - prime.

Seems to be going fine as my 'no turn throat' is still leaving me with sufficient neck tension (just going off feel of the lever when seating). I still only have 3/50 that have medium tension which Ive been using as foulers.

Originally Posted by i41do2

I don't have a tumbler or ultrasonic cleaner and haven't cleaned any yet.
Latest batch after trimming I polished with steel wool but the inside will still have powder residue.
Most people I talk to don't clean very regularly other than a wipe down of the external surfaces.

That may not be the worst idea either. Leaving the gunk in hasn't hurt my accuracy after 6 cycles so far.

Deprime, clean (ultrasonic/bulk citric powder and dishwash), chamfer/trim, size, prime, ...

Clean brass is nicer to work with.

Originally Posted by R93

Rifle brass is deprime, tumble, size then trim and chamfer if needed.

Pistol brass just gets deprimed/sized, tumbled then loaded.

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I totally stole your idea on using an engraver on the extractor groove lip. I just make a slight notch to record the firing and then i can bulk clean or whatever and still re-sort them later. Way better idea than trying to just keep them in different buckets imo

De-prime, wet tumble then further case prep once clean.

Originally Posted by shooternz

If they are dirty a wash with hot water dish washing liquid and a table spoon of vinegar does a great job, Get a big plastic container with a screw top put in the cases and hot water mix and give a good shake
for a few minutes tip the cases into a sieve and run the hot tap over them to rinse off the crude lay them in the sun to dry or oven set at 100c, you could deprime them first if you have a decaping die,
A tumbler is a better idea than a sonic cleaner cheaper to run you don't have to buy expensive liquid cleaning fluid and they don't polish the cases, with a tumbler if you wash the cases first the media lasts
longer and there are a few ways of cleaning up the media,
Anybody using Lee or any other water soluble case lube biff it, it will rust your dies if not cleaned out, Imperial die wax is it best case lube hands down.

i wash dish washing liquid as well but the last thing i do is rinse in meths to help dry them

I deprime and size (either neck or full length), ultrsonic clean, prime, load, fire. Repeat.

Haven't yet trimmed. Upto 7th use of Norma 223 cases, 6th use of Lapua Palma 308 cases.

If it's going through the progressive press or through the single stage without a length trim I wet tumble then ultrasonic first thing. If it's getting trimmed or anything I wet tumble and ultrasonic after sizing/trimming to deburr and clean out filings.

A club member tried ultrasonic after loading bulk .223 and then put them in the oven on low to dry quickly, heat wasn't low enough because one went bang and smashed the glass door