Thread: Cleaning Brass on a budget

A quick bit of info for those that are new to reloading and may want an alternative to a case tumbler..I was not so much on a budget but am very impatient!

I was lucky enough to have the wife buy me a reloading press and some bits and pieces for xmas and with a day away from work yesterday I took the time to shoot up to Reloaders for some go bang bits.

Got the press mounted and de primed a bit of old brass from deer gone buy, most of it Federal and some Hornady Match.

Having never reloaded I wanted to have a bit of a practice on some already on hand materials for when I undoubtedly get something wrong.

Primers out, now how to clean it up without a tumbler or ultrasonic cleaner..google knew...



A tablespoon of dish wash liquid and salt along with a cup of vinegar and 500ml or there about of hot water.

Here is a batch of Hornady brass waiting to go in.





Give it a quick mix through the solution, I only did 10 minutes total, giving it regular mixes with my hand - I could see an immediate difference.



After a quick rinse in fresh hot water you are left with some pretty clean brass.





Then I put it in a cooling oven to dry after being left on a towel to drip dry - this is a batch of Federal I did earlier.



I haven't loaded any of it yet, I will leave it for a few days to continue to air dry.

The whole process took 30 minutes including de priming, may need to tidy up the primer pockets a bit more but they are pretty good (I think?)
If you old hands can see any obvious errors or potential problems (apart form moisture form un dry cases) please let me know.

Pretty easy and as I said earlier good brass to learn with before I start using this..



and a few more of these with my own hand loads

It works but dont use the ali billy, two dissimilar metals in that electrolytes up an voltayciccell

I throw all mine in a pillow case and tie up the end and chuck it into the washing machine with some dish detergent. Warm wash soak cycle. Im cheap too.

Bloody touch pad keyboard sneeze and post nonsense. Should say voltaic cell that will cause the zinc in the brass to dissolve over time making it brittle. Use a plastic basin. U can also replace the vinegar with citric acid it's milder.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Bloody touch pad keyboard sneeze and post nonsense. Should say voltaic cell that will cause the zinc in the brass to dissolve over time making it brittle. Use a plastic basin. U can also replace the vinegar with citric acid it's milder.

Cool cheers, did not use the billy for anything other than storage,I used the red plastic for the cleaning - but hadn't thought of potential reaction either, thanks.

yeah vinegar is pretty harsh have used it for other things and it does the trick a little too well if your not careful.

I thought you were meant to use baking soda or similar at some point to neutralise the acidity of the vinegar....? Remember reading something somewhere at some point.

Brass looks good - I've never bothered with cleaning mine but your efforts have me thinking otherwise.