Brass cleaning formula

[427Cobra]

I have done all 3 types of brass cleaning.

1 ultrasonic does a good job, but is labor intensive

2 SS media does an awesome job, but again is too labor intensive

3 tumble in Walnut\Corn Cobb with NuFinish added, this is the easiest, least labor intensive

Brass doesn't have to be as shiny as gold, brass that is cleaned so the reloading dies don't get damaged is all that is required, go to a benchrest match, they clean there brass by hand with a Krazy Klothe or 0000 steel wool, if Uber cleaned brass mattered, they would be doing it

[tedbeau]

I have a question concerning polish added to walnut media. I have a Cabelas tumbler and it came with a bottle of polish. I understand it's basically car wax. The very first time I tumbled brass I added a cup full of the polish to the walnut media. When I took out the brass after tumbling and started to reload I found several cases that had big gobs of the walnuts and polish packed in them. I would expect that loading these with the junk in them would be a bad thing. How do you get the polish to not glob up when added to the walnuts and how do you check to make sure there isn't any stuck in a case afterwards.

The other thing I noticed is even adding the polish and tumbling for two hours the cases are not as shiny as I would like. The cases I am using were purchased online from the brass bank web site and they seem to be tarnished, not just dirty from powder residue. I think I may try the citric acid soak method to clean them.

I know someone is going to chime in with buy a SS pin tumbler setup but I don't think I need to go to that extreme.

[CZinZA]

One solution is to add polish to the empty media (no cases) and tumble for a few minutes to distribute it before adding the cases.

But i just add polish, then tumble for a few seconds until the polish blobs go below the surface and then add the cases. For some reason i have no problems with polish inside the cases.

I use liquid car wax.

Sent by Jedi mind control

[427Cobra]

I add a cap, not CUP of NuFinish to dirty old Walnut media and tumble with no cases for 30 minutes to coat the media, the media will turn from dirty dark grey to brown

[Beastly]

How cold is your tumbling environment? Maybe the wax wouldn't glob up so much if it was warmer.

[Red Ryder]

1 to 2 caps of Nu Finish AND 2 cap fulls of mineral spirits (20 to 30 ml) to walnut media. Stir well and vibrate before adding brass. Best formula I ever used.