Stainless Media Weirdness

[MostlyOnThePaper]

I built a rotary tumbler, will post pics after it has some hours on it and I know it's not going to fall apart.

The batch of brass I've been running most of the day is dull on the outside, but the primer pockets and inside are glowing and shiny. The water didn't feel especially slick in spite of substantial suds in the water. My drum holds about 2.5 gallons, first run I used a 45acp case of lemishine and what I thought from the suds had to be too much soap. Next I dumped most of that water and brought it back to 3/4 full. Then another run with about 1/2 as much lemishine. If nobody has any better ideas my next try tomorrow will be with the reduced (1/2 45acp) lemishine and a larger shot of soap. Soap was Dawn.

Randy

[Love Life]

Use more lemishine...

[GRUMPA]

+1 on the above.....

I was being to conservative with the Lemi-Shine when I was tumbling and it was hit and miss with the shine, added a bit more and that issue was solved..

[Airman Basic]

After running with dawn and lemishine, cases look spectacular, but in a week or so, they turn almost a copper shade. Assuming the brass is tarnishing, what causes this? Doesn't happen with dry media.

[GRUMPA]

After running with dawn and lemishine, cases look spectacular, but in a week or so, they turn almost a copper shade. Assuming the brass is tarnishing, what causes this? Doesn't happen with dry media.

They will look great but the brass itself is exposed to the air. When it's been tumbled in corn cob or walnut media the media has a polish that basically coats the brass and blocking the air which cause it to change color. I'm sure there's variables like humidity and such but I've had mine sit up to a year with very little change, perhaps that's because I live in a semi-arid climate.

[VHoward]

I live on the Oregon coast and I have some brass I wet tumbled last year that still looks shiny and new. Very humid here. Might have more to do with how well you rinse the brass after tumbling and how hard you rinse water is.

[Love Life]

After running with dawn and lemishine, cases look spectacular, but in a week or so, they turn almost a copper shade. Assuming the brass is tarnishing, what causes this? Doesn't happen with dry media.

After you clean it with the SS tumbling setup your brass is nekid.

After you clean it with SS tumbling lay it out and let it dry. After it is dry (I let it sit 24 hours) run it in corn cob media treated with mineral spirits and NU-finish car polish. I have brass that has been sitting in a tote for 3 weeks and it is still as shiny as when it came out of the tumbler.

As for the above don't skimp on the lemishine or citric acid. My tumbler holds 25 lbs of pins and a couple gallons of water. I add 3 heaping table (like the ones you eat with) spoons of citric acid and then a 4 second squirt of dawn giving the bottle a moderate squeeze.

For citric acid I use pure citric acid from diesel labs. Buy it by the pound. It is pure, organic, non gmo (like any of that matters except for the purity). Lemishine has a funky smell to me and I really have no clue what else may be in it besides citric acid.

[Airman Basic]

If I've got to run it through dry media as well, might as well skip one or the other. Must be a better way.

[Love Life]

You get out of it what you put into it. If you want new looking brass than SS is the way to go, or possibly ceramic media. The down side is having to hit it with the dry media as well.

If you want shiny on the outside, but gross on the inside brass, than dry media only is the way to go.

[Airman Basic]

Not dissing you, but wet & dry is too much sugar for a dime. I can't believe this happens to everybody or surely it would have been mentioned before in the group. I'll figure it out.

[Love Life]

It has happened to quite a few people. They clean it, dry it, store it, and weeks later it has tarnished or discolored.

The dry run stops the tarnishing. There is no figuring it out. If you want your brass to stay shiny you have to hit it with some dry media and polish, or invest in purified water bought from the store.

It was a bummer when it happened to me.

[VHoward]

Or just run your rinse water through a water softener first. Of course the tarnish is not going to effect the way the ammunition performs. I just do it to get the inside and primer pockets clean.

[MostlyOnThePaper]

I will try more lemishine first. I was already planning to follow up with the car wax, protective coating and helps it slide through the dies.

[Mike_60]

More Lemishine and/or less time in the tumbler. Also, I have brass I've cleaned nearly two years ago sitting in boxes waiting to be used that hasn't tarnished any I can see.

[Airman Basic]

Thanks Mike_60, that's the answer I was looking for.

[Mike_60]

Change the water and rinse after about an hour (use the same formulation when refilling it) and run it for another 2-3 more hours depending on the amount of brass. But - do not - let it go much longer than that, or sit in the water for any length of time like overnight, because it will dull the appearance appreciably.

[Love Life]

I run my brass for 2 to 2 1/2 hours straight. I do not change the water at all. It comes out nice and pretty.

I fill my drum to the top of the neck with 24 lbs of brass fill it with water until the water is about 3 inches above the brass level. Set it and forget it. I wonder why there is such a difference? Water quality maybe? RPMs? Citric acid? Too much soap?

[NoZombies]

I would bet water quality has more to do with tarnish and end results than most of the other possibilities.

[Recluse]

I have brass that has been sitting in a tote for 3 weeks and it is still as shiny as when it came out of the tumbler.

I have brass that's been sitting in totes for three years and it is still as shiny as when it came out of the tumbler. I get the pharmacy to save me all the dessicants that comes in pill bottles and packing, and when I finish cleaning a batch of brass, it goes into a Rubbermaid type of clear shoebox and it throw in several handfuls of dessicants to absorb any moisture in the air. The shoebox then goes in a closed cabinet where it's not exposed to any light.

I've got brass I've cleaned with the Thumler's ten years ago sitting in these clear plastic storage "shoeboxes" of various sizes with lots of dessicants in and the brass looks better than the factory brass you see in the bags at Cabela's or Bass Pro Shops.

The secret, in my opinion, is as you said: Tumble with a capful of mineral spirits and a capful of NuFinish. Nice light coating keeps the tarnish away--inside AND out.

I'm wondering if there isn't a water-based type of wax, such as the automotive waxes you see in spray bottles by Armor All, Turtle Wax, Simoniz, etc. . . wonder if a capful of that added to a clean drum of water and the freshly cleaned brass might provide the same type/level of protection against tarnish?

If I've got to run it through dry media as well, might as well skip one or the other. Must be a better way.

AB, that's pretty much how I feel. The only time I use the wet media is if I get a batch of particularly nasty brass, or if I'm going to tumble a particular batch and store it very long-term. In both instances I still follow up with a trip through the Thumler's using dry media with some mineral spirits and NuFinish tossed in.

I toss in my brass, a capful of mineral spirits, a capful of NuFinish and set the timer for 24 hours and leave the tumbler running. It's in the shop, away from the house, so there's no noise or annoyance factor. I have plenty of brass in all calibers so I'm never short or in a hurry for clean brass, therefore the longer time spent tumbling doesn't bother me a bit.

At the end of the run, I can barely tell any difference between my "dry" tumbled brass and my "wet" tumbled.

The other time I'll wet tumble is when I decide it's time to thoroughly clean the primer pockets, but that is not very often at all.

[Love Life]

I'm wondering if there isn't a water-based type of wax, such as the automotive waxes you see in spray bottles by Armor All, Turtle Wax, Simoniz, etc. . . wonder if a capful of that added to a clean drum of water and the freshly cleaned brass might provide the same type/level of protection against tarnish?

I don't know I screwed up and ran a batch of sized brass with the Unique lube on it through the SS tumbler and it left a nice case lube coating on the inside of the drum, the pins, and the brass. I had to scrub the pins and brass with very hot water and a boat load of Dawn to clean it all out.

If I clean and let it sit, the brass takes 2 weeks to start tarnishing if I don't run it in the dry media with polish.