Thread: Verdict on Selleys Sugar Soap re wet tumbling

Ok lads genuine opinions here. Especially those guys who are chemistry buffs or just 'trial by error' fellas like me.

Is sugar soap really a risk of causing dezincification if you put it in your wet tumbler blend? I dont want to be using a product if it can weaken my brass if even slightly.

Ive always used it because it cleans really well and i only tumble for 1 hour. Just a drip of that, a drip of carwash and a pinch of citric acid to 1/2 bucket of hot water. Then rinsed in cold afterwards.

Never seen a split case neck ever or even discolouring. Actually asking for a friend haha

The datasheet on it states that it contains:

- Sodium carbonate 497-19-8 1 - 10 %
- Sodium lauryl ether sulfate 68585-34-2 1 - 10 % (w/w)
- Sodium tripolyphosphate 7758-29-4 1 - 10 % (w/w)

Im assuming 70% is water and harmless crap

- Sodium carbonate (baking soda) is a hard water conditioner. Soaps don't foam that well in hard water so you add that and foam is back. Ever tried soap in the amazon river with it's soft water? Foam goes absolutely nuts.... In your case it gets rendered useless because you are adding citric acid.
- Sodium lauryl ether sulfate is a surfactant which helps getting the long C-C-C-C chains of the soap around soil and clay particles and helps to remove them.
- Sodium tripolyphosphate has same function as sodium carbonate and has been banned in some countries as it feeds the algae in river and lakes (phosphate fertiliser).

None of them will do anything to metal. But would be careful with car wash as it might have wax in it that could leave a residual on the inside of the cases that might react with the powder over time?

I would sometimes get pink Mark's from cases that fell on the grass. after a clean in lactic acid. which was a reaction. but they come off with steel wool if need be. but no issues otherwise. I think it's a bit like surface rust on something like a steel rim, doesnt look good, but wont fly apart over night.

I just do the budget dishwashing liquid and citric acid, if I want shiny I'll change the water after half and hour or so and give it an hour more, rise all the soap off, and dry in the dehydrator, a towel dry before the dehydrator gets any water spots

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Dezincification?

Does the change in brass colour reflect a change in integrity of the case?

I have been using dishwash, a teaspoon of laundry powder and citric acid powder.

never mind all of that,
Get a 250ml bottle of brass soap from serious shooters for 13 buck.
seriously,one teaspoonful to one tumbler of brass.mint

Originally Posted by widerange

never mind all of that,
Get a 250ml bottle of brass soap from serious shooters for 13 buck.
seriously,one teaspoonful to one tumbler of brass.mint

Is that a liquid soap or are you talking their version of lemishine?

don't know,it's pink ,label says Brass soap.

I didn't observe any changes in brass colour, but im glad to hear its not likely to do anything destructive.

When I finally got around to buying my own tumbler I bought some of the “powder” from Serious Shooters and can’t say I was impressed by it!

Then bought some Finish Citric dish washing powder from the supermarket. A bit of that, a squirt of fish washing g liquid, hot water & brass comes out clean as expected but sometimes the primer pockets weren’t as shiny as the rest of the cases.

On a recent trip to the states I came back with a couple of bottles of “Lemi-shine” (dish washing powder) I got from Walmart and that stuff is the bizz!

A quart teaspoon, a squirt of fish washing liquid, hot water and brass comes out shiny through & through

@ Seventenths:
Lemi-Shine dish washing powder has only two ingredients:

CITRIC ACID & FRAGRANCE
Way cheaper to buy citric acid from Bin Inn

@Mauser308:
Pink is not necessary zinc but more likely dissolved copper which got re deposited. The technical term for this is called "salmon pink" and in that case it is highly recommended to use less citric acid or shorten the time in the solution.

Yep acid dissolves metal it's that simple. I have found normal dish-wash with a tiny amount of citric is sufficient. Just dont leave the brass in the solution for any length of time. Once it's done remove it and rinse.

WTF does "Pink is bad for brass. Pink = zinc go bye bye" mean?
Are you saying the pink colour indicates some ingredient you deem undesirable?
What? how?
So the shooting shop is selling brass soap that ruins brass?

@Mauser308:
100% agree, it is not ideal to loose zinc out of brass!

But in reality, it's not like zinc is in one corner of the shell and the copper in another. Within the crystal structure of brass, they can replace each other equally - which means to get to the zinc in the second row of atoms from the surface or deeper in the brass, the acid has to react with some of the copper atoms that are in it's way first. Plus we have 2/3 copper and 1/3 zinc in brass so that effect gets diluted again. It's not the case that acid magically sucks all the zinc out of brass and leaves you with a copper shell after a while.

That's probably why there is no difference in brass life expectancy in wet tumbling vs dry tumbling...?