Wet Tumbling: Tarnished Cases

[pbairborne]

I thought that I'd post this just in case someone else has had a similar problem with wet tumbling.

 

I started wet tumbling several months ago and had a frustrating problem. My tumbler is the Frankford Arsenal Rotating Tumbler. And I was using the recipe that I've seen before on the forum, and that is, 500 or so 9 mm cases, 1 gallon of water, 5 lb stainless pins, 1 oz Armor-all Wash and Shine, and a 45 case full of Lemishine. Tumbling was at garage temperature for 1.5 hr. While my cases came out clean, they were really dark and tarnished. See the attached picture. A friend who cleans his cases the same way always has his turn out bright and shiny.

 

The only difference between his method and mine is that he uses Jacksonville, FL city water and I was using Ohio softened well water. Of course I had to do the experiment. I ran another batch of cases today using a gallon of distilled water that I bought. With distilled water, the cases came out bright and shiny. I'll post that pic in my next post. So there must be something in my well water that is causing the cases to tarnish.

 

Buying distilled water every time I clean cases didn't seem like a good option. But another friend had the solution. That was to switch from Wash and Shine to a cleaner made by Alkonox, Citranox. It only takes 1/2 oz per gallon of water and it makes the cases come out clean and shiny. The bonus is that it only took 1/2 hour of tumbling to get them clean.

[pbairborne]

Tried to upload a pic of the cases cleaned in distilled water, but the system wouldn't let me. You'll have to believe me, they came out perfect.

[jtrump]

Because of the way I do my wet tumbling, I rinse the cases until completely clean and while shiny at first they turn a little more ugly like your picture above, they are also not smooth.

 

So I also tumble them in fine walnut media with dillion polish for about an hour,  i do way more than 500 at a time wet.   Anyway once you polish them in the media, they are brilliant shine inside and out and also somewhat SLICK""  they run really well in the press, I don't recommend running them right out of a wet tumbler, it runs so much smoother when you polish them.

 

So yes essentially, I do double work.   But I catch more bad brass this way also, and I've got the prettiest stuff around

[sschultz]

Try using hard water 

[pbairborne]

My well water may have a bit of sulfur in it. Sometimes you can smell it in the shower. In any case, changing from Wash and Wax to Citranox at 1/2 oz per load of brass in my FART, the brass comes out perfect. And I've run more than 700 9's per charge.

 

Sschultz: Interesting thought. My water before softening is pretty hard. I may pull a gallon of water before it goes to the softener and try it. Since I have to bring that water from my basement up to the garage, it probably won't be my preferred way to tumble brass. Thinking about putting a bit of "cheater wax" in my rinse water to see if that makes the sizing go any easier.

[echotango]

5 hours ago, pbairborne said:

 And I've run more than 700 9's per charge.

 

That seems low. I dump about 1250 in mine per run. It weighs the recommended amount. I think 25 or 30#.

[Foxbat]

23 hours ago, jtrump said:

Because of the way I do my wet tumbling, I rinse the cases until completely clean and while shiny at first they turn a little more ugly like your picture above, they are also not smooth.

 

So I also tumble them in fine walnut media with dillion polish for about an hour,  i do way more than 500 at a time wet.   Anyway once you polish them in the media, they are brilliant shine inside and out and also somewhat SLICK""  they run really well in the press, I don't recommend running them right out of a wet tumbler, it runs so much smoother when you polish them.

 

So yes essentially, I do double work.   But I catch more bad brass this way also, and I've got the prettiest stuff around

 

I do exactly the same.  The cases come out bright, but dull with time, so I always tumble them to give them lasting shine. 

 

Yes, more work, but I like the result.  I am using softened well water, and no pins. 

 

I also noticed this: I used to use regular salt in the softener, and the cases dulled quicker.  Now I am using potassium, and they seem to retain the shine longer.

[pbairborne]

Thanks, Echotango. I'll try upping the number of cases in my runs.

[sschultz]

I've done several hundred thousand rounds I keep the quantity brass weight to a little less than the weight of the pins. Pins, brass fill with hard water add a squirt of dawn and small amount of Lemi-shine. I tumble for two to two and half hours. Dump the dirty water out of tumbler rinse until the water is almost clear. I dump the brass and pins into Franklin Armory seperater rinse again. Then I spin the pins out and light rinse again while spinning the brass. Then I dump the brass on a towel and roll back and forth then it goes on a drying to sit in the sun to dry. My brass stays nice and shiny. From my experience rinsing is one of most important parts of good clean brass.

[Tnbb33]

Clean the tumbler using a run of just dawn or other dish soap and steel pins, run for 2-3 hours . May need to do it twice to remove all the wax. The wax from wash and wax type soaps will gunk up your tumbler making the cases tarnished. Also with wax more is not better, it takes a very small amount before you get dull colored cases. My go to is a .40 case full of lemishine and just a small amount of dawn, don't measure the dish soap but maybe a .45 case worth. 

 

Unless you're trying to use wax in place of case lube just switch to dish soap.

Edited September 3, 2017 by Tnbb33

[TONY BARONE]

I have found that using Frankford Arsenal Brass Cleaning Solution works the best. Tumble for 3 hrs without pins and dry in Frankford Dryer at 120 degrees for 2 hrs produces factory like brass.

[Tom S.]

Older post, but am I the only one who wonders how tarnished your insides must look from drinking all that water?