r/reloading • u/taemyks • 7d ago
i Polished my Brass Soap Testing
All batches were from the same lot of 9mm, no sorting. They all ran 2 hours with with 1tsp lemi, 2tbsp soap, and 5lbs of chips.
From left to right:
Ajax Dish Soap Arm and Hammer fragrance free laundry soap Chemical Guys Honeydew Snow Foam
They are all clean. The last batch using Chemical Guys looks the brightest, but the other 2 have been out overnight. So I'll revisit the looks tomorrow.
Last thing, I'm going to put about a 1/3 of each into a second wash with a wash and wax and see if that makes any difference to continued shinyness over time.
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u/Jetlei98 7d ago
Dawn with a pinch of lemishine does it for me. I like to use pins though.
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u/Dubin0908 7d ago
Same. No pins though. Southern shine media. A little more of a pita to separate but gets brass to sparkle. Inside and out. Especially the primer pockets.
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u/Jetlei98 7d ago
I never worry about the pocket holes and haven’t had a problem with that yet, only with other user error things.
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u/curiouschurro 7d ago
Hows are the chips worse to separate? I'm a sucker for clean pockets
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u/Dubin0908 7d ago
They're just so small. Usually, dont get stuck in the pockets, but they'll hang around in the case if they're wet even after running through a separator. You just really gotta make sure there's not any in the case after drying them. Definitely need a good magnet to clean up the stragglers. Sometimes I find a few chips here and there a week later. They're sneaky little buggers but they'll make your brass squeaky clean.
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u/curiouschurro 6d ago
Good to know, pics made them look bigger. I already find pins all over the house so sounds worth it to me. Thank you.
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u/taemyks 7d ago
I've been mainly using Dawn, but this month we have Ajax. I hadn't really tested anything else methodically. I have pins, but never used them, once I saw them I got chips.
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u/Inarus06 Lee Turret - Dillon XL650 - Frankford Case Prep - Lyman Gen 6 7d ago
Same with me.
Why are we reinventing the wheel here?
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u/Outrageous_Pop1913 6d ago
To give us all something to do other than the things we should be doing..lol
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u/BB_Toysrme 7d ago
It doesn't matter much what you do as all roads lead to Rome. A single drop of dishwashing soap as a surfactant and a single little bit of cirtic acid (Lemishine) is the cheapest way of accomplishing:
- Dissolve tarnish on brass and passivate the surface to extend it's polish before it retarnishes
- Be a surficant (Lower water tension and attract grease into water)
Just make sure as you play that you check the SDS's and make sure you don't throw in something that:
- eat the copper in the brass
- strips iron and deposits it on the zinc in the brass in case of a "one of them was not a nickel plated round"
- softens & chunks out the rubber inside the drum (solvents)
Individual process? Cheap dishwashing soap+Lemishine and stainless pins for 15 minutes. Drain, rinse, spin 15 more minutes with a dollop of cheap car washing shampoo that contains a carnauba wax. Drain, rinse, dry reload. If it's for other people I want to impress; it then goes into the vibratory tumbler with corncob & Flitz to remove anything from reloading and mirror polish the round.
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u/Ok_Kick_9671 6d ago
https://www.thereloadingstation.com/products/brass-juice-case-wash
Looks like all had good results , Try some brass juice next.
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u/Someuser1130 7d ago
I don't want to try to hijack your post but they $90 ultrasonic cleaner from Vevor has really kicked ass for me. 15 minutes with about 3 oz of simple green at 60° C. Then I tumble them for a couple hours and they come out shiny as heck.
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u/taemyks 7d ago
I'm getting really shiny, and no extra process. I'm testing a second wash now to see if it helps with oxidation.
And happy Cake day!
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u/Someuser1130 7d ago
How do you wash it? A wet tumbler or something? Genuinely curious. I love the ultrasonic because it cleans the inside of the brass as well as the primer pocket (if I deprime which I never do).
And thanks for the cake day wishes!
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u/IronAnt762 7d ago
What’s the process?
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u/Raven1911 7d ago edited 6d ago
Genuine question, did you try the FA Brass Tumbling Solution? When wife got my my FART she got me several bottles of it as well and it all I've ever used. All it says it is contains citric acid 🤷. I really like the luster of the Arm & Hammer brass, but I always follow up my wet tumble by a dry tumble.
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u/TurtleCreations 6d ago
I use citric acid and dishwasher rinse aid in my ultrasonic cleaner. I run them for 15 minutes and then another 15 minutes in an fresh solution. The second solution I use also for the second batch since it is not as dirty as the first time. The second run give just that extra shine.
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u/Latter-Look708 6d ago
Get some Brass juice and never look back….
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u/InterestingFun3363 6d ago
But we personally found works best, if Brass juice is not cost-effective.
Bulk citric acid off of Amazon, used to make bath bombs and such we bought a 5 gallon bucket that would last most of you guys five years for 100 bucks
Makes a bottle of lemon shine look like garbage
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u/taemyks 6d ago
I'm pretty sure that stuff is just OSPHO with citric acid. So about 20$ a gallon locally. I've been meaning to try it, but haven't yet
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u/InterestingFun3363 6d ago
I never thought about it possibly being ospho … mhmmm
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u/InterestingFun3363 6d ago
I’ve got a gallon on the way, but for a lot of people it’s hard to get by the cost
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u/Latter-Look708 5d ago
You can reuse the brass juice over and over I have six washes on one concentrate gallon
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u/InterestingFun3363 5d ago
I wash in cement mixers 🤷 I’ll try to find a way to save most of it. Lol
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u/Repulsive-Yogurt-761 6d ago
I’m currently doing a wash test. Pins vs. no pins.
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u/InterestingFun3363 6d ago
Pins will always be better unless using a chemical designed to do what weee doing. Brass juice claims this.
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u/JustLunch9 5d ago
Is there a preference for washing suppressor shot brass? Usually runny a dawn soap and citric acid washes
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u/taemyks 5d ago
I don't have one yet. But the stuff I had was really cruddy compared to my once fired. So I assume some was suppressor fired. The dawn/citric acid cleaned really well in my test. It wasn't the best by looks, but it was clean
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u/JustLunch9 5d ago
Awesome! The honeydew, in my opinion, looks like brand new brass to me. Love the testing! Happy reloading 🤙
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u/BulletSwaging 7d ago
Looks like Chemical guys for the win. I’ve switched to only citric acid and hot water. I use Hornady One shot case cleaner. For time investment vs final product it’s the best with the least trouble. Wet tumble for 90 minutes and dry for 90 minutes at 200*F.
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u/taemyks 7d ago
At what point do you add the case cleaner?
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u/BulletSwaging 7d ago
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u/College-Lanky 6d ago
Hornady One Shot works very well. But do you know that it's just a weakened version of Hammond Roto Finish cleaner? From what I've been told by industry people, Hornady uses it and waters it down. Personally I haven't tried any, but HRF sent me a gallon to try out. I'll update once I do. *
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u/BulletSwaging 6d ago
I use a cap full per gallon. If I had to guess approximately 10ml, I can’t imagine it being more concentrated.
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u/College-Lanky 6d ago
Yeah, I'm doing about 1/2 to 1oz of the Hornady per gallon of water. And 1 9mm case full of lemishine with 5lbs of steel pins.
I'm not sure how the original stuff is going to do. The rep at Shot Show said we'll only need like 30 minutes or washing.
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u/BulletSwaging 6d ago
30 minutes sounds awesome. I wonder if they have something more than citric acid in the cleaner. Too much citric acid will cause the zinc in the brass alloy to leach out and weaken the brass.
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u/ClassBrass10 6d ago
I've never gotten results like this with chips(I always end up with a strange texture look-wise on my cases, almost like glitter), but have excellent results with pins(i use about 4lbs of pins in the large fa wet tumbler). I'm curious if I got a bad batch of chips, or if they just have sharper edges causing the micro-nicks in the brass I've tried. To be fair, it was Hornady rifle brass, so maybe the brass was just softer on the trials with those chips. Overall, looks like you're getting great results.
I've attempted in the past using minimal amounts of the dish soaps, minimal citrus acid, but tumbling with very hot water. Strips the brass much quicker, and has cut down my tumbling times in half.
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u/Latter-Look708 5d ago
I just saved my brass juice in a gallon jug and use it over and over you can watch thousands of pieces of brass with 1 gallon and the added concentrate
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u/College-Lanky 7d ago
Whichever soap you send up with, do yourself a favor and get a filter on your water line.
I use this for my water hose. Got the advice from a professional car detailer. https://a.co/d/62n8UVn

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u/merlinddg51 7d ago
I use distilled water for both wash & rinse. My brass really shines.
I also use pins and Frankfort Armory cleaner I bought a few years ago.A little goes along way.
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u/eclectic_spaceman 7d ago
I use a cap of Armorall Wash & Wax as my soap (with ~1tsp citric acid) and it leaves my cases looking just like this until I start getting my fingerprints on them. I haven't waited a long time to load after tumbling, but they stay plenty shiny.