Lemon juice for cleaning brass

[birdiemc]

One of the links: https://www.6mmbr.com/ultrasonic.html

After checking this out I wanted to see how my solution did on the inside of the case...this was the worst looking of about 20 I looked into with a flashlight. Its ugly but the carbon is all out...forgive the awful cut job I used my chopsaw and don't really have a good way to hold a piece of brass while trying to chop it in half.

 

[entoptics]

After checking this out I wanted to see how my solution did on the inside of the case...this was the worst looking of about 20 I looked into with a flashlight. Its ugly but the carbon is all out...forgive the awful cut job I used my chopsaw and don't really have a good way to hold a piece of brass while trying to chop it in half.

You didn't mention if you are wet tumbling, or just washing?

From what I see in that picture, the "carbon" is not all out, so I'm guessing you aren't tumbling with SS media.

Virtually no acid will do more than barely dissolve "pure" carbon. Frankly, virtually no solution period will dissolve "pure" carbon significantly. There's few organic solvents that will touch it. I do dissolution for a living, and C (ash, charcoal, graphite, etc) is the one thing I tell my customers I can't dissolve.

In my experience, the only way to remove carbon efficiently is mechanically. Certain fluids will aid in loosening it, but if you throw a pencil in a liter of any of my favorite acids, the only thing left in a week will be the graphite center (maybe some of the eraser), and the point will still be sharp...

If you're going after carbon, which I agree with, mechanical action (i.e. tumbling or scrubbing) is the only solution...

 

[birdiemc]

You didn't mention if you are wet tumbling, or just washing?

From what I see in that picture, the "carbon" is not all out, so I'm guessing you aren't tumbling with SS media.

Virtually no acid will do more than barely dissolve "pure" carbon. Frankly, virtually no solution period will dissolve "pure" carbon significantly. There's few organic solvents that will touch it. I do dissolution for a living, and C (ash, charcoal, graphite, etc) is the one thing I tell my customers I can't dissolve.

In my experience, the only way to remove carbon efficiently is mechanically. Certain fluids will aid in loosening it, but if you throw a pencil in a liter of any of my favorite acids, the only thing left in a week will be the graphite center (maybe some of the eraser), and the point will still be sharp...

If you're going after carbon, which I agree with, mechanical action (i.e. tumbling or scrubbing) is the only solution...

Sorry, tumbled with stainless pins. I thought it was carbon too before cutting the case open and scratching on it with the sharp jagged drop from my cutaway. That black is just tarnish, probably from not getting the insides of the cases rinsed good enough, is my guess.

 

[wonderman4]

Carbon fouling is THE toughest of any contaminant for the shooter to remove. It is as hard as concrete and just as tenacious. Ask any one that worked on internal combustion engines from the pre-unleaded fuel days.

 

[mwkelso]

I know this thread is one of the older ones, but I thought I would share my results from a batch of brass I processed today. The brass is 4x fired with no cleaning in it's life until today. One of the very worst is shown below. Most were not nearly this dirty
Soaked in a 50/50 lemon juice and water mix for no longer than 10 minutes, wiped off with 0000 steel wool and rinsed very thoroughly.
No pink hue on any of the brass afterwards.
Then off to the oven at 170 for an hour.

1 quart of lemon juice was $1
Steel wool was $5