Wet Tumbled Winchester Purple Brass. Tarnished

[shinne]

So I got a bunch of purple wincheter casing from the range. From my google search it's basically nickel plated so I figured I could use it for reloading. Usually I wet tumble my brass with steel pins and car wash soap with some lemishine so I figured I could follow the same process here with this purple stuff.

 

 

I wanted to do a ton of brass so instead of using my frankford tumbler I went to my local gun club used their cement mixer. The first pic, I think it's obvious and I think I forgot to do a rinse after dumping the water. The second picture, I tumbled it again for about 45 minutes and it still came out kind of tarnished. Does anybody know what the issue is? Do I just need to do it longer? Was it the lemishine that gave it this dull look? Trying to get an idea of what I should do differently or if I can fix it. I know the brass doesn't matter as long as it's clean but I want it at least some what shiny.

 

 

[m700]

I don't think that's plated with nickel. Nickel wouldn't come off like that. It must have been some light plating that the pins can knock off. I think if you went longer it may get back to bare. How many do you have?

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[shinne]

I have like 2 5 gallon buckets.

[m700]

Ouch try running small batch a couple hours

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[stick]

Did you check it with a magnet?  It almost looks like steel cases that were plated with nickel.

[looking4reloadingdeals]

Did you check it with a magnet?  It almost looks like steel cases that were plated with nickel.

I agree with this. Just found a butt load of nickel plated steel 45 acp made by Barnula or how ever you spell it.


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[shinne]

I didn't check it with a magnet because it seem like the general consensus it was brass. I just checked it right now with a magnet and it's not a steel. 

[Farmer]

Take a couple pieces, throw them in a small bottle (pill bottle) with 1/4 tsp of lemishine and water and shake it for a min or two and see what it looks like. I’ve seen some crazy results lately and wonder if it’s the water. One fellow was bitching about his new sonic cleaner that the tank was rusting. Really? Think about that. He showed it and the water looked like something that came from a swamp. It was loaded with iron and whatever. Not saying yours is that bad but it’s something we need to keep an eye on with all the different alloys that the company’s are using nowadays. 

[NateTheSkate]

Salt and vinegar cleans up copper alloys pretty well, might give that a try if you don't have any lemishine sitting around.

[Kema]

I believe that is anodized aluminium coating over brass case. Lemishine, vinegar or citric acid will lead to problems mentioned in first post.

[zombywoof]

Reaction to Lemishine

[Intel6]

It is my understanding that it is some sort of Zinc plating on a brass case and then coated in purple dye.  Being down here close to the southern border I see a lot of this stuff since it is used by the Border Patrol. When I first got my hands on some I immediately tried it in my wet tumbler and got the same crappy results. I do know that you can run it in a regular vibratory tumbler and it cleans up decent and loads good. The purple dye will get polished off and it will just be silver but it can be used. I lost interest when I discovered I couldn't wet tumble it plus I  still have buckets of  the regular stuff. 

[Remy]

I tried coloring my .38 sc brass once for identification. Ended up making a mess of it. Probably not much different then images in original post. 

I think this link relates
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?66487-Coloring-brass-cases
I kept using the brass and eventually it returned back to normal.

[lll Otto lll]

It's Winchester's LE training ammo, they die it to make it more visible.

[shinne]

11 hours ago, Intel6 said:

It is my understanding that it is some sort of Zinc plating on a brass case and then coated in purple dye.  Being down here close to the southern border I see a lot of this stuff since it is used by the Border Patrol. When I first got my hands on some I immediately tried it in my wet tumbler and got the same crappy results. I do know that you can run it in a regular vibratory tumbler and it cleans up decent and loads good. The purple dye will get polished off and it will just be silver but it can be used. I lost interest when I discovered I couldn't wet tumble it plus I  still have buckets of  the regular stuff. 

 

I just wet tumbled some of it in a small batch. No lemishine, car wash soap only, no steel media on 2 hour tumble. Came out clean without the purple color. Going to chalk it up as expensive lesson. 

[emjbe]

I have a bunch of this that I got from a friend who is LEO mixed in with regular brass and nickel plated brass. At first I thought it was aluminum and not reloadable.

 

@shinnedid the cases load up for you ok?  Any problems with the reloads after you washed them in soap only?