Thread: have you tried tumbling brass in rice?

herd some talk about it . thought i'd try it in the shaker .it moves around, but not as good a corn cob or walnut . defiantly makes more noise .
i'm not a nut about super shiny brass . after running the shaker i tried the rock tumbler .after running the rice & brass in the rock tumbler for many hours one thing did happen . the inside of the brass was much cleaner than corncob or walnut has ever done . all it did for primer pockets was to plug up the holes . that was something i was expecting. ok so what! super clean brass really only is pleasing to the eye .takes time to get . if i really wanted shiny brass, using a LEE case holder and a drill motor a rag and brass polish gets it the shiniest it can get .

Yea I use rice with half a tube of autosol in it in a tumbler, works good but yes blocks up primer holes.

Originally Posted by misser

if i really wanted shiny brass, using a LEE case holder and a drill motor a rag and brass polish gets it the shiniest it can get .

It’s worth mentioning, for anyones benefit reading the thread that was unaware that the ammonia in Brasso polish roots brass cartridges making them prematurely brittle.

You can use rice to bring old tumbling media back to life in a pinch

doesnt the pork and chicken affect the brass ??

Use Arborio rice to then make a very manly risotto once the rice is clean.

What is this fixation with shiny shiny brass?
It doesn't shoot any better.
Yes I can detect problems in a case without it being shiny.
I don't lose cases in the scrub and cannot find them due to them not glittering.

I stopped super cleaning brass ages ago after going the tumbler, ultrasonic, wet SS pins when I decided it was a non value (and time consuming) adding process.
All I do is remove any carbon from the necks using Krazy Kloth, stiff nylon brush clean inside the necks, clean primer pockets (some wI'll argue this us not necessary).
The only cleaning issue is heavy build up inside cases with certain types of powder in which case a wet SS clean is the only way to clean them.

But, I can understand pistol shooters picking up all their (100s of ?) brass off the range floor and throwing it in a tumbler though.

And on the Brasso use, I can remember Toby posting several years ago that he cleaned his brass with Brasso. He got a lot of oh no no no's. Equally a few posted that they had always cleaned with Brasso and had experienced no issues.
I'm in the don't use Brasso camp but probably more for the reasons about cleaning above.

@zimmer where do you get your crazy cloth from?
I have used a saddlers product for cleaning necks, its about the only place I am focused on getting clean ....mind you I have been playing with the U/Sonic lately to see.....but necks are still not clean outside. Its called never dull, a cotton wadding that is used for brass saddlery bits ( literally). I have used it all up / traded it to a guy that collects military casings (think big) so would be keen to try something different. I have read of the yanks using it but didnt know of an equivalent here.

@johnd Unfortunately I don't think it is available in NZ. I have a good supply as I used to add several Krazy Kloths into any Brownells order.
The closest I can see is BRT in Oz. Again I would add it into an order from them as buying it on its own would make it very expensive.
Your product sounds similar to KK. Pity you now have none.

Long ago I decided the lubricity inside the neck is a very important part of the bullet release/bullet tension. Ultrasonic certainly cleans cases very well but I found having as new inside necks with all of the lubrication left behind by the carbon/burnt powder totally removed is not ideal. Also need to be careful what is added to the ultrasonic brew as I found I overdid the citric acid early on and the inside of the necks although spotless clean had a rough texture. As I said, I stiff nylon brush insides but don't totally remove the black deposit. I dry lube inside the necks prior to bullet seating. I'm still perfecting that. From my understating it is something AMP have been working on as well.

One brew I did try was a watery paste made of moly and isopropyl alcohol. I didn't continue with this method as I found the isopropyl alcohol would all evaporate from the paste before every neck was lubed. This method was not my brainchild but was used by a club member over your way who has had great success at Trentham in FO and FTR. You can probably work out who that is?

I give outside of necks a wipe with 0000 steel wool if theyre grotty. Inside I do each neck with nylon or bronze brush dipped in graphite powder. (Usually nylon) Use standard primer pocket scratcher and wipe outside of cases with meths.

Originally Posted by zimmer

What is this fixation with shiny shiny brass?
It doesn't shoot any better.

Sacrilege ! 10 lashes for you

Come on zimmer, shiny brass shoots at least 2.3 % better - it has been scientifically proven

As to the OP question - yes, been there - not worth the mess. It creates a lot of rice dust...

Best option is a wet tumbler, without stainless pins. Teaspoon of citric acid, teaspoon of dish soap, lots of hot water.

If you do not have a tumber, you can use NEVR-DULL stainless polish from Burnsco. Just avoid anything with amonia in it (Braso etc) - that makes the cases weaker.

Back in the days when I used a vibratory tumbler regularly, once tumbled, I used to give the cases a quick blow out with air. Usually a wee cloud of dust would come out. That dust I figured was abrasive and was something I never wanted to go thru my barrel. I used Lyman Corncob Green media which they claim leaves no abrasive residue....

I did try rice (nice and cheap) but it was way less effective than the Lyman stuff. Probably didn't give it a fair go but agree with @ebf comment re rice.

I have also added Dillon Rapid Polish 290 to my Lyman media to try and rejuvenate it (I always ran my media to death, too miserable to change it regularly). I believe adding car polish may also work.

I have used the dryer sheet idea, and it does seem to cut down the dust ( soak it up ) and it has the added benefit of making the media smell nice, not a game breaker but similar to having shiny brass.
I am not a big convert of the sonic method, similar to wet tumbling in a lot of ways ( yet another step to dry out, and wait for).

My present method is to do a sonic clean on deprimed brass, let it drain for a day and then run it through the dry tumbler, to suck up any water. I'll probably go back to just dry tumbling to retain some level of carbon / dirt inside the case.

And add the sonic every now and then. Havent done enough cycles to come up with a proven technique yet.

@ebf isnt a wet tumbler without pins and with hot water etc just another version of a sonic?

after an hour or two with rice,the brass wasnt much better,so I went out to garage and found a heap of odds n ends ,bits of chain,stainless bolts,washers etc threw them in,gave it another hour with a splash of wash n wax added for good measure...yip they came out much better. no better than choirboy cloth while in the drill.

John, not sure ? I suspect a sonic would be able to get rid of more "baked on" stuff, and move tinier particles ?

In the wet tumbler the other cases kinda act as vibratory media.